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OK. The first product This is a sauce mix for a famous Sichuan dish, Bobo Chicken (钵钵鸡) as written in the larger white characters. “BoBo” refers to a type of pottery or clay pot in which the dish is traditionally made. It is served cold, either as part of a meal or often as a street snack food in Chengdu. Sichuan’s capital. Underneath, also in large white, it says “Convenient Seasoning (方便调料). So, it’s a seasoning mix. Top left in the yellow box we have 四妹 Si Mei, which is the brand name. It means Four Sisters. Everything else is just irrelevant marketing nonsense apart from a warning that it is spicy. Here, obviously, we have the preparation instructions Top left – Step 1 Prepare vegetables for 3-5 people. Boil in a pan, drain and set aside. Top right – Step 2 Prepare 1 litre of cold water (mineral water or boiled tap water). Bottom Left – Step 3 Pour the water into a pan and stir in the seasoning mix. Bottom Right – Step 4 Place cooked chicken and the vegetables into the pan and leave to soak for 15 minutes. The information to the right of the sticker in English with the ingredients etc. just gives a table of nutrients. Whether that is referring to the dish or the package contents, I’m not sure. I have to say that that “recipe” must be for the worst Bobo Chicken in the dish’s long history. Not something I’d use. The dish really consists of cold chicken and vegetable skewers served in a spicy chicken broth with chilli oil and Sichuan peppercorns. There is a reasonable looking recipe here with a decent image of the dish. It also contains a link to an extremely irritating YouTube video. The second product. This one is strange. The front label tells me nothing. The strip down the left just says “Four Sisters Foreign Ingredients”. Where they are foreign to, I have no idea. The rest is more fatuous marketing BS, including “The secret to good taste is good ingredients”. I agree but doubt this is one. The reverse label lists suggested usages. These are that it’s for ”all spicy and fragrant dishes, fried rice, noodles and other dishes that need Four Sisters’ ingredients for creativity” Hmmmm. It goes on with “When cooking add a moderate amount to make it delicious in seconds. They do add that “it tastes good and is edible”! Glad to hear it! I don’t really know what it is. I see a white label to the left that appears to be in English. Is that the ingredients. If so, it may be covering the same info in Chinese. I hope that helps.

It has been a couple good years for lobsters in Newfoundland. They have been numerous, by the amount of spawning females and undersized lobsters thrown back, I expect this to continue. Raymond's has been closed for a few years now and the "Jeremys" have left Merchant Tavern as well. So I guess it gives him more flexibility for these projects? Pictures are on Change Islands ( next to the more familiar Fogo Island). Catch the lobster in the morning and cooked the same evening.

I recently decided I wanted to replace the Keurig K-Compact I take on vacations (too bulky) with their K-Express. I spotted it for 50% off and snapped one up.

Homemade Hummus is like having garden tomatoes or strawberries. Just so much different, better and more flavorful than store brands. Key for me besides good chickpeas is well...good ingredients. I usually follow along with Zahavs Michael Solomonov recipes for hummus. Good chickpeas, well cooked. Garlic mashed in lemon juice to mellow and blend. SOOM tahini!!! (Highly recommend!) and a decent ratio of tahini to chickpeas. Good olive oil. Cumin. Kosher salt. ICE WATER! To continue to add to get creamy.

Man I have this book. It is really good and not quite as basic as the title would make it. RIP Charlie Trotter

Peraps it's time to expand my seafod horizon.

Interesting. Definitely not impressed with the Google lens translation.

Thank you very much! I look forward to learning more about these products.

Vegetable Stir-Fry with Fried/Poached Egg - eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, scallions, garlic and herbes de provence are cooked with vegetable broth, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar. Finished with some poached/fried eggs

Good morning. I'm busy this morning, but free in the afternoon. So I can look at later. 5 to 6 hours from now. They are Sichuan style products.

I tried a home made ranch, and the girls liked it. Not crazy about the duck sauce that my sister brought from NYC, but then, neither was I. Played around with a soy/oyster sauce which they liked, but overall, the ranch (thus far) has been the biggest hit. I sense they might enjoy a honey-mustard sauce, but haven't played with any ideas just yet.

