authentic Burmese beef curry  

Posted by Saw Winston

I fondly remember my mother cooking authentic beef curry in Rangoon when I was young. We used to live in a flat on what was then known as Strand Road facing the Rangoon river, and as a child I remember gazing across the Rangoon river toward Dhalla.

Burmese curries although called "curries" do not have curry powder or garam masala as in Indian curries. The main ingredients are meat/poultry, oil, tumeric powder, dried chillies, onion, garlic, ginger and the ubiquitous fish sauce.

The distinctive flavour comes from the dried chillies. Chillie powder is not normally used.
The dried whole chillies are soaked in hot water and when soft pulverized with a granite pestle and mortar together with onion, garlic and ginger.
Most recipies found on the web purporting to be "Burmese curry" have either Chinese or Indian influence and are really not Burmese curries.

The curry goes very well with jasmine rice and "hingar", another clear Burmese soup containing of course the ubiquitous fish sauce again !
Try and cook it and you'll be hooked !!

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RIP ... Remove It Permanently  

Posted by Saw Winston

I regularly read Burma news on irrawaddy.org and it seemed I could not help see some of the photographs on the site. I am not talking about the majority of the photographs, but a few of them, photographs of sullen, moronic-looking Burmese "Generals" staring back at you.
That is, until I discovered this nifty little add-on for Firefox aptly called RIP, or Remove It Permanently. Install the add-on to your Fire Fox and just right click on the photographs you do not want to appear on your computer, select "Remove it permanently" and left click it, and voila the disgusting photograph you do not want to see no longer appears every time you visit that site.
The photograph is of course still on the web site. Just that it no longer appears on your monitor screen.

Firefox:   http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Remove It Permanently:   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/512

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burma sham election  

Posted by Saw Winston

All citizens of most democratic countries who reside outside their own countries are usually eligible to vote in any major election of their countries.
But for most Burmese they will not receive any communication from their "government's" embassy regarding the forthcoming sham election later this year.
These diasporas are unofficially regarded as "traitors" by the SPDC (State Prostitution & Dacoit Council) for leaving their motherland, or should I say "fatherland" ?

In all fairness, most Burmese living in the UK are holders of British passports in addition to their Burmese passports, and so technically cannot vote in the sham election, as they were required by SPDC to give up their Burmese citizenships when they naturalized into British citizens, but did not.
Nevertheless a few of them sympathetic and patronizing to the current unelected and unwanted brutal regime will be rewarded with ballot papers for their "good examplary behavior".

Why does the Embassy at Charles Street renew these Burmese passports instead of revoking the citizenhips ? One doesn't need Einstein to fathom out an answer.
Burma has really gone to the dogs.

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political correctness  

Posted by Saw Winston


It seems a day doesn't go by in politics without another "storm in a teacup" as accurately labelled by the Labour candidate John Cowan who was suspended after allegedly saying on an internet forum that he would not want any children of his to marry a Muslim.
What has this predominantly Christian nation come to these days taking "politically incorrect" quotes far too seriously ? 

Perhaps Mr Cowan would and could be forgivable and probably even lauded by Muslim groups were he to say that he would not want any children of his to marry a Christian !
I am pretty sure the Imams, Mullahs and Islamist are now rubbing their hands in glee.
Can anyone in his or her right mind imagine a "politician" in a Middle East Muslim country saying, "I would not want any of my children to marry a Christian", and the uproar it would create ?

Come, come, I think we have gone too far. Enough is enough.

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rambling thoughts  

Posted by Saw Winston

Maybe I am getting on a little in age. The promiscuous kids seems to be getting younger and younger each day. Is it due to the hormones used in breeding cattle for meat, or is it the evolution at work ?
At work a few days ago I saw a lass who was only fourteen-and-a-half years old, and about four months pregnant. In UK by law anyone having sexual consummation with an underage person (defined as under sixteen) is liable for prosecution. The lass was a little embarrassed and every now and then during the examination tried to pull down her blouse in a futile attempt to hide her bump !
She will surely gave birth, and as surely as day follows night her age will be overlooked and brushed away. The newborn baby's father will not be prosecuted nor an attempt even made to find out who he was. This, is after all " a civilized country" ! The law is an ass.

Politicians are only interested in getting votes to serve their own interests. And on this matter, the word "politician" originally was a sinister word. On hindsight, perhaps it still is.

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Neneside Stunning Selene  

Posted by Saw Winston


Today a year ago our best friend Neneside Stunning Selene aka Htar Htar was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Today she's one year old.....a teenager in human life. She's very cute and as all GSD she's very possessive and protective of her home patch.
As Lord Byron once quoted, she is " In Life the Firmest Friend, the First to Welcome, Foremost to Defend ".

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