麵粉種類/flour type

 

麵粉種類百百種

第一次上烘焙課，老師教麵粉如下:

高筋麵粉 Bread Flour

中筋麵粉 All-purpose Flour

低筋麵粉 Cake Flour

全麥麵粉 Wheat Flour

無筋麵粉 如Rye Flour (德國麵包)*

懂英文的就知道，這翻法是用途性的，不是非常正確。

分類的標準是以麵粉的筋性(gluten)來分，慢慢的才知道這是台灣人的分法，歐美人不是這麼分的。美國人一般就是 All-purpose Flour，你要做麵包就買蛋白質(protein > 12%)含量高的。歐洲人是按麵粉輾壓的粗細(refinement)分的。

所以拿著歐洲的食譜，要找相對應的麵粉就有困難了，type 0 flour 是什麼? Google 了一下，一般常見的有type 00, type 0, type 1 and type 2. Type 00 最細 Type 0其次 …

TIPO 0 就是Type 0

Type 0 是最常見的，它的筋性高低都有，你要仔細看蛋白質(protein)含量的標示，才能做好你要做的東西。如果對應中筋麵粉 All-purpose Flour, 蛋白質含量(%protein)在10~12. 在德國又叫做 Type 550.

簡單講就是歐洲人是比較講究的，就好像我們對白米的了解多些，煮油飯用糯米，吃咖哩飯用長秈米，做糕點用在來米等，老美能分辨細長的香米跟短小的壽司米就很不錯了。

科普的過程，我了解到除了常見的小麥麵粉(wheat flour)，還有其他的穀類品種如Spelt flour 和 Rye flour. Rye 中文是黑麥，點餐時如果有麵包，一般就有Rye做的麵包選項，細分還有white rye, medium rye, and dark rye. 有機會試吃一下，它的風味是不同的。

Spelt 看到翻成古麥，是健康食品的風潮下流行起來的，同樣也是一堆學問，這裡就不多說了。倒是要一提的是近年大眾對健康的認識已不再過度追求精緻食品，麵粉磨得太細，基本上營養剩下很少，吃進去的就剩糖了。跟白米一樣，精緻白米以澱粉居多，營養含量是無法跟糙米比的。是不是很諷刺?一般人家吃的比富人家吃得好。

另一個大分類是bleached 跟 unbleached. 剛輾好的麵粉最好要經過一段時間"熟成(aging)"，工廠哪有這美國時間，bleach/bromate 就是用化學媒介加速它熟成。都說營養含量是一樣的，就看你在不在乎了。你如果仔細讀產品標示會看到enriched bleached flour. 簡單講是把在製造過程中流失的養分加回去，有些營養師倒不認同。

我想老師那時如果這樣教，一下子把太多訊息道出來，台下學生大概都睡著了。只有一點，Rye Flour 並非Gluten-Free，不能算是無筋麵粉。 蛋白質含量雖然比較少一些，對於會過敏的人還是不能吃的。杏仁粉、玉米粉Corn Flour、樹薯粉Cassava Flour/Tapioca Flour、糯米粉等才是無筋。

Salt Sugar Fat

 

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants hooked Us is a 2014 book by Michael Moss. Almot 9 years now, there are more and more evidence to support his findings and people are also more educated about the health and diet. For example, I saw the Lancet published a report on 2019 about the health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries. Check the link to read the full text.

Although I only read portion of Part one: Sugar, I’m fully aware of the link between obesity and sugar. Adding diabetes and heart disease would not be a surprise. The practice that food giants influence the research so the result pivot should be corrected over time. As we put ESG (environment, social responsibility, and corporate government) at the top priority, it is no doubt that this kind of practice should not be accepted. Institution such as the one mentioned in the book Monell Chemical Senses Center https://monell.org/research-cores/ should also have its environmental and social responsibility on its core value, besides of nutritional health and disease diagnostic.

Overall, I believe diet is a complex and personal thing. Each person is different, the demand/need is different, the consumption is different. Not to mention each person’s body adaptation is different too. Salt, sugar, and fat are all related to each other. When one reduces fat in the diet, you still need to get some sort of balance, rather than substitute by sugar because it is not as simple as measured by calories.

Fast once a while. I believe there may be reasons behind this. It is embedded in some religions and some groups of people. No scientific evidence means it is not known “so far”. Give it time, we still have lots to learn about ourselves.

回憶與夢想

 

每個人都有回憶與夢想。年輕時滿滿夢想。到了老年，與現實妥協了，夢想就相對沒那麼多了，倒是諸多回憶。

試想回憶與夢想有實質上的差異嗎?

一個是發生過，一個是未發生。如果他們對一個人的感知基本上沒有不同，那是不是就沒差別了。

1990年的電影Total Recall (中文翻 魔鬼總動員) 講的就是買一個旅遊方案，沒有實體去，只是在虛擬世界玩，只要體驗一樣就好不是嗎?當然那時的科技還差一截，很快2012年Total Recall再版(中文翻 攔截記憶碼)就更進步了。DNA 都可以截一段換掉了，記憶應該也可以抽換吧?

隨著年紀的增長，忘掉的事也越來越多，你說老年癡呆症Alzheimer's disease 是一個詛咒還是一種祝福?

