freeamfva's blog
My new smart lock is a home security game-changer
A smart lock is the quintessential smart home device. It makes your space more secure, simpler to control and accessible from anywhere all at once. That’s why installing a smart lock in my own DIY smart home seemed like a no-brainer.To get more news about smart home accessories, you can visit securamsys.com official website.
Except when I started planning my connected devices, my decision-making wasn’t as simple. In addition to my home’s front door, there are a pair of french doors on the main floor. My family and I use these doors daily to let our dog out, get to the deck and bring food back between our kitchen and grill. So is having smart locks on these two doors just as practical as having one on my front door?Three smart locks sounded excessive, not to mention expensive. The best smart locks don’t come cheap: Both the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock and Kwikset Halo cost $249.
While the Schlage Encode (the smart lock I wanted) can be found for less since it’s a few years old, three would run me up at least $600.
For those following along, you’ll know I saved thousands taking the DIY route, cutting prices with an inexpensive smart thermostat and skipping on smart appliances. Security doesn’t seem like something I should be cheap about, though. Besides, the deadbolts on the french doors are absolutely due for replacement — a strong gust of wind blew them open recently. Luckily I was home, but it could be a major issue if it happens again when I’m not.
I figured I can’t be the only person who’s wondered if they need smart locks on all their home’s doors, not just their main entrance. Especially as the weather gets nicer and people might be spending more time in their backyards.If I installed three Schlage Encodes, all three of my doors would be connected to my home Wi-Fi without using a bridge, like some smart locks require. That means I could use my voice assistant (I choose Alexa over Google Assistant) to lock or unlock each door, plus integrate them into smart home routines.
An Encode can hold up to 100 entry codes, any of which can be assigned permanently to specific guests or used as one-time passes inside. It can operate as a conventional lock for my family members with physical keys, too. Yet I already know when we get home from the beach this summer, we’ll appreciate the ability to get inside without having to fish in sandy beach bags for our house keys.
And if an unwelcome guest tries to tamper with our lock, a loud alarm will sound. I live in a condominium where neighbors are close enough to hear such commotion, so even if I’m away or unreachable someone is likely to alert authorities.
Schlage’s Wi-Fi-enabled devices are also compatible with my Brilliant Smart Home Control, a touchscreen panel that features physical dimmers for my home’s light fixtures and an interface for managing my additional smart home products. Either inside on the screen or away on the Brilliant app, I can control my Schlage Encode’s settings.As intelligent and safety-centric as these features might be, having an Encode smart lock on all three of my doors still feels disproportionate to my home’s needs. That’s why I decided to get two non-smart deadbolt replacements from Schlage for $100 each. Aesthetically, these match well with the Encode and provide a discreet touchscreen for entry. They can’t connect to Alexa or Brilliant, so I’ll just need to be mindful of locking up when I leave.
In most cases, one smart lock is all you’ll need to make your home safer and more automated. If you have a larger home, where your main-level doors are frequented yet far apart, you might want to consider additional smart locks.
Meet Little Shanghai, One Of The Few Shanghainese Restaurants
Whenever my family goes out to dinner at Little Shanghai, my grandma always orders. Sometimes, she’s already handled everything before we even sit down. As my cousins, brother, and I settle into our seats, salted peanuts with seaweed and bowls of hot and sour soup start to hit the table, appearing in front of us, seemingly out of thin air.To get more news about shanghai special dishes, you can visit shine news official website.
This scene is one I know well. Since I was 10, my immediate and extended family have been coming to this San Mateo spot - one of the few Shanghainese restaurants in the Bay Area - to celebrate birthdays and Lunar New Year, or to get together, just because. Despite the restaurant being about an hour away from Oakland, where the majority of my family lives, we still make the drive across the San Mateo Bridge, fueled by the promise of rice cakes and traditional Shanghainese appetizers like salted duck (my grandma’s favorite) and smoked fish.
About a decade after Vera Wan and Cheng-Lin Liu moved to the Bay Area, they opened Little Shanghai in 2007. “When we came to California, there weren’t many Chinese restaurants specializing in specifically Shanghainese cuisine,” Wan said. “So we decided to open our own.” The two relied on their experience working in restaurants back home to get Little Shanghai off the ground - Liu also went to culinary school in Shanghai.
Little Shanghai has been a consistent gathering spot for my family ever since, but the importance of this restaurant extends beyond that. Both sides of my family are Shanghainese, yet many of us don’t cook a lot of traditional Chinese food. Our trips to Little Shanghai over the years have helped me become familiar with the foods they grew up eating.
Shanghainese food is typically characterized by flavors that are on the sweeter and lighter side. Many dishes also incorporate soy sauce and vinegar, which adds a sour element to a lot of recipes, too. You’ll see plenty of braised dishes, like eggplant or bean curd, a whole fishtail in a dark soy sauce, or massive pork meatballs that are slow-cooked and served with vegetables.
