liuzhou

There is. There is non-gavage foie gras. I am having difficulty accessing websites outside China right now, but a Google search for 'non-gavage foie gras' will probably clarify. Here is one article about non-gavage foie gras production in Spain. I also remember reading a lot in French like this one. The problem is that the production capacity of non-gavage foie gras is still much lower than the demand (and that will probably make it more expensive than it already is where it is sold). Beware the idiots marketing vegetable based alternatives, sometimes labelled faux gras. I have some traditionally produced French foie gras in the freezer and feel no guilt! China has been producing foie gras for about a decade and while still behind France in output, is rapidly catching up. Most of that is gavage produced though. They are now the largest caviar producers in the world and are trying to dominate the entire luxury food supply chain. They'll probably manage.

I don't think it is possible to write a decent guide book to China. Even a series covering individual provinces would be near impossible. It is such a culturally, sociologically and linguistically fragmented culture. I could write a guide to Liuzhou and it would be useless In Guilin just up the road, obviously in the particulars, but also in the generalities. When I first arrived, I clutched my Lonely Planet guide like my life depended on it. I now know 90% of what it told me was either wrong or irrelevant. The food section was utterly useless. They obviously didn't realise that names of ingredients and dishes can change within the same market or restaurant depending on who serves you! I still have that guide book and pull it out when I want a laugh. I am convinced the person who wrote the Liuzhou section never got off the train. There are a lot of things I could write about China, but a guide book is way down the list.

See who did the catering (listed at the bottom)

I don't think this has been posted before. The Bill of Fare for Andrew Johnson's Presidential Inauguration Ball in 1865, following the assassination of Lincoln.

Today is 元宵节 (yuán xiāo jié) or the Lantern Festival marking the 15th day of the lunar-solar year and the last day of 春节 (chūn jié), the Spring Festival, which starts on Chinese New Year's Day. It is also the first full moon of the year which is what 元宵 (yuán xiāo) means. Traditional activities are centred around the lanterns hung all over cities, towns, villages and hamlets throughout China. People hang them, but also spend time viewing them. In recent years, I’ve given up viewing them, 90% are just advertisements from local and national companies. The marketeers screw everything up. Yuan xiao Also traditional is eating a delicacy with the same name 元宵 (yuán xiāo). These are small dumpling balls of glutinous rice (representing the new moon) filled with various, mainly sweet ingredients such as sugar, rose petals, sesame, sweetened bean paste, and jujube paste. Black sesame paste is the favourite. These are very similar to 汤圆 (tāng yuán), also eaten at the Lantern Festival. It is a kind of a north v south China thing, with yuanxiao being favoured more in the north and tangyuan more in the south. The main difference is in the technique of assembling the dish. More information on the difference here. Both are too sweet and sticky for me, I’m afraid. There is a recipe here. Although, eating yuanxiao is pretty much universal, different parts of China have their own traditions. Xi’an people, for example, eat 糖葫芦 (táng hú lu), candied haw berries on sticks. Me, I celebrate everyone going back to work after two weeks. Shops re-open. Delivery services resume. Prices go back down (the few delivery services that continue working hoist their prices to the meet the new moon. 元宵快乐！

This was possibly / probably the ugliest looking dish I've had in China. But also one of the tastiest. 麻辣牛蛙 (má là niú wā), Mala Bullfrog (mala being the famous Sichuanese flavour from Sichuan peppercorns and chilli, often translated as 'hot and numbing' although it's actually 'numbing and hot' in the Chinese. Frog with lotus root and onion. Served with rice.

I ordered myself a wedge of Grana Padano online. It arrived today with a 'free' grater. Damn! I now have seven cheese graters ranging from a traditional box grater, traditional ginger grater (which gets used with cheese too), two microplanes and four of these! I might have to give up my favourite grating cheese if they send one every time.