詛咒的是你造成了家人的負擔，社會的包袱，祝福的是你從那苦悶傷痛中解脫了。

醫學界忙著找到解藥，殊不知毒藥也有市場。

就好像元大台灣50跟元大台灣50反1一樣熱銷。

回憶與夢想只要你不要太執著They are both as good as one can have.

energy laundering

 

Money itself does not differentiate where it comes from. Could be salary, capital gain, lucky draw, or selling organs. Energy itself does not neither. It could be from any kind of source, natural gas, oil, coal, or nuclear. Once it is in electricity form, nobody can tell the difference.

Recently an article talked about some hidden secrets behind electric cars. Well, it is what we human do. When government printing a lot of money, it was wrong but hard to stop it. And today we suffer. When nuclear power plants were put in operation, many people knew it was not a good idea. Now people know decades later. Electric cars,  powered by coal, "produce more CO2 than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Lithium mining is uniquely bad for the environment. Cobalt mining relies largely on slave labor". The disposal of the batteries would be a nightmare we all know.

Talk about clean energy, none is clean. The wind turbine blades are hard to be recycled. The cost of manufacturing solar panel has come down, but few talk about the cost of disposal. Well, nothing is perfect. We need to move forward. But instead of those giant corporations lead us to where they obtain their maximal profits, are we able to see more clearly the whole truth? Will one day energy laundering be considered a crime?

選舉心理學

 

2022期中選舉選完一陣子了，該沉澱下來的也應該告一段落了，頻繁的選舉跟頻繁的股票交易一樣，都不是正面的。

有一位仁兄的論述，被財訊的謝金河在節目中引述，其中一段” 台灣一千九百萬選民，參加政黨的占不到百分之十，另外百分之九十幾對個別政黨並無明顯偏好。…” 頗有深意。

2021年內政部的統計年報 03.宗教教務概況，全台共一萬五千座寺廟和教堂(Temples and Churches) ，信徒人數約九十四萬人，一樣也是不成比例(不到5%)。要知道台灣人投入最多時間的社團是宗教(21.47%)，所以雖然不是信徒，像媽祖繞境這樣的活動還是要參加的。(註2021年據廟方統計，總參與大甲媽祖人數超過400萬人次) 所以台灣人政治和宗教一樣，隱性的居多，從眾的居多。甚麼政見沒那麼重要，吃相難看到惹人厭惡，那就該死了。

一個股民要在股市勝出，對他購買的股票的股性當然要有所了解。同樣的一個政黨要能勝出，對台灣的選民當然也要有所了解，一堆民調市調不就是在做這個嗎? 選舉的結果如果是些微的差距那能理解，一面倒的結果只能說明一個情況，那就是老闆你只喜歡聽好聽的話，那說實話的就閉嘴，讓選票來打你一巴掌，看你醒不醒?

不是說地球暖化嗎?怎麼越來越冷

 原來是和北冰洋冰層的融化有關。

正常的高緯度極地渦旋（Polar Vortex）在冬天的平流層長的是這樣，顏色表示溫度中間最低。

 

科學家的解釋是當極地渦旋強大時，能有效阻止極地的嚴寒氣團南下，把冷空氣關在極地。但是當極地渦旋被削弱時，冷空氣就可以入侵到中高緯度地區，造成各地異常寒冷的冬天(如下圖)。

 

最近的觀察發現極地渦旋一分為二(如下圖)。顯然的是合乎科學家的預測的。有興趣的可以參考這個連結。

 

有一次川普還在調侃氣候變遷地球暖化這個是假議題，就注定他政治生涯已經是過去式。當然他是為了收買煤礦工人的選票而做出的舉動，The ends do not justify the means. 不對就是不對。

 

 

The fifth estate/第五權

 

If you google the “fifth estate”, you most likely get two kinds of results, one is the movie “The Fifth Estate” – story of the WikiLeak, the other is a socio-cultural reference to groups of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets and the social media (Wikipedia).

The movie was released back in 2013, so most recent references are about the latter, not the former. To start, let’s look at the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th estate.

The first three estates could reference to estates of the realm from social hierarchy in Christian Europe from the middle ages to early modern Europe where the society was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobles (Second Estate), peasants and bourgeoisie (Third Estate). Another reference is the modern separation of powers in government into the legislature, administration, and the judiciary. Anyhow, these three were less discussed after the rise of the fourth estate where it refers to forces outside the established power structure, most commonly in reference to the independent press or the mass media.

Apparently the fourth estate is not doing a good job in the recent years, so here comes the fifth to make up for what’s missing.

在台灣，電影The Fifth Estate 被翻成《危機解密》(取其同音《維基解密》) ，所以不知道有多少人知道“第五權” 這名詞。台灣大多數的電影都是四個字的名字，大部分我都無法跟電影主題聯想在一起。

如果你搜尋“第五權”，你很可能會得到這個結果:”一個由西班牙記者伊格納西奧·拉莫內特所創的詞語，作為孟德斯鳩三權分立及第四權大眾傳播媒介的延續。第五權一般可指經濟體系或互聯網。”(Wikiwand)

也難怪在台灣這名詞“第五權”用的不多。好在各類媒體相對自由，要聽到對當代社會異樣的觀點和非主流的聲音還是可以的。可惜的是一般大眾不見得會深入思考一些議題罷了。在香港似乎就比較不同，媒體(第四權)和網民監察(第五權)是清楚定義的。人民對第五權的使用反映了一個國家的自由度，而不是夜市小吃有多少多好吃。