I picked up my weekly fish share around lunchtime and was in the mood for a fish sandwich so this is what happened. Blackened white seabass sando with yuzu kosho slaw. From my weekly email, I learned the name of the fisher who caught my lunch and the name of their boat and that White Seabass is not a true bass but a member of the Croaker family. The largest on record was 78 pounds. Most years they reach their northern limit in Santa Barbara, but some years they venture as far as Monterey or farther north. They are highly mobile and swim hundreds of miles throughout the year, only passing through our waters for a few weeks or months in the summer. Monterey Bay Seafood Watch recommends California White Seabass as a best choice. And I say they taste good!

@Pete Fred I made a 2/3 version of the Midsummer cake, interior had sour cherries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, all were halved. Fruit on top was diced apricots, plums and small whole strawberries. I had no wet, mushy areas around the fruit I attribute that to the small size of the cut fruit. Unfortunately my slice shot is a little fuzzy, but I am very pleased with the texture of the cake. I added vanilla, almond extracts and lemon zest. ETA There’s some roasted plum gelato hiding behind the slice with some juice from the roasted plums.

Google Lens is worth a try while waiting for a human translator. Here's your 3rd pic:

Tuna ceviche with avocado and roasted Poblano chiles, enjoyed with butter lettuce leaves. Marinade was lime juice, serrano chile, garlic, and lots of cilantro, all whizzed up in the Preethi. We had some bulbing onions so I added the chopped up bulbs and garnished with the greens. Sashimi grade ahi tuna from the local fishmonger. We should make ceviche more often, such a perfect summer meal. 😃

Yeah, I have the brined ones... They're not nearly as good as fresh. I wish I could find them. Back when I was making a lot of Thai food, I was considering growing a peppercorn plant to have a ready supply! Haha. Grachai keeps well in the freezer.

The one thing my granddaughters like more than a dip is a choice of dips. Do a taste test with them and give them three dipping sauces to pick from. Then let them rate them on a scale of something: flavor, dipworhiness, whatever is fun. Although I don't eat chicken nuggets I can imagine that honey-mustard or duck sauce might be a hit. The girls will dip just about anything in guacamole if it isn't too spicy. They also will drink soy sauce out of the bottle if given the chance, so Asian style dips that include soy sauce might appeal. A mild BBQ sauce would work. Then you can upgrade them to paprika aioli or hot queso.

I was at a trade show and received the pictured items. I suspect that the jar contains chili crisp (as we call it in the US) but I'm not sure what either item is or how I should use them. Please help. @liuzhou

A fun moment when I was feeding the bunnies. Two of 'em got hold of opposite ends of a piece of hay, and unwittingly recreated the iconic "spaghetti kiss" from Lady and The Tramp. Except these were both adolescent males, who reacted by having a tug-of-war with what was left.

Couple recent dinners. Patty melt and steak salad with cheddar crisps.

Sorry no picture. Used white meat from a leftover Costco rotis chicken for a chicken salad sandwich. I remembered when shopping that many moons ago I used to add halved or quartered seedless green grapes to my chicken salad (along with green onion and toasted pecans). Served it on toasted croissants. A cool and refreshing sandwich...yesterday Tucson hit 112. Only going to 105 today. 🌡️🌡️ 🌡️🌡️

giggly topic. we raised three kids. what they liked at 9 AM is likely to be refused by noon . . . .

I can hear you trying to resist the enabling, @ElsieD. "Resist, resist, res . . ." 😂

I'm in clean out the fridge mode before vacation. Last night we had a NY Times recipe for Berbere brown sugar chicken. Berbere brown sugar chicken I added all of the remaining CSA carrots I had languishing in my fridge to the dish. All the carrots except one were a deep purple, which ended up changing the color of the dish. It looks more like a beef stew than a chicken dish. My nephew thought the brown sugar (which I halved) and the orange juice made it too sweet. My niece thought the Berbere spice blend (Penzey's) was too spicy! I cannot win haha. The rest of us liked it. Served with spiced rice and some flatbread I made to use up the last of an open container of yogurt.

Hoisin sauce is usually pretty good. And kids like it. Theres also always ketchup