Around this time of year for the last few years these have turned up in the local supermarket (never in the wet / farmer's market). They are not maggots! These are Stachys affinis, a root vegetable called variously Chinese artichokes, Japanese artichokes or Crosnes. They also go under various names in Chinese: 甘露子 (gān lù zǐ), 甘露儿 (gān lù ér), 玉环菜 (yù huán cài) or 草石蚕 (cǎo shí cán). The first two English names reflect some early confusion as to where they originated. They are native to China. The third name, Crosnes, refers to the home town, just south of Paris, of a French horticulturist named M. Pailleux who, in 1882, received a gift of the plant from the Russian Legation in Beijing and went on to successfully introduce it to Europe, naming it after his home town but adding du Japon - Crosnes du Japon. This addition was soon dropped. It is unrelated to either the Globe Artichoke or the Jerusalem Artichoke, but visually vaguely resembles the later, while tasting more like the former. The tubers are about 5cm / 2 inches long and should be used quickly as they discolour rapidly after being disinterred. If cleaned well ( I use a soft toothbrush), there is no need to peel them (in fact, it's difficult due to the shape). They can be eaten raw in salads or boiled. Here, they are usually parboiled then fried. Pickled Chinese artichokes are also available in some stores. Pickled Chinese Artichokes

海鲜炒饭 (hǎi xiān chǎo fàn) - Seafood Fried Rice

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) - Public Domain One of my favourite reads is Samuel Pepys’ Diaries. The famous chronicler of the Great Plague and a little later the Great Fire of London also recorded all sorts of trivia including salacious gossip about the King’s mistresses but also his own meals, for which he had a great appetite. On the 11th of October 1660, he recorded that He doesn’t record which animal’s mammary glands he consumed, but probably a cow’s. That said, pigs’ udders were also eaten. Alan Davidson points out in the 2nd edition of The Oxford Companion to Food, edited by Tom Jaine, that udder is “one of the foods which is doing a slow disappearing act” before sensibly adding “at least in western countries.” For some reason, this has gone right out of fashion, although a few versions appear in some western cuisines, especially French, when it's known as pis de vaches. Known as ‘elder’ is some parts of the UK, udder was often treated as tripe and bought from a tripe butcher. To prepare an udder, it is necessary to first remove all hair then remove every trace of milk lest the meat is tainted by stale or sour milk. This is done by soaking the udder in water for up to four hours. It then needs to be simmered in salted water until tender, a process which can take up to six hours. Even then it can be breaded and fried. Pepys probably paid a good sum for all this preparation time. Despite its lack of popularity today in the west, it is still occasionally consumed in Asia. I’ve never cooked it, but have eaten it once in a restaurant it in China where it is known as 乳房 (rǔ fáng) and had been smoked. I’ve also seen it on a menu in Vietnam, where it is known as vú. Both beef and pork udders are sold in the markets. However, it is not a mainstream protein, by any means. It is said by Davidson that it “smells faintly of tongue and has something of the same softness, but is chewier”. I recall the texture and can agree, but don’t remember any such aroma. I'd rather have the tongue.

Ngel Slater had a recipe in yesterday's Grauniad for potatoes, onions and sardines with rosemary. Sounds good if simple, but I'm running low on my favourite sardines and everyone is out of stock! 😳

Try it and let us know.

Now this I’ll happily admit to never having eaten, though I may soon. I was looking through the “menu” on my Chinese online food shopping site (it does both home delivery prepared meals and general groceries and raw ingredients) and noticed something I’ve not seen before. 挡风肉 (dǎng fēng ròu) is the pig’s diaphragm and is also apparently valued in Korean cuisine where it is known as 갈매기살 (galmaeggi sal). It is said to have the same shape, if not taste, as pork tenderloin. There is next to no information on the internet (other than to clean it well, but I do that with all offal) and I could find no recipes. Whether other animal’s diaphragms are eaten, I have no idea. Pig's Diaphragm Expect a recipe here in the (maybe distant) future. I'll buy some tomorrow and experiment first.

It's not something I've come across but sounds to me like a good idea.

Looking for something else, I came across a photo of the dips.

Not specifically a bubble tea topic, but here are the tea shops in one s treet near my home in China. They all sell bubble tea.

Yes, I know it's high fat and low carb, but most of the sources I looked at say it is at best "adequate" in protein, which is why I said "relatively".

