liuzhou

Yes, I realised the dates didn't tally, but it was the best description I could find. But the dish could well have existed long before described in writing. Most things are. But in the end, I don't know.

I came up with this:

This may be the ultimate rabbit hole. New York Public Library’s collection of 17,562 menus ranging from 1850 to the 2000s have been digitised and are available here. They are also in the process of extracting all the dishes from those menus to make a searchable index by dish rather than establishment name. So far, 1,335,578 dishes have been transcribed. The are looking for volunteers to assist with this project.

It's soft as were those I ate in Lombardy, Italy in 1993.

Yes Ciabatta in Italian has the /ch/ pronunciation.

Spicy squid and sugar snap peas plus the usual garlic, chilli, coriander leaf and soy sauce. Usually I add a little oyster sauce but I seem to be out of it. No worries. It was fine.

I’m donning my carpet slippers despite having no carpets and getting into ciabatta. It started last Friday when I went searching my online shopping sources for ciabatta buns. I certainly found some – too many, but soon narrowed them down to three. But one type wasn’t what I was looking for – a small ciabatta loaf with olives, cheese and bacon embedded within. I found that interesting so ordered a couple. I had one for breakfast yesterday as mentioned on the Breakfast topic. $2.75 USD per bun but and extra $1.11 for delivery. How the cheese didn’t melt in the baking, I don’t know. Then I was left with what I really wanted – plain ciabatta buns. First up are a set of seven buns (the minimum order) at $0.66 per bun. Delivery free. Second a set of three (again min order), $0.92 per bun and despite coming by far the furthest, again free. There wasn’t much flavour difference between them but the set of seven were cheaper per bun. However I think I preferred the set of three buns; they had a nicer texture. They came from all over China. The olive variety from Jiangxi in Eastern China; the seven plain from Henan in Central China; the three plain from the far northern Liaoning province. I’m in South China. Despite being from different destinations and being ordered at the same time, they all arrived yesterday morning. The reason for my interest was a desire to use the plain buns as subs for burger buns which I always find too sweet, especially here. Never done this before but have seen them recommended for burgers several times.. Anyone tried? Another question. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the American pronunciation of ciabatta has an initial /s/ sound as opposed to the /ch/ in both the British. Is that universal in America or regional?

On a recent day trip to Hong Kong, I came across these fellows. Alba Truffles. Those prices are Hong Kong Dollars; not USD. 7,950 HKD = 1,022 USD 8,160 HKD = 1,048 USD Did I buy? Of course! Both! Well, I had fun imagining I did.

Certainly not. I haven't eaten margarine since the 1950s. I try not to eat industrial effluent! Never seen margarine in China. Finding butter is hard enough.

Yes. I always nuke poppadums. Have done for decades. Much cleaner and crispier.

When I first came to China in 1996, olive oil was impossible to find. I first found a bottle on August, 23rd 2005. I only know the date because I took my first ever selfie holding the bottle to send to family and friends, some of whom had lamented my serious deprivation. Since then it has become commonplace but not of great quality but great expense. This one is the best I've found but is even more expensive, being imported from Italy. It's also from a cooperative rather than a massive multi-national distributer of oils which could be from anywhere. Much of the olive oil sold here is used for skin care by my lady friends, I think. No one I know cooks with it. I never use it in Chinese dishes. Totally unsuitable, but I use it in western food, of course. I've never seen it here in bread before except when I've baked the bread myself. My olive bread and its oil

I ordered this olive, bacon and cheese ciabatta loaf online (actually I ordered two) and they arrived at 8:30 this morning when I was setting up my coffee machine for my morning fix of caffeine. Perfect time for breakfast to turn up. Lovely bread infused with olive oil flavour. I just ate it as it came. Got through half a loaf. Here's one slice.

I hope you mean 'gourmet'. 😂

Tonight, I made an experimental dish of fried rice with prawns and shailan ham from Hunan. I described that more in this post back In September. It also contained garlic, chilli. Shaoxing wine and Chaoshan fish sauce. Finished with coriander leaf/cilantro and Chinese chives. I slightly over-salted it because I forgot the ham and fish sauce are a bit salty, but didn't ruin it. I'll certainly repeat. The shrimp and ham nicely complemented each other.

The person who posted about the aprons is no longer a member and hasn't been for around for 16 years so is very unlikely to answer. Perhaps someone else may know.