liuzhou

That I don't understand. Of course it's been engineered; they don't grow on trees. Sieves and bowls are engineered, too! Washing the rice in the insert is no different from washing the insert after dinner.

I learned that in junior school. 60 years ago.

You and a billion people in China.

I may have to limit my pescatarian and related consumption. According to the map below showing the projected risk, Guangxi is one of the highest risk areas. I guess about 90% of our marine food is local, especially that landed in Beihai on the south coast. Beihai is also a major aquaculture centre for southern China. Not surprisingly people are concerned angry not only about the health risks, but the effect on the local economy. Map translation by my Android phone. Looks like I've got around 8 months before I start glowing in the dark. Reminder: No politics, please.

牛肉炒面 (niú ròu chǎo miàn), beef fried noodles (chow mein). A generous plateful, featuring the beef and noodles but also including Chinese celery, garlic, carrots, cabbage, water spinach, soy sauce and chilli. I also got to see the motorcycle courier bringing it on the GPS tracking system, taking a wrong turn and tie himself in amusing knots trying negotiate the one way system around my home. He got here in the end and the food was still hot.

A message from Fuchsia

Fried grasshoppers are a delicacy popular among Chinese diners. In Liudong New District, Liuzhou, farmers built 50 greenhouses to raise grasshoppers artificially. Each greenhouse raised 50 kilograms of grasshoppers per month, and the annual income of the greenhouse base reached 600,000 yuan. ($82,3320 USD) Image via Facebook

British English v American English, in the main.

Sounds to me you are buying stale peppers. Or, please no, pre-ground.

To be fair, picture captions are rarely written by the article's writer and anyway the article does mention them again. And tinned anything is a type of conserva. The word means tinned food. The article is a hack job, though.

Tonight's episode in my delivery dinner saga is not visually great, but tasted fine. 子姜炒牛肉 (zǐ jiāng chǎo niú ròu), young ginger and beef stir-fry. Onion, chilli, young ginger, beef, rice wine and soy sauce.

I always double fry at minimum. Even better is Blumenthal's triple cook method, but time consuming. For me, more important than the cutting, is the choice of potato.

Today in 1837...Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins begin manufacturing Worcester Sauce, one of the best loved and versatile bottled English sauces.

Tonight's dinner was advertised on the delivery app as 清香藤椒鸡 (qīng xiāng téng jiāo jī) and promised it would contain 小米椒 (xiǎo mǐ jiāo) a dialect name for 朝天椒 (cháo tiān jiāo), facing heaven chilli peppers, but also used for other cultivars. 藤椒 (téng jiāo) is green Sichuan peppercorns, also referred to as rattan vine peppers. The American Mala Market, importer of Sichuan ingredients, claims that these are only used fresh which is erroneous. I have both fresh and dried here at home. To my amusement, they claimed this in a description for industrially prepared Rattan Pepper Oil. Duh! They do not stock the peppercorns. In fact they are not widely available even in China. They have the oil. The green peppers contain more of the essential Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool which gives all Sichuan peppers their numbing power than do the more common red variety. Also, the fragrance is stronger so eating them is more intense. Fresh Green Peppercorns Dried Green Peppercorns Anyway, back to my dish. It was generously loaded with sliced, on-the-bone chicken thigh meat, the required rattan peppers and two types of chillies, red and green. Finished with a sprinkling of white sesame seed, Chinese chives and peanuts. Damn but it was good. ¥21.40 / $2.93 USD inc delivery.

Pad kaphrao contest seeks true taste of Thailand’s most loved dish from The Guardian

My information doesn't agree. While I know bánh mì is southern, I have a close friend in Hanoi whose family have two restaurants and she insists rice flour is incorporated. Whoever is running the restaurant here in Liuzhou may be from the north (it is closer) but I don't know. I do know chả lụa. This wasn't that, but was made to look like it, I guess. It had less taste than blotting paper. When I recover, I'll go and interrogate Torture may be involved.

Haha. 天 (tiān) in Chinese means 'heaven' which I'm sure your dish is! That's how I read it - vegetable heaven..

