liuzhou

@blue_dolphin Good question. I'll start with the name. They are 匙 (chí) or 勺 (sháo), literally just 'spoons'. If you really must specify (not usually necessary) you can add 汤 (tāng), meaning 'soup' to get 汤匙 or 汤勺. In most restaurants, you will be given both chopsticks and a spoon whether you are having soup or not. They are used in pairs to eat many things. For example, if a particular food item is slippery and difficult to pick up with the chopsticks alone, then it is polite to use the chopsticks to push the item into the spoon then carry that to your bowl or mouth. Stabbing food with the point of a chopstick is a big faux pas. No one will blink if you use it to eat your soup, but most people don't. I don't recall ever seeing a western style soup spoon in China.

The topic's title is misleading. It isn't the BBC's take. The BBC is merely reporting the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana's take.

No. Most XLB aren't. Soup filled are more correctly called "汤包 (tāng bāo, literally 'soup buns').“ I wrote more about this here.

Home made 小笼包 (xiǎo lóng bāo), Xiaolongbao. Served with a soy sauce and Zhenjiang black vinegar dip. Usually served in eights, that being Chinese culture's luckiest number.

I often miss Anna. I looked at the Saving Thyme menu and saw the first item Breakfast Sandwich • 9.5 soft poached, bacon, aged white cheddar, cayenne aioli • add avocado 3.5 My old eyes missed the comma after 'poached' and I thought for a moment they were offering 'soft poached bacon'! I was just about to ask what the hell that is when the fog cleared and it clicked. The joys of decrepitude!

For some reason, a lot of the dried pasta here comes from Turkey. Not bad; not great. I do look for Italian but it's not always clear.

That's interesting. I've never had phở served that way in a restaurant in Vietnam, but for delivery or take away it certainly makes sense. Perhaps, it's because in Vietnam phở is always made to order.

I eat my soup with chopsticks! Seriously. The local way is to pick out any solids with your chopsticks, then pick the bowl up and drink the liquid part. I haven't seen a soup spoon in 30 years. 🥢

I can get a lot of different fish and seafood sausages here. Cod, cuttlefish, squid spring to mind. They all also contain pork and its fat. Cod Sausages I never buy them. I prefer my fish and seafood never to be sausaged!

Duh! It gets worse! I'm an idiot. The Chinese for 'fig' is 无花果 (wú huā guǒ) which literally means 'no flower fruit'. Reminder to self: Don't post before your second coffee of the morning.

I'm clearly fig ignorant. The only figs we get here are dried. I've never bought them. They're usually used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Digging around has revealed that there is something called "fig honey", but it isn't honey at all and not made by bees, but people. It's a syrup made from figs. How to Make Fig Honey

Do, the bees harvest the figs for nectar? My friend who recently sent me lychees from the family lychee farm also sends me lychee honey which I like a lot. Never seen fig honey, though.

And still is. It was also one of late French mother's short list of favourites to cook and eat. The dish was named in Honour of Napoleon after his victory in the Battle of Marengo, Italy. Rice is certainly eaten (and grown) in France and my mother and grandmother both served it with this dish. Corn is gaining acceptance but still not common.

牛肉炒粉 (niú ròu chǎo fěn), Beef Fried Rice Noodles.