liuzhou

My favourite London pub date unknown Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is a Grade II listed public house at 145 Fleet Street, on Wine Office Court, City of London. Rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666, there has been a pub at this location since 1538. The vaulted cellars are thought to belong to a 13th-century Carmelite monastery which once occupied the site. The entrance to this pub is situated down a narrow alleyway and is unassuming, yet once inside visitors will realise that the pub occupies a lot of floor space and has numerous bars, narrow stairs and gloomy rooms. In winter, open fireplaces are used to keep the interior warm. In the bar room are posted plaques showing famous people who were regulars. Some of the interior wood panelling is nineteenth century, some older, perhaps original. The pub is known for its literary associations, with its regular patrons having included Charles Dickens, G.K. Chesterton and Mark Twain. And me!

Yes. I don't buy the GK theory, either. Too late.

Yes, but there is archeological evidence that lacto-fermentation was being used in China 3,000 years before Hippocrates.

Easy on mine. I can take a screenshot of anything I can see on the phone including my own photos stored in the phone, then post that. I also have three microplanes.

Me too, I have six of the ones I pictured above, plus many more. Bought nine more last week!

That battle is long over. Korea just pretends it isn't.

Probably my most used small tool in the kitchen is a small pair of office scissors. Useful for all manner of tasks from opening packets to cutting up herbs. Dirt cheap from stationery supply stores, so it doesn't hurt when they accidentally get lost in the trash or disappear into thin air, as has happened more than once.

Tonight’s meal I think of as a Chinese equivalent of the Scottish classic of my childhood, mince and tatties. Obviously not in terms of ingredients, but there the lack of similarity ends. Both are simple fare, relatively cheap, easy to make but not particularly visually appealing. Both are flavoursome comfort food. Tonight’s dinner was one I often make, but this came from a local restaurant. Mince and Tatties Like mince and tatties, at its simplest, 酸菜肉末饭 (suān cài ròu mò fàn) consists of two elements: 酸菜 (suān cài) is literally ‘sour vegetables’, the sourness being that they are pickled. These vegetables are sometimes referred to in the west as Chinese Sauerkraut and some sources even go so far as to suggest that it was the origin for sauerkraut, having been brought west 1,000 years ago by Genghis Khan after he invaded China. Whatever the truth, there is solid evidence that suan cai was in existence 5,000 years ago. In the north of China, especially Beijing its primary ingredient is cabbage but here it is more commonly mustard greens, which is what I had tonight. Other vegetables and spices are also added in smaller quantities depending on seasonal availability. The vegetables are dried and then salted and left for lacto-fermentation to do its thing, Before making this dish the suan cai is finely chopped or minced. 肉末 (ròu mò) is minced pork (as opposed to the beef in mince and tatties). Usually, a relatively fatty belly cut is used. The two are then mixed together and fried. Most people make their own from scratch, but it is available in supermarkets. Also found is the very similar 雪菜 (xuě cài) or ‘snow vegetable’, a milder version popular in Shanghai. The dish is normally served alongside other dishes family style and accompanied by rice. 酸菜鱼 (suān cài yú), suan cai fish is another popular dish which I have posted somewhere here in the past. Suancai Pork Mince (酸菜肉末)

Once Upon A Time

In 2016, I visited Hunan for a 20-year anniversary reunion with some old colleagues. As I was leaving after a wonderful weekend, I was given a box of the wonderful local golden-yellow peaches. 2016 Fast forward an eventful seven years to 10:55 this morning when this box turned up at my door. Another box! 2023

I'm not sure how anyone can make something without the things needed to make that something. Can you explain what you really mean?

Ladles have spouts??? None of mine do and they're just regular ladles; not mythical figures. I wouldn't buy a ladle with a spout.

I'll give Paradise a miss if they only serve that pudding. But the best meal I've eaten in the last 26 years in China was leveret. It was cooked by my late sister-in-law and absolutely delicious. I've also had syllabub (not in China) and although I wouldn't go looking for it again, it was O.K.

Near my home are two roughly equidistant branches of a small local chain of restaurants called 金龙砦 (jīn lóng zhài) which means “golden dragon stockade”. This chain specialises in local Guangxi food and is where I usually take first time visitors. My granddaughter ate at the branch to the south when she was two-years-old and then volunteered to help with the washing-up. Tonight, I ordered dinner from the one to the north. Among their offerings (both menus are the same) are a number of dishes from the various local ethnic minorities’ cuisines. I chose a dish from the 瑶族 (yáo zú), Yao people, who live in Hunan, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces as well as Vietnam where they are the người Dao and Thailand where they are the เย้า (yêā). The Yao are mainly rice farmers and have some of the worlds most spectacular rice terraces, including the famous Longji terraces here in Guangxi. 酸辣禾花鱼 (suān là hé huā yú) is literally ‘hot and sour 'grass flower' fish”. I’ve never found a real English or Latin taxonomic name for this species but they are small (10 to 12 cm / 4 to 4½ inch long) graminaceous* freshwater fish which live in the rice paddies of Guangxi. The fish are fried whole and un-gutted then served in a broth with pickled red chillies and slivered daikon radish. The dish is neither over-spicy or over-sour but nicely balanced. It is normally served as one of a number of dishes, but I had it alone with rice. I can only find one useful website on this dish but it’s all in Chinese. Some good images, though of both the fish and the dish. Being a delivery dinner, mine was not attractively plated. I could have replated it and removed half of the broth, but I’m not really strong enough for even that, yet. Hopefully, next time. So, the fish were hiding underwater. Image from 金龙砦 Jinlongzai Restaurant delivery menu My delivery Close up * Of or pertaining to grass, in this case, the grass being rice.

I'd manage to force that down! 🤣

A couple of pics. Paradise Pudding (undated) Bill of Fare 1787

I was given this. It's sold as a garlic crusher but I'm having fun thinking of other uses. Knuckle duster is my favourite, so far.

Whether you call it calamar or calamara or calamari or καλαµάριor or squid makes no difference to me. I'll call it 鱿鱼 (yóu yú) and I'll eat it like Mr. Bloom, with relish. But I seldom order it in restaurants; they rarely get it right. The best way is of course, when I cook it myself. This is not just rampant egotism; I cook it the way I like it. Fast and brief. Or slow and long. Usually the former; never anything inbetween. But tonight, I made an exception. This came from a restaurant I have eaten in often and which is close to my home, so doesn't die on the short trip to me. Billed as XO酱煸鱿鱼 (XO jiàng biān yóu yú), stirfried squid with XO sauce, it was spicy, tender, umami rich and delicious. With garlic and garlic scapes. XO sauce is from Hong Kong and is made from dried seafood and ham; it is common in Cantonese cuisine, but also adopted locally. Served with rice, 照常 (zhào cháng).

Yes. And they're breeding!

I saw no evidence of hacking in the article. Just bad AI. A well-designed brief would have ruled out these potentially fatal glitches. It's just another another GIGO. Garbage in; garbage out. Artificial Idiocy only does what it's told.

皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu) - Century Egg and Lean Pork Congee

UPDATE: The book is due 31 August, 2023 from Amazon UK / November 7th, 2023 from Amazon US and Amazon Canada The North American Cover is different (below)