liuzhou

I'm not sure what 'Jiaoxing wine' is although I have been to Jiaoxing. Did you mean Shaoxing? These wines are only salted in the USA and Canada because of the local alcohol licencing laws. Salting it renders them undrinkable and allows them to be sold in stores without liquor licences. They are not salted in China! Lee Kum Kee is not what I would consider a 'premium' brand. It is the Chinese equivalent of Heinz. All MSG is the same.

No. Never. I have been invited to "Western" restaurants, though.

I've moaned and complained about Chinese bread before. There is very little. 99% is like this. Labelled in Chinese and English (no French) as "Soft French Bread", only one of which descriptors is accurate . It's soft. It is neither French nor bread. It's bad, over sweet sponge cake. Ingredients listed (in Chinese only) are wheat flour, margarine, sugar, egg, high fructose corn syrup, refined vegetable oil, whole milk powder, shortening, yeast, gluten, salt, food additives (sodium bicarbonate, sodium dehydroacetate, calcium stearyl lactate, sucrose fatty acid ester, sorbic acid ascorbic palmitate, novolac, citric acid), maltose syrup, edible alcohol, edible spices. Shelf life 6 months. Sacré blue!

nor peanut oil. I can always taste it. Never used grapeseed, so can't comment.

I've gone Sino-Italian! Penne with chicken hearts cooked with garlic, chilli, Shaoxing wine and doubanjiang.

Sorry, I hate the things. China recently discovered them and now everything comes with stupid squiggles all over it. Used sensibly, they are useful, but when just overused for unwanted "decorating" by people who couldn't draw a curtain, they are instruments of torture.

I use these plastic meal delivery bowls. They are made from some heavy duty, heat tolerant type of plastic and are easily washable. For tasting, I too use plastic spoons. Every delivery comes with a set of disposable chopsticks (I prefer my own) and a small plastic spoon. I seldom use the chopsticks, but have dozens of the spoons from the time around the turn of the year when I was sick and unable to cook.

I've mentioned this before in another topic, but my most ridiculous gadget is probably these "pizza scissors" with built-in wedge carrier. They work OK but a rolling pizza slicer is much simpler.

I give up! It gets worse! I just learned that since the Covid regulations were relaxed, thousands of the braindead so-called "influencers" and vacuous YouTube egotistical time wasters are flooding into China from all over the world to film themselves eating luosifen!

Prawns with garlic, chilli, Shaoxing wine, sliced snow peas and orzo.

Indeed. But the conversation has widened since, as they often do. The title is a clue! At least, I posted about a cleaver. You posted about something decidedly not a cleaver, as you took the trouble to point out. You may know what a 菜刀 is but there are others in the conversation, who may not.

I'm not sure why you think that. The topic is about cleavers, which surely includes bone cleavers. A good bone cleaver is not only thick, but heavier. Your knife is less than half the weight of my cleaver. It's almost the same weight as my regular cleaver (菜刀 - cài dāo, literally "vegetable knife", but also meaning "food knife".)

It does that, too. I always weigh my pasta portions.

I have a well-used plastic one with holes in the centre to measure dry noodle portions, not that I ever use that function. I do use it all the time for retreiving not only Chinese noodles, but also for pasta and even for lifting boiled eggs out of their pan. Wouldn't be without it. They are very common here. I've never see a wooden one here.

Damn! I've been busted!

This is my bone cleaver. 1.2 kg of knife. I mainly use it for chopping pork or beef ribs into chopstick wieldable pieces as people do round here. Bought in China, of course.

Pork tenderloin steaks, replacement 黑皮鸡枞菌 (hēi pí jī cōng jūn), 'black skin chicken fir mushroom', Oudemansiella raphanipes and snow peas.

Probaby just me being overcautious. I did in the past do them as you do, but find they get too hot to comfortably handle.

No change in flavour. Not does it do anything to the zest. You aren't really cooking them; just heating it a little. I do it on the the defrost setting on my microwave for no more than 30 seconds or so then let them cool down again.

With lemons, I usually nuke them in the microwave for a few seconds on low. This breaks down the internal cell walls and releases a lot more juice.

I know. But I've never eaten real or unreal Mexican which is the point of the topic. I don't remember any Mexican restaurants in London before I left. I'm told Taco Bell has some in Shanghai but that is very far away and would be my last choice.

Mexican food. Too much c⊘rn and I'm not a lover of cooked cheese.

Well, maybe I will, because I don't know what I did. I went to cook the mushrooms I bought the other day and there they were - nowhere! I know I bought them because I photographed them. I've searched the house and they ain't here! I can only guess I accidentally threw them in the trash, which I will try never to do again!

Black ants have been eaten in China for decades, more for medicinal reasons than gustatory. You won’t find them in your local supermarket, but they are available in pharmacies dealing in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) ingredients. They are priced by size, the larger they are the more expensive. The largest can fetch over $43 USD per kg. They are considered to be of benefit to longevity and general well-being, and in particular to men wishing to retain their reproductive power into old age. But that seems to be the case for almost everything in TCM. What is more easily available (and affordable), even in some supermarkets is the wine, in full Black Ant Health Preserving Wine (黑蚂蚁养生酒). 175ml bottles are available for $1.50. Ingredients are listed as rice wine, black ants, cobra, banded krait (another snake), gecko, astragalus herb, ginseng, longan and wolfberry. The taste is herbal and sweet. You can't really detect the ants.