liuzhou

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?

Strangely enough, Worcestershire sauce was taken on board in a big way in Shanghai back in the 1930s and is still part of Chinese cuisine to the extent that both the original and a Chinese clone are widely available. Rather sensibly, they generally just sinified Lea and Perrins which they could approximate in Chinese characters. The full name used is 李派林喼汁 (lǐ pài lín jié zhī) which is used to mean 'Lea and Perrin's ketchup' but is pretty meaningless, really. The name must have been dreamt up in Hong Kong as that 喼 (jié) character only exists in Hong Kong; not in Mandarin, the majority language.

As it does me.

I thought the same. Here is one cut open. I think still a little unripe and needing a few days on the kitchen counter. I'm more used to the much smaller (about ¼ of their size or less) and more common dried mainly red variety.

Reviving another language topic. Recently I've heard several people pronounce 'salmon' with an audible /l/'. All my sources agree the /l/ is silent. It doesn't seem to be specific to any particular region. Thoughts?

I'm very late to this party (to which I issued the invites), but I just noticed this while searching for something else. Moreish is NOT really British. Coined by the very Irish Jonathan Swift in 1738. Yes the Gulliver's Travels man. The meaning was clear then and still is. Swift was a noted conservative about language, too and wrote about banning many words no one now thinks twice about.

These are fresh 大青枣 (dà qīng zǎo) or Large Green Jujubes (aka Chinese Dates), Ziziphus jujuba. About the size of a small apple, they are the only fruit I can think of that the Chinese eat unpeeled.

Every year since 2001, Liuzhou local government have given me a gift of 5 litres of peanut oil and 10 kg of rice, in recognition of my status as an honorary citizen of the city. This year they made some changes. This morning, four people from said government arrived at my apartment bearing gifts. They had customised the choice to my appetite and needs as they see them. Grapes Loquats 大青枣 (dà qīng zǎo) or Large Green Jujubes (aka Chinese Dates) Regular Cow's Milk Tissues Toilet Paper Much more useful. I already have sacks of rice and bottles of oil.

龙井茶 (lóng jǐng chá) - Dragon Well Tea

I'm sorry but phở is not ramen. Phở is made with rice noodles; ramen with wheat noodles, rarely if ever with rice noodles. Also like ramen, phở is the dish, not the noodles. The noodles are bánh phở.

I guessed but I'm a bit surprised about one thing. Mi goreng is fried noodles; no frying in those instructions. Are they pre-fried and then dried or are they just using a well-known, if sometimes misunderstood 'exotic' name? I'll pick up a pack and try them out some time.

The ingredients list sounds really appetising! This is from the "chicken" variety. Not a drop of chicken in them.

No, they aren't soupy. They require 3 mins simmering, then are drained and mixed with the seasoning sachet contents on a plate. In addition to these two, I also get the mi goreng in two versions: spicy and not so spicy.