liuzhou

Hersheys is not what most people call chocolate.

Anytime I've seen butchers cutting oxtails, it has been with a band saw - both in Europe and Asia.

Definitely larger. Somewhere between scallions and leeks. Flavour more pronounced. Anyway, how do you tell the size from the images posted here, when there is nothing to indicate scale?

No, the bird is wrapped in parchment paper before the salt topping is applied. Sometimes, some of the salt gets a little charred. The charred salt is binned but the rest kept for another day.

盐焗鸡 (yán jú jī), salt baked chicken. A Hakka dish. The chicken is brushed with Shaoxing wine, covered inside and out in a mix of ground 沙姜 (shā jiāng), sand ginger aka lesser galangal, kencur, Kaempferia galanga; salt and ground white pepper then buried in its own weight of coarse sea salt and ‘baked’ in a clay pot or wok. Usually served hand torn. Here I used half an organic chicken and I’ll get at least two meals out of it. The salt is reusable.

This is very misleading. One type of cooking show is out of favour. Reality television food shows are still as popular. The Great British Bake off a BBC show is very popular and heading into its 17th series in 2026. The UK Masterchef (the original) is still going strong on its 18th season, again on BBC, despite recent scandals when two presenters were fired for inappropriate behaviour.

To my surprise, as I generally prefer my oysters au naturel, I'm rather partial to these on occasion.

Yes. In Mandarin Chinese, they are 大葱 (dà cōng), literally 'big onion' but often translated as leeks. They are also known as Japanese leeks. As a kid growing up in East Scotland* they were known as sybows but pronounced sybies in my local dialect. The history of the names is interesting. First known reference and from 1362 is as 'chibols'. This is derived from a Northern French dialect name, chiboule. The Scots sybow was a 16th century adaptation of chibol. * Wikipedia claims incorrectly that this name is from the west of Scotland. No, it ain't. In the west of Scotland they are referred to as 'spring onions'. There are many other names used in different places.

They're usually called Welsh onions in English. Allium fistulosum- and native to China. Negi (ネギ) just means 'green onion'. Naganegi (長葱) means ' long onion'. Very common here, all over Asia and in the UK. Probably everywhere.

These are often sold in the west as pet food, but are used in Japan to make a type of dashi (Japanese 煎り子だし – iriko dashi). But they are also used in China. Dried Sardines (干沙丁鱼 - gàn shā dīng yú). These were landed and dried here in Guangxi. Used to add umami to soups or hotpots, etc.

Well not my experience and I did live in the east end and south of the river.

I lived in London for many years. My family still live there. Never heard of sausages being called 'soss'. If you ask for bacon and eggs with 'soss' in London you'll be directed to Mr. Heinz's tomato ketchup already on the table.

I still make fried bread occasionally. Always shallow fried, usually in bacon fat (I've never seen it deep fried in my long life). I also make "French bread", but was brought up calling it pain perdu.

Basically, it's a peppery anchovy paste with butter and herbs. Also known as Patum Peperium. Great on toast or crackers (or, in my case, teaspoons!)

Not my experience at all. My mother served piccalilli with almost anything and any time of year. I had Branston Pickle on a cheese sandwich just yesterday (in China where, like me, they don't celebrate Christmas) and would eat Gentlemen's Relish for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could source it here. I always hated piccalilli although to be fair I only ever got it from a jar - probably Heinz.

What do you mean here by "ghosts"?

No. It means French Chicken, but the dish was invented in New York. It is Italian-American.

Those are ubiquitous here. Not for sheet pans but for lifting steam pans from steamers etc. Anything hot and with a lip to grab hold of. Other than my girlfriend.

We've been talking about home pickling. I've been doing it for over 50 years. People have been doing it for centuries; millennia.

Agreed. I pickle young ginger slices as served in many Japanese sushi restaurants as a tongue cleanser. No unpronounceable ingredients involved; just rice vinegar and salt. Stays in good condition for months, not that a batch often lasts often; I eat it too often! I see no reason why you couldn't do the same with onions of any colour.

As I mentioned earlier, for baking I do wait until they are black and almost semi-liquid. Fortunately, I can buy them in that condition or close to it.

They do chunky ones too. I chose these deliberately. 串 (chuàn) are from Chinese far western Muslim province. The Chinese character is a clear pictogram. They are very different from the Greco-Turkish type (mostly Cypriot) you find in England. They are cumin and chilli heavily spiced, whether "stingy" or chunky. Usually the lamb meat is interspersed with chunks of sheep's tail fat.

A delivery lunch. A bit of a screw-up on the vendor's part. I ordered 5 lamb skewers and 5 beef skewers, but they delivered ten lamb. The fries came with tomato ketchup sachets but no salt. As usual. No worries, I have plenty of salt. Four types, in fact. I didn't use the ketchup. Never do with fries.

香港式蛋挞 (xiāng gǎng shì dàn tà), Hong Kong style egg tarts. Not to be confused with 澳门式蛋挞 (ào mén shì dàn tà), Macau egg tarts And certainly not 鸡蛋布丁 (jī dàn bù dīng), egg pudding.

Yes. For banana bread I usually wait till my local supermarket decide the unsold bananas are beyond redemption and give them away for a token payment.