liuzhou

I only ever do Thai style crab cakes. Mayo? Get out of here!

Hot smoked surgeon with its own caviar.

I rarely use mayonnaise and have never tasted Duke's, but can get Hellman's here. Never have bought it here, though I did in London once or twice. I only use mayo occasionally if I make a potato salad and always make my own which has three advantages. 1) I make only as much as I need for that dish, so I don't need to worry about a jar going past its use by date. 2) It's easier than going shopping. 3) It tastes better (if I say so myself). Kewpie is by far the widest available here but it is foul, especially the sweet one.

Rare in the USA, maybe. It isn't rare in much of Europe or Asia. I was delighted to arrive in China and find that they have their version of my favourite 'liver and onions'. They also certainly use cumin with liver of different kinds: chicken, duck, beef, lamb, horse, donkey and pig usually. Also often comes with chilli. Chinese Pig's Liver and Onions

Hunanese clams with daikon strips and red chillies, etc. Served with rice.

Part of breakfast. The rest was congee which I've posted 100 times before. 差蛋 (chā dàn), Tea egg.

After more than miserable lunch, I'm happy to say that dinner was a delight. Stir fried bullfrog with garlic, onion, chilli (green and red), perilla and bamboo shoot. Served with rice. Not a dish for cartilogenophobiacs, among whose ranks I'm not!

Lunch today was undoubtedly the worst thing I’ve ever tried to eat in 30 years in China; maybe in my life. Advertised as “Spicy crispy duck wraps”, I had two delivered, the minimum order. What ever they were they certainly weren’t crispy, didn’t taste of duck and were so greasy the very thin wrap stuck to the paper they came in. Flabby undercooked skin, insipid duck meat and dripping in tasteless grease. And by the time I separated the wrap and the paper, weren’t even wrapped. Utterly disgusting. Here is what was advertised and then what was delivered. I took one bit of the first and immediately binned the lot! Disgraceful, inedible crap.

Yes.

I've always believed and been taught that degree count refers more to the protein content and than to do with nitrogen.

Smoked gordal olives with crumbly cheddar.

I’m feeling spiky. Although it’s almost exclusively eaten in Japan, It’s not common in China, but I can buy it. Fresh and live is only available online for delivery in two to three days, but I can have frozen uni delivered in half an hour. I’m talking about sea urchin, in Chinese 海胆 (hǎi dǎn) which covers both the animal and its delicious edible gonads known Japanese as ウニ or うに (uni) But I ran into a problem with having the contents delivered. All the two local vendors call it 马粪海胆 (mǎ fèn hǎi dǎn), which means horse shit sea urchin. That, I didn’t fancy for lunch but further investigation revealed that the Chinese think the animal resembles dried horse shit. I'll stick with the fresh. Fresh live sea urchin Frozen uni.

Another morning; another breakfast. I've gone back to my old standby. 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), Century Egg and Lean Pork Congee.

牛肉炒粉 (niú ròu chǎo fěn), beef fried rice noodles.

In my experience, stock making is the ONLY culinary usage for silkies. They have little meat, although a few shreds may be incorporated in the soup. But generally, by the time the stock is made, the meat isn't worth eating. The flavour is all in the stock.