In the last few months, there has been a craze here for huge oysters, to the extent that I can't get regular ones any more. The shops are too busy striving to sell the largest samples they can source. Image from Taobao advertisement I really don't understand it. I find that the medium sized are tastier and more appealing. Perhaps something to so with me eating them raw, where as the locals are sure they will drop dead instantly if they eat anything raw other than cucumber. They generally grill them with garlic. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-13/Live-A-peek-at-China-s-largest-oyster-farm-ZqxhHp9jkQ/index.html

The body, human or otherwise, is generally well evolved. We have skin to hold all our bits in and a structure to make sure all the bits stay in roughly the right place, hung as they are on a support mechanism which we call the bones or, en masse, the skeleton. Bones have been used as a food source for millennia. Archaeological evidence indicates that bones were consumed prehistorically. In the last few years, thanks to a Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, known in the food fad family as Dr. Kellyann, the “wellness” scam industry has lain claim to this ancient heritage with every keto and paleo nut proclaiming the benefits of “bone broth”. Now, probably like you, I make stocks from bones – provided they have some meat on them. That’s where the flavour is. Bare bones are “a composite of collagen and the hard mineral calcium phosphate”. Not a lot of flavour in there. But the “health” freaks claim all sorts of benefits from consuming bone broth. Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but the keto diet is meant to be relatively low-protein, no? Yet collagen is a protein. The paleo pranksters are correct in that cavemen ate bones. However, I’m not convinced that emulating cavemen’s culinary choice is the way forward. They had little choice. Much of what I have already mentioned in this topic is all or partly about collagen, usually in animal parts those people wouldn’t eat. Now that same doctor has a successful business in America, selling powdered stock (bouillon powder, really) to the gullible. But you’ll be delighted to know it is available in chocolate or vanilla flavours. The internet is full of contradictory articles stating both that bone broth will save your life and will probably kill you. One joker, claiming to be a medic even goes so far as to suggest that the popular Japanese dish とんかつ, tonkatsu translates into English as ‘pork bone broth’. I trust him! To be wrong. It’s a pork cutlet. Which brings me to what’s inside, but not part of the bones as such. The marrow. Beef, veal and pork marrow are the most usual, but all animal bones, including ours contain it. This is where our blood cells are manufactured. They come in handy. Following the rise of Fergus Henderson and his wonderful, internationally famous London restaurant, St John twenty years ago, roasted bone marrow with parsley salad has become a classic, unfortunately raising the price of bones generally. Mr Henderson uses veal bones as described by the man himself, here. I’ll buy that! Oh. I have done. Bone marrow (and gnawing bones in general) is popular here in the land of the rice eaters, too. Known as 髓骨 (suǐ gǔ), marrowbones are sucked and chewed here with equal relish. I usually eat 骨髓 (gǔ suǐ), bone marrow in 哈尔滨饺子王 (hā ěr bīn jiǎo zi wáng), "Harbin Jiaozi King" restaurant where they are served with a side of plastic gloves, but no parsley salad. They are, you won’t be surprised to learn pork bones.

Green bell peppers contributing flavour? Can I interest you in a broken bridge? Only one previous owner,

Yes. They were simply filled with minced pork and cabbage and the dipping sauce was 50:50 soy sauce and black vinegar with chopped Chinese chives.

I did warn you in the first post!

That seems likely. I don't know about the chicken, but that description sounds more North American than anything Vietnamese. I've never come across anything called "Cornish hens" in Vietnam. Also, cơm đỏ doesn't mean Vietnamese tomato rice. It simply means 'red rice' as I pictured a couple of posts back.

What is known in western countries as Chinese New Year is never called that in China. Instead it is called 春节 (chūn jié) or "Spring Festival". This lasts 15 day, starting on NewYear's Day and ending with the Lantern Festival. Each of the first ten days have some special significance as does the 15th. The 5th day, Thursday was 破五 (pò wǔ) which is dedicated to the God Of Wealth on his birthday. This is the day to eat jiaozi (饺子) and observe some Taoist practices. Here are some pictures from this year's po wu.