It is known in English as 'toon' and is a relatively popular vegetable here, yes. I've bought it in Engand in the past, too. Bay leaves are from trees. Lime leaves are eaten. Mango leaves. There are quie a few.

I was sceptical but had to try. As I’ve mentioned before, despite my living very close to Vietnam, very little of their cuisine makes its way here. So, I was surprised to find this on my food delivery app today. A restaurant apparently called Saigon. Or perhaps, not. I’ll get back to that. So, I scrolled through the menu and was surprised to note that many of the dishes listed and beautifully illustrated appeared to me to be more Thai than Vietnamese. Tom Yum soup included. Some dishes Fish in Tom Yum Sauce (Viet-Thai?) Lime Sour Fish Soup Vietnamese Sausages Mint Grilled Pork Ribs They had their take on phở, but only phở gà, the chicken version, labelled in Chinese as 越南鸡肉米粉 (yuè nán jī ròu mǐ fěn, Vietnam chicken rice noodles). No phở bò, Vietnam’s national dish, the beef version. Hmm. Phở Gà I didn’t have much of an appetite, so decided just to have one of the the bánh mì they were offering, labelled in Chinese as 越南三明治 (yuè nán sān míng zhì, Vietnam sandwich). Their illustration looked reasonable. What arrived with me was this. Which, rather sensibly if I say so myself, I opened to reveal this. So far so good. The bread was exceptionally good. Made with Vietnamese rice flour, according to their description. However, they had sliced the sandwich into four; I've eaten hundreds of bánh mì in Vietnam and never had one sliced like that. Or sliced at all. The slices tipped over to show you the contents. The contents were what looked like liver sausage but wasn't. It was bland and tasteless. I think it was MRM chicken formed into a sausage shape. I want my liver pâté in my bánh mì. Then there was what I think was meant to be char siu. It was hard to tell what the dry meaty stuff was. This came with a load of salad (as it should) which had been smothered in Kewpie "mayonnaise". It wasn't rank but disappointing. Only the bread saved it. I'd still try some of their other dishes though, even though it was kind of expensive for here.. I still don't know what the restaurant is called. The app listing said Saigon. The box containing the bánh mì said Charm of Honey Viet. The plastic bag everything came in said Le Charme de Saigon. I know where they live, so I'll visit once I regain my mobility and will check it out. The first seven images are from the restaurant's listing on the delivery app.

It always amazes me when restaurants can't get crisp batter right. It's not rocket science. What was wrong with the chips. They don't look so bad to me., but I know looks ain't everything.

Much of the breads are baked in communal ovens or dedicated bakeries. What I should have said is that most smaller restaurants and certainly homes tend not to have ovens, as in all of China. Your description of the skewer method is spot on; no 4-hour marination, mutton tail fat and the spicing.

I wouldn't worry. Shiso isn't particularly Japanese. In fact, it is native to China and even the Japanese name shiso ( シソ ) is derived from the Chinese name, 紫苏 (zǐ sū). Here it is most commonly just stir-fried with garlic and ginger or used in hotpots. Every supermarket or wet market has it. I love the half purple/half green variety. Must try thr pesto. Two sides of the same leaf.

Your overlong link doesn't work. Uyghur lamb skewers are never oven baked. The roadside cooks/vendors don't have ovens! They are grilled and they are almost everywhere called 羊肉串 (yáng ròu chuàn). The /r/ ending in 羊肉串儿 (yáng ròu chuàn ér) is only used in Beijing dialect where they add it to almost everything. Beijing is over 3,000 Km / 3,800 miles from Xinjiang, home of the Uyghurs.

I grew a bay laurel in London years ago. It may stil be there but it's almost 30 years since I left. If I can grow one, anyone can. Whatever colour of the colour wheel is opposite green, that's how fingered I am. I notice the article says the word bay has a long, interesting history but never expains what it is. Typical. It comes from the Latin bāca meaning berry. It originally referred to all berries but later mostly to those of the laurel tree. That was picked up and adopted by the Provencal language as baga but was transferred from the berry to the whole tree. Old French picked that up as baie or baye. English took it from the French. I knew you wouldn't sleep tonight worrying about that!