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Lentil and Romaine Soup with Feta Cheese - lentil soup made with green lentils, onions, carrots, garlic, thyme, tomato paste and bay leaf. Chopped romaine lettuce gets added at the end for a few minutes before finishing with some lemon juice, scallions and feta

Despite spending most of UK life in London, and like 99% of Londoners, I have never eaten that speciality dish every YouTube idiot tourist rushes off in search of because “Londoners eat it every day” – the jellied eel! Utter nonsense. However I do eat eels here in China – sans jelly though. 鳝鱼 (shàn yú), the Asian swamp eel, Monopterus albus, also known as rice eel, ricefield eel, rice paddy eel, is the most common. These, as the name suggests spend part of their lives in rice paddies where they prefer to spawn. They are native to south and SE Asia and an important food source in Vietnam, Thailand and here in southern China. They grow up to about 40cm / 16“ in length and are eaten at all sizes. The adults tend to have a yellow tint and so are often called 黄鳝 (huáng shàn), yellow swamp eel. My favourite is a Sichuan dish of spicy baby eels. These eels are sold live and fetch around $7-8 USD per 500g / 1.1lbs. Although they are air breathing, the babies above are in water. Note: These are not unagi, the popular Japanese eels, which are usually Anguilla japonica.

As a quick postscript to the 虾皮 post above, here is 50 grams of the critters. As you can see a little is a lot, especially when you consider we maybe use a tablespoon at most in a dish; usually a lot less. These cost me 78 cents USD today.

We had that very same Corningware kettle/teapot at home; I was allowed to use it to boil water to make instant oatmeal for breakfast before school. We had an electric range and it's probably still at home collecting dust in the garage. My mom won a microwave oven (when they were the huge hulking devices that were as big as a laser printer is now!) and then we just started heating water in a pyrex glass measure ...

I'm not in a rural area and while stores no longer give you plastic bags, other than those flimsy ones in the produce section, they will provide you with a paper bag should you not have a bag of your own. They charge 25 cents per bag. Specialty shops, at least the ones I frequent will give you a paper bag at no charge.

Skor is the favourite here. Also Skor bits for including with toasted pecans in browned butter blondies. Quick and delicious.

Our stores do not. We are in a pretty rural area.

I wonder what restaurants do.

This morning, roasting them all seemed to be a good idea. I have my doubts about that right now, though. 🙂 And you're right about the lasagne! In the meantime, I suddenly realized that the foul odor in the pantry wasn't my imagination. Some of the potatoes were going bad. That is a really, truly, terrible odor. The spuds are now out, and sorted; their (leak-proof, hallelujah) container is washed and drying. I'm considering potato salad for the survivors.

With that kind of mix, I'd be inclined to make a veggie lasagne which could utilize most, if not all, of them. But I can understand that oven baking isn't too appealing when it's that hot!!! 🙂 Edited to add: And then you'd have too much lasagne for one person and would have to freeze it or eat it for days, ha.

Sherbet is probably the right classification for it. Lactic acid fermented cultured milk (2.6% fat) and cultured skim milk are traditional staples here in Norway. Similar to buttermilk, and as far as I know, the main reason buttermilk isn't available in Norwegian grocery shelves. Sosa has two types of insulin. I recently got hold of the cold version too, which hydrates easier without heat, but I used the hot version this time, since I didn't want to change too many variables from the strawberry version I made when I only had the hot dissolving version. https://www.sosa.cat/en/product/hot-inulin/ In some places Sosa claim that the hot version must be heated, but in other places, it is only mentioned as a recommendation, and cold dispersion /hydration (over night) seems to work OK for me. If I remember correctly, Sosa has a recipe on their website with cold dispersion/hydration as well, but I can't seem to find it on my phone at the moment.

Yesterday was a day of fairly heavy housecleaning -- that is, trailer cleaning. For the first time in several weeks the floors feel (mostly) clean to my bare feet. Considering the dirt, dust and foot traffic of the four-footed kind that's an accomplishment. The upshot is that I really, really didn't feel like cooking. It was a big ol' dinner salad again. Really big. That bowl is what I usually use to serve two or three people. Good, but more even than I wanted. But I ate it anyway. I'm now out of spinach, asparagus and Campari tomatoes until my next grocery visit. I had a tuna salad for lunch a couple of hours ago: oil-packed tuna, mayo, salted capers, all on crackers. Here's what's left: I must remember to rinse those capers before using them; they have way too much salt as they are. They're delicious, though. I prefer them to the vinegar-brined capers. I still have non-leafy greens in the refrigerator: red bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, celery, kale, a couple of jalapenos, all of which need to be cooked before they go off. I'm lucky to have a lot of other food options: lots of canned and dried beans, as well as rice, pasta, potatoes and onions in the pantry. In the refrigerator and freezer there are various meats (cured and uncooked) and cheeses and breads. There's leftover Sopa de Lima. Problem is, right now I don't want to do any food prepping for dinner. I just want water. And more water. My thermometer says it's 101F outside. I'm glad to be plugged into electricity; the air conditioner in this trailer is good, but if I were out boondocking the generators would be working pretty hard to keep it going. The evening walk won't happen until very late this evening.

if home made room air dried pasta was dangerous, Italy would have a very small population . . .

