liuzhou

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.

They claimed that silkies are used medicinally, which is true but overemphasised that they were given to pregnant women to improve lactation. While they are given to pregnant women, they are given to non-pregnant men, too. Every soup I've been given in a Chinese hospital (for every meal) has been silkie. Also, they are not only used medicinally. They are sold in every market for making chicken stock. I buy them regularly and I've never been pregnant or lactated. ETA: Also what @KennethT says. The cook them incorrectly.

The title of the video is ridiculous. These are nowhere near "every chicken in the world". They also talk some nonsense about silkies. And Bresse is never pronounced Bressé.

Millions of people in China (including me) have a fridge/freezer in their living room.

The cucumber is fine because they didn't have to cook it. One of the few things the locals will eat raw.

The goose used is a breed native to China, Anser cygnoides domesticus, a domesticated swan goose. The goose is highly glazed using maltose and the skin very crisp (and remains so for a long time). It is traditionally roasted over charcoal, but in recent years more often in gas fired ovens. It is very popular in HK as well as Guangdong and southern Guangxi. Widely available in HK, including in some Michelin starred goose restaurants as well as smaller mon 'n pop restaurants. They are always good - HK people don't put up with low quality geese.

Another lunch. A visit to a Hong Kong style roast goose place. and the oven for the geese.