Newsletter No. 449/450

449/450 • 19.12.2014 7 一人一爐粥底火鍋 Congee Hotpot 舌尖上的中大 CUHK f+b 粥底火鍋源自廣東順德，是嶺南「生滾粥」與清湯火鍋的結合。逸夫書院開心軒的劉經理曾在番禺開 海鮮酒家，發掘了很多「南番順」（南海、番禺、順德）菜式，今年冬天把順德名菜粥底火鍋帶進中大。 端上來的鍋底乳白透亮，用勺子一撈才發現一朵朵米花，是「粥不見米」的順德經典「毋米粥」。原來 餐廳在粥底的調理耗費最多心思。按照順德毋米粥老做法，生米下鍋，煲至糊狀後撈起，篩選出較綿 軟的部分，再放入另一煲中，加水慢火熬，待米粒滾至開米花，毋米粥才得以誕生。劉經理說，粥底過 於濃稠會黏底焦糊。只有用毋米粥水涮食物才不易粘鍋。 粥底讓每樣食材吃起來都帶甜，因為粥的沸點高，能充分鎖住食物的鮮味和養分。 食材下鍋也須按部就班，先放海鮮，再投雞、牛、肉丸，令粥底鮮味變濃。然後放各 種菌類、蔬菜，盡收各路食材精華。 粥底火鍋的原意是以粥來調和火鍋的「熱氣」，加上餐廳贈送的自家下火涼茶，讓中 大人吃得無後顧之憂。 Congee hotpot, originating in Shunde, Guangdong province, is a fusion of Cantonese rice congee and clear-soup hotpot. Mr. Fanky Lau, manager of Joyful Inn at Shaw College, once operated a restaurant in Panyu. During that time he uncovered many dishes from the surrounding towns of Nanhai, Panyu and Shunde. This winter he introduced Shunde’s famous congee hotpot to the CUHK foodscape. The congee soup base looks thin and clear, without visible grains of rice. Its preparation requires great culinary know-how: the rice is cooked until it forms a thick consistency, transfer the creamiest part into another boiler, add water and simmer until every grain breaks down and takes on a flower-like shape. According to Mr. Lau, a glutinous rice base will stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. Only a watery broth is suitable for use in hotpot. Dipping hotpot ingredients into the congee to cook accentuates the sweetness and succulence of the food because the latter’s high boiling point keeps the freshness of the ingredients intact. There is also a proper order to cooking the food: first seafood, then chicken, followed by beef and meat balls, adding flavours from mild to strong to the broth. Vegetables and fungi are dunked into the congee last to soak up the essence of all the previous ingredients. Cooking food in congee is believed to be healthier. What’s even better is that the restaurant gives its diners house-made herbal tea for free, definitely an encouragement for health-conscious gourmands on campus. Photo by ISO staff satellites to provide Internet service to regions beyond the reach of conventional mobile infrastructure. In the words of Mark Zuckerberg , CEO and co-founder of Facebook, ’Our mission is to connect every person in the world.’ Not only are people connected to other people but they are increasingly wired up to various gadgets in their environment, if only for that incremental comfort or convenience. It is no longer unthinkable to programme the air-conditioner in your living room so that it automatically turns on once you are within a certain distance from home. Or your smart umbrella can turn colour upon receiving the rain message from the observatory and remind you to bring it along. In the US, a microchip inside a pill can be activated by stomach acids and send a signal to the doctor’s computer indicating the patient’s compliance with the prescription. In IT circles, this is known as the IoT (Internet of Things). Jeremy Rifkin says: People, machines, natural resources,…consumption habits, …and virtually every other aspect of economic and social life will be linked via sensors and software to the IoT platform, continually feeding Big Data to every node—businesses, homes, vehicles—moment to moment, in real time. Mobile and wearable devices are re-creating modern living, and possibly the modern campus too. Imagine how easy a lecturer can manage his class if all the students are in his/her GPS. Taking attendance would become superfluous. The lecturer would have godlike omniscience of who’s in the lecture theatre, who’s taken sick leave, who’s still in the dormitory, or the cafeteria nearby. With more advanced eyeball or brainwave sensing technologies, he/she could even be on top of the ongoing attention level in the theatre. Mobile devices and Internet access are in such plentiful supply in Hong Kong that most of us can hardly imagine what it is like to be living without either. But no matter how village-like the globe has become, there are still unconnected territories. It is estimated that about two thirds of the world’s population are still offline. In India, for example, only 15% of the population has access to the Internet, compared to about 75% in more developed countries. Many Internet giants are pushing the frontiers of Internet coverage. Google aims to send balloons high up in the stratosphere to beam WiFi down to remote areas. Facebook plans to use a combination of drones and 聯網恢恢疏而不漏 Connecting Everyone with Everything 香港的流動通訊器材供應充足，網絡發達，很難想像要是當 中缺一，日常生活會變成怎樣。儘管全球漸趨一體，今天的 地球村原來仍有很多地方是未接通互聯網的。據估計，全球 有三分之二人仍未能上線。就以印度為例，能上網人口只有 一成半，遠低於發達國家的七成半。 無怪乎許多互聯網服務巨頭致力擴展服務覆蓋範圍。谷歌 打算從高空的汽球發放WiFi訊號至偏遠地區，面書則計劃利 用無人機和衞星，為傳統流動網絡設施無法達至的地方提 供上網服務。面書的行政總裁及創辦人之一 朱克伯格 就表 示：「我們的使命是聯繫全球的每一個人。」 給聯繫起來不單是人，各種器材也把人與其周遭環境愈加 緊密地連在一起，以圖方便或閒適。家中的空調系統偵測你 離家不遠時會自動開動，再也不是空想之事。又或許，你的 聰明傘接收到天文台的下雨預告即會變色，提示你得攜傘出 門。在美國，胃酸能啟動注入藥丸內的微型晶片，發出訊號 至醫生的電腦，以監測病人的服藥情形。 按資訊界的術語，這叫「物聯網」。 傑里米 ● 里夫金 說：「人、 機器、天然資源……消費習慣……及經濟和社會生活的各方 面將經由感應器及軟件連接至物聯網平台，大數據會每分每 秒實時地傳送到商業、家居、交通工具的每一個結點上。」 流動和穿戴式的通訊裝置正改變現代生活模式，甚至現代 校園。試想想，教師以全球定位系統掌握學生位置，管理課 堂如何方便，上課點名也變得多餘了。教師如上帝般無所不 知—誰在上課，誰生病了，誰在宿舍或還是附近的咖啡座。 如果有偵測眼球或腦波的設備，教師甚至會知道課堂內學生 的專注程度。 字裏科技 Tech Talks