One of my favorites! Heath Bar, in a pinch if Skor isn't available...and Daim's.

My favorite sport is cookbook browsing at Now Serving in Chinatown Los Angeles! Picked up the new to me City Cuisine by local legends Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken.

That looks great. Would you consider it a sherbet, since it's got milk? Is cultured skim milk a common product in your corner of the world? I haven't encountered it. And what does "hot" signify in the inulin?

A friend occasionally brings by a batch of homemade fresh pasta. Out of inertia and sloth, I often leave it in its loose foil covering until the spirit moves me to deal with it. It is totally dry by that time. I recently cooked up a batch and texted him a photo of the finished dish along with a second "thank you". He called immediately, asking how I had kept it during this time, fridge or freezer. Hearing that I had left it at room temp (68F), he was upset, reminding/warning me of the raw eggs in the pasta. I have very often let fresh egg pasta dry at room temperature with no adverse effects. Have I just been lucky or is there something in the drying process that makes the egg unlikely to become toxic?

In the past, I've had some success with adding elderflower infused water to the Chefsteps Creme Fraiche ice cream recipe, but it's been a challenge to maximize the elderflower flavour as much as I would like. Therefore, I got really excited by the result I got with strawberry juice and Paul's sorbet recipe, and now I've finally had the time to test it: 112.5g Cultured skim milk (0.4% milk fat) 498g Elderflower infused water (sweetened to 8 Brix) 25.5g Inulin (Sosa inulin hot) 33g Dextrose 57g Glucose powder DE42 22.5g Erythritol 1.5g CMC 0.75g Guar gum 0.75g Lambda carrageenan 0.75g Salt 2.5g Citric acid Spun two cycles in the Pacojet, and the result was close to spot on. Smooth and creamy mouth feel with a bright and clean elderflower flavour. Next time I'll try to double the amount of salt to see how that impacts the flavour. The milk also floated to the top of the beaker during the freezing process, so I'll probably add some flaxfiber in an attempt to stop that from happening. The separation isn't really a big issue as long as I spin the whole beaker, but it would be nice to have a stable mixture, so I have the option to spin only a few portions at a time.

Comparison of Diamond Crystal salt crystals Sorry for the slight delay in getting this posted ... The top grouping is from a commercial box that was purchased almost a year ago. The lower grouping is from a commercial box that was purchased about 8 days ago.

Clean-out-the-fridge breakfast: Italian sausage, cubed zucchini, chiles, shallots, and garlic, sauteed and then mixed with tomato paste, half-and-half, and fish sauce. Made a pit in the middle, fried an egg, and then finished with cilantro, Asian basil, feta cheese, and a squeeze of lime. Fridge is ready for a fresh batch of groceries.

Discovered a Halibut tail piece in the freezer. Enjoyed it and looking forward to new Halibut coming to Safeway in April. Always envious of Ann_T's readily available fresh! Air-fryer cheese and bacon perogies made by one of my friends. Had a hankering for lasagna, but WHY did I make the whole recipe! It was huge, and had 4 more meals plus one give away to our neighbor! Late to the St. Patrick's game. Corned beef was not to be found until AFTER the day, but no matter - I'm not Irish;-) Sous vide overnight. Eaten with @Shelby's mustard sauce. Hubby wanted sweet potato. I wanted potato. I "over-cooked" the corned beef - would have preferred more chew, but it was good. Made a dish from my childhood. Been tucked away in my memory of my Mom making this: Ground pork steamed with fresh and salted eggs. Beef & Gai Lan, Jasmine rice as well Crispy, moist, and tender Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Did one breast, shared, and a couple of drumsticks. Enjoyed fresh asparagus and sweet potato fries as sides. Marinated lamb shanks overnight in coconut milk and spices. Braised in the oven for 4 hours. Fresh squeeze of lime juice on the shanks, and juice and zest in the rice was sparkly;-)

I hate it when I have my mind and taste buds set on something and it turns out to be a huge disappointment. Sorry it wasn't as expected.

@C. sapidus That egg looks amazing.

This is for the Corningware aficionados here. I'm a fan also, and have found this information to be useful: https://www.corningware411.com/p/welcome-to-consolidated-patterns-page.html

Today was busy. Very busy. Too lazy and tired to cook so picked up a takeout meal from a “Thai” place near my home. Their description (translated from Chinese): a) Pineapple and crab fried rice. b) Thai garlic ribs. c) Stir fried cabbage. d) Tom Yum Soup My description (translated from reality): a) Fried rice with one small piece of fake crab (surimi) and two dried shrimp. b) Flavourless ribs with zero garlic or Thai flavours. c) Unseasoned watery cabbage. d) Inedible mud. Never again.