At Little Shanghai, the thought and care that Wan and Liu put into the whopping 200+ dishes on the menu are evident. You can especially see the detail in the cold appetizers, which are unique to Shanghainese cuisine. The drunken chicken - which is soaked in a light wine sauce and comes served in a little pumpkin-shaped bowl - is made with five-year aged wine that’s imported directly from Shanghai. The finely-chopped ma lan tou, the vegetable used in the bean curd cold appetizer, is also imported from there. And according to Wan, preparing the salted duck is a two-day process.Despite the devastating effects of the pandemic on restaurants, Little Shanghai is still going strong, thanks to lots of local support. During my interview with Wan in early May, I watched as customer after customer approached the makeshift takeout window at the back of the restaurant, leaving with to-go bags full of lunch. “We don’t do very much advertising,” Wan said. “Word of mouth and loyal repeat customers have been good for us.”
I can’t wait to celebrate here with my family after going a year without the big dinners I’m used to. I’m also excited to see the dining room full again, and to feel the collective joy and sense of community that comes with sitting around a table and sharing spareribs and those steamy plates of rice cakes. Until then, I’ll tell you what to get on your next visit - especially since you won’t have my grandma there to order for you.
We always start our meal off with a few of these, like the smoked fish, drunken chicken, bean curd with ma lan tou, salted duck, and fried puff bean curd with black mushroom (all pictured below). They’re light and refreshing, and the perfect balance of salty and sweet.
When I’m not sitting in front of a plate of them at the restaurant (and fighting with my brother for the last bite), I daydream at least twice daily about the chewy rice cakes, stir-fried with strips of pork and tender, salted and preserved mustard greens that soak up the sauce really nicely. This dish would probably be my last meal on earth.
This super comforting, well-balanced rice dish is made in a clay pot, with the rice absorbing all the flavors from the vegetables and salted pork.
TASTE OF SHANGHAI, BURWOOD
What I am about to write in this blog is something very close to my heart. It’s a type of regional Chinese cuisine I was familiar with long before I came to appreciate fresh sashimi or aged Jamon Iberico, it is the cuisine of my birth city.To get more news about China cuisine, you can visit shine news official website.
Since moved to Australia, one of the things I have missed the most, apart from my family and friends, were the dumplings I grew up with, both steamed and pan fried. Visiting a dumpling restaurant was often top of the itinerary whenever I travelled back. But to feast on dumplings no longer took an 11-hour flight every 12 months thanks to the opening of first Taste of Shanghai branch in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Ashfield in 2005.
Ashfield is long known as “Little Shanghai” in Sydney. The main road Liverpool Street is teeming with Chinese signposted restaurants and grocery stores specialising in Shanghai’s famous dishes and produce. It was only fitting for the Taste of Shanghai group to open their first outpost in Ashfield. In just over 10 years, the chain has expanded to 7 branches and has become a leader at the forefront of Shanghai cuisine in Australia. As a loyal customer from day one, I am proud of having been to every branch and experienced first-hand how consistent the food quality and service are across all branches.
The most popular dumplings from Taste of Shanghai are Xiao Long Bao (aka soup dumplings) with a paper-thin wrap and pork filling. The making of XLB is quite a form of art and only the most experienced staff are entrusted with this task in Taste of Shanghai. Legend has it that the most skilful XLB chefs in shanghai can make the wrap so thin that it is almost translucent to see the juice inside. The first time I had soup dumplings from Taste of Shanghai, I thought I was back in my hometown.
The cousin of XLB is Sheng Jian Bao.I explained the variations of SJB in Shanghai that only locals can identify; it all comes down to the proving process of the dough. My personal preference is the under-proved method which gives a thin dough to the dumplings. Needless to say, Taste of Shanghai has the juiciest SJB with a dark brown crunchy bottom and very thin dough.
It may seem obvious to me, but the right way to eat either dumpling is to bite a small hole on the side (not on top or at the bottom), blow some cold air in, let it cool down slightly, suck as much juice out as you can, and take a big bite of the rest. How often do you see people take a bite of the dumpling and juice squirts everywhere? That is because they didn’t follow the correct process.
There are other types of dumplings such as Shui Jiao or Wontons, either steamed, boiled, or cooked in chilli oil. Locals from Shanghai literally eat them for breakfast, lunch and / or dinner. The humble dumplings are cheap, tasty and can be found in every corner of the city.
In a typical banquet in Shanghai, the dishes are usually served in the order of cold appetizers, hot dishes, soup, desserts, and fruits. The most common cold appetizers include braised bamboo shoots, sweet sour pork, jellyfish, sliced five spice beef, smoked carp, etc. I was delighted to see many of them on the menu of Taste of Shanghai, they have even grown on my English husband.
Apart from dumplings, another dish the locals in Shanghai absolutely love is crayfish. In fact there are hundreds of restaurants in Shanghai dedicated to serving crayfish only with a handful of sides. The most popular flavour is spicy crayfish, cooked either with or without the head. It is not uncommon for the seafood to be served cold on shaved ice and usually the largest and best crayfish are selected for this cooking method. In my most recent trip to Taste of Shanghai, the crayfish was on the special menu (due to seasonality) and they were some of the meatiest I have ever tasted.
I can go on and on and write a book about Shanghai cuisine and every dish I tried at Taste of Shanghai over the years – noodles, hairy crabs, rice cakes, pastries, you name it. I am just so glad that Taste of Shanghai brings my childhood food to my new adopted home Sydney so whenever I have cravings, I know exactly where to go.
