liuzhou

Iceplant salad with chicken

Last night. Clams with bamboo shoot and Hunan pickled hot 🔥 peppers.

Yes. Same here. We get the green skinned variety, too but purple is much more more common.

Mushroom powder is widely available in stores here from a large variety of species. I do make my own shiitake powder but I regularly buy this matsutake powder and use it as a seaoning pretty much like salt.

This ugly specimen is 斑鱼 (bān yú, blotched black fish), channa maculata. Native to China but introduced as an invasive species elsewhere. Mildly sweet and flaky, these are usually 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 inches long.

After months of struggling, my Chinese burrito place has officially posted a notice stating they will permanently stop trading on February 6th, although they have already stopped delivery service. A nation (well me) is in mourning.

Not really fruit but always sold by the fruit people. Or street vendors. In the local dialect usually 甘蔗 (gān zhè), which, to my confusion on first hearing it, is pronounced almost exactly like 'ganga'. It is of course sugar cane. Fruity and very sweet.

By farr, my favourite way to cook green beans. https://food52.com/recipes/20767-fuchsia-dunlop-s-sichuanese-dry-fried-green-beans

The book is interesting but the title perhaps somewhat misleading. It's basically a recipe book of classic French cooking as cooked in a 2 Michelin star restaurant by French chef. Certainly not a guidebook for beginners as you have described yourself.

To an extent it depends what sort of butter we're talking about. I only usually buy salted butter, which is difficult to find here, so I buy a few packs at a time and freeze them. The one in current use just goes into the fridge in its original packaging and lasts as long as it takes me to get through it. Certainly weeks. Living in the tropics, I'm careful not to leave it out any longer than necessary. Unsalted butter I'd be more careful with. Also with my annual treat of artisanal French butter imported at great expense !

@KennethT "non-cake bread is my little joke. Much of the bread in SE Asia has a texture that resembles cake. It's rare to find bread that has actual bread-like texture and crust." And in China, where it's also cake sweet. I keep telling them but they don't believe me.

My first lunch of the year and boy, was I ready for it! 手撕鸡 (shǒu sī jī), Hand Torn Chicken in a spicy sauce. With rice. Originally, a Cantonese dish it has been adopted China wide and modified to suit taste buds in other regions. Not many Cantonese people would want my spicy version. Their loss!

I've never tested the theory. My friends are generous and send me large bags which I do keep in the freezer. The vendor did advise them at one point not to send it in mid-summer when the temps were around 40C, worried wouldn't make it in good condition. So...

And finally, I cooked my dinner which I prepared last night minutes before the year changed. 辣子鸡 (là zi jī), Sichuan Chilli Chicken. With rice and stir fried greenery.

More importantly, although I've mentioned this rare ham before but never in this context. It is only made in one city in China and seldom leaves there. Fortunately, I lived there for two years back in 1997-1999. I have a few good friends there still who regularly send or bring it to me. 晒兰 (shài lán) is from Huaihua city in western Hunan Avocado for scale.