liuzhou

Always a good idea. My go to definitions are: Appetizer - Anything taken to create appetite or relish for food; a whet or stimulant to appetite. Hors d'œuvre - An extra dish served as a relish to whet the appetite between the courses of a meal or (more generally) at its commencement. So they are an appetizer. The plural in French is also 'oevre'. No /s/. French rarely uses the term, preferring amuse-gueule, which also means "amuse the mouth". "' Gueule" is also the origin of 'gullet'. Starter - A dish eaten as the first course of a meal, before the main course. Of course, in most of the world, 'entrée' means 'starter'. Littré, the major French dictionary, explains entrées as ‘mets qui se servent au commencement du repas - 'dishes that are served at the beginning of the meal'.

I was waiting for someone to ask that! 麻婆豆腐 (má pó dòu fǔ).

For many years, there was a sign above the windows of every carriage on London Underground trains which read something like Very few people saw the error. But back to pronunciation, I've mentioned this before elsewhere on eG, but 'restauranteur' drives me crazy, especially when said by restaurateurs. There is no /n/ in the word!

Almost always.

What irritates me most about 'mascarpone'is not the intrusive-r (common in many English dialects) but that so few people pronounce the final 'e'. It doesn't rhyme with 'phone'! https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/mascarpone

The Chinese artichokes aren't actually artichokes. More here. The acidity of the pickles does cut the robust smoky taste of the oysters well, though. I agree it's not an obvious pairing, but I like it! Would love to hear about your smoked duck starter when you finalise it.

Yes. I wrote about them and their history in this post. I first ate them in my French grandmother's kitchen in southern France a very long time ago. I've eaten them in Crosnes, too!

Of course, starters should whet the appetite, but also compliment the main course (I refuse to call it an entrée). This one was rather robust in flavour but I felt worked with the main. 烟熏牡蛎 (yān xūn mǔ lì) - smoked oysters, 裙带菜 (qún dài cài) - Undaria pinnatifida or in Japanese, ワカメ (wakame), 玉环菜 (yù huán cài) - Chinese artichokes (pickled).

I don't really have a technique. If it's frozen, then defrost to room temperature is it. That said, when I was still in the UK , it was seldom frozen.

Good idea but I have 12 jars of Marmite. (I can only buy it in bulk here.) Thanks though!

My home town in Scotland has loads of deer farms. The venison is 90% red deer. I'm convinced that's what you have.

For reasons not worth going into I have found myself in possesion of half a kilo of yeast extract powder. What the heck am I supposed to do with that? Sprinkle it on my c⊘rnflakes (which obviously I don't have)?

We did an experiment in London where we played recordings of phoneticians saying 'herb' very carefully, some with the /h/ and some without. Many listeners reported hearing the /h/ in them all, although vocal tract x-rays and voice prints etc could prove there was no /h/ in half of them. Some heard no /h/ in any. We never told them what we were testing for. People often 'hear' what they are expecting to hear.

I don't recall ever having a problem separating smoked salmon slices and I've been eating a lot of it regularly for over 60 years.

Regarding whether or not to pronounce the 'h' in 'herb'; while there is a regional variation it was originally pronounced and spelled everywhere without the initial 'h' as 'erbe', Pronunciation of the 'h' became prominent for unknown reasons (despite having been used much earlier) in the early 19th century in British English but not in American English. There is a British comedian (opinions differ on that designation) who features a rant about herb vs 'erb in one of his routines saying that it must be herb as it has the 'h' while ignoring words like 'heir', 'honest', 'hono(u)r', 'hour'. It is very common to drop /h/. London is famous for it and for inserting /h/ where it apparently unrequired. I give you "I'll be 'avin' 'am and heggs for breakfast!" I eat eggs with herbs (pronounced /hɜːbz/.

The OED gives three pronunciations pɪˈkæn, ˈpiːkæn, pɪˈkɑːn with the ' before the stressed syallable. I use the first, but many of my friends use the second and more American friends tend to use the third. Never heard /pi ˈkɑn/ (pee CON).

I'm sorry but can you explain what a 'hard A' is? It is not a standard linguistic term. Only consonants are separated into 'soft'and 'hard' - eg. gauge, the first /g/ being hard and the second soft. I have never heard of a 'hard' vowel. The main categories of vowels are 'long' and 'short'. I'm not saying you are wrong, but it is not the scientific term. https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/15028/am-i-using-the-right-terms-in-referring-to-soft-and-hard-vowels-and-consonan

Shrimp, cilantro and culantro, fried hand-pulled noodles with garlic, ginger and chillies.

It's one of the few I drink. I actually bought that bag to cook with, but did drink a couple of cups, too.

I heard someone pronounce almond as you describe, just today. I was going to post about it but you beat me. How common is it? I've heard it in England, too.

铁观音 (Simplified Chinese) / 鐵觀音 (Traditional Chinese) (tiě guān yīn in the Mandarin spoken where it is grown in Fujian province) is neither classified as green tea (绿茶 / 綠茶 - lǜ chá) or red (红茶 / 紅茶 - hóng chá), but as a category of its own - 乌龙茶 / 烏龍茶 - wū lóng chá, literally dark dragon tea and known in the west as Oolong tea. It is considered to be a superior oolong by most people. Oolong is also produced in other parts of China but can only be called tiě guān yīn if it comes from Fujian. In terms of fermentation, it lies between green and red (black), being only fermented around half as long as true red teas. 龙井茶 / 龍井茶 (lóng jǐng chá) is a green tea grown in Zhejiang province only and also has strictly enforced protected origin status.

I don't know what I've done to deserve all these unexpecteds in one week. A week or so ago I bought a can of smoked oysters online and they came with a complimentary bag of seaweed. I really enjoyed them so ordered five more. This time no seaweed*, but a dedicated oyster fork. It's 13 cm / 5¼ inches nosr to tail. For scale *Lack of seaweed is probably a blessing. I have a lot in the fridge alreadt.

I am officially so, but then I'm almost the only one here. Certainly the only one who has been here more than two years. I'm on 27 years now. I think I only got it for turning up. It's actually almost meaningless apart from gifts of toilet paper.

'Bake' has been used as a noun for around 500 years, so I don't think it's going anywhere. What about a clam bake?