liuzhou

That confused me for a moment. I thought you had sneaked into my house and taken a picture of the pandas. I have some near identical ones. Well, one is identical, but the other two are in slightly diffferent positions. I'm also fond of these chopstick rests which came with a matching serving plate. I'm a bit confused by these, though. The Chinese on the package reads '小籠包' which are xiaolongbao. They aren't what I call soup dumplings. Did they contain soup?

More than once in this topic, I was asked about Chinese truffles and warned people off them. They are a pale imitation of the European truffles. I'd only had them once, in a restaurant here in town and was, to say the least, underwhelmed. Yesterday, I saw some and decided to give them a full test. These are from Yunnan province which borders Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Vietnam and Tibet and they are between 5 and 7 cm / 2 to 2¾ inches in diameter and were the largest. Almost scentless and flavour-free. So my advice remains the same. Avoid.

Mushrooms on toast.

They are in the same botanical family, but very different it terms of genus. Nothing like carrots, for example. The roots are not normally eaten by humans!

Yes. Stir fried with garlic as a side dish, most often.

Culantro, Eryngium foetidum, recao, Mexican coriander, long coriander, sawtooth coriander and more names and whatever you call it in English. I had eaten this many times in Vietnam where it is ngò gai, but have recently started to find it here in China where it has more names again. And I have become enamoured! Most references call it a herb which it is, botanically. However it isn't always used that way. I tend to use it more often as another great green vegetable. I'm wondering if anyone else does. Or how you use it generally. It is also a bit of a linguistic adventure. Often confused with cilantro or people think someone has mispelled cilantro. Of course, British English seldom, if ever uses 'cilantro', instead calling both the seeds and the leaves 'coriander'*. The thing that interests me is that 'cilantro', adopted from the Spanish was originally, in the 13th century 'culantro' only changing to 'cilantro' in the late 16th century. ('Coriander' is from the French, coriandre.) Also, how do you pronounce 'culantro'? Wikipedia suggests it is pronounced with a hard 'c', ie 'k', yet I seldom hear that. Finally, it is also commonly claimed that it is similar in taste to cilantro / coriander leaf. I don't see that and I know others agree with me. *Is there any other herb or plant where the seeds and the plants have different names?

Most of these videos have been deleted and the perpetrators arrested - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/09/arrests-made-after-wave-of-sushi-terrorism-upends-japans-restaurant-industry

Are your meals prepared by delivery only companies? All mine come from established real restaurants. Maybe that could be a difference.

These clowns are not from the suburbs (they have their own luosifen places) but from all over China, here to put their dumb videos on the internet. That is just one 螺蛳粉 place, but arguably the best. The others are as packed and with lines waiting. Madness.

Yup! And the restaurant only has four small tables inside and maybe five outside, maybe 36 chairs, so the folk at the back of the line are going to get the third or fourth sitting.

I suspected this, or something like it, would happen. Luosifen has long been a phenomenon on social media here. Now that China has dropped its zero-Covid policies, every weekend or holiday the city gets overrun by teenagers from all over China looking for real luosifen, to the extent that the locals are getting pissed off. We can't get into our favourite places anymore! This is my favourite go-to place last weekend. The line is about 3 times longer than fitted into the photo. Damn Tik-Tack!

The de facto main language in Singapore is British English followed by Mandarin Chinese. Most schooling there is done in English. 菜饭 (cài fàn) is Mandarin and simply means 'food', in Singapore especially hawker food. It may be well economical, but the word doesn't hold that meaning.

This is only part of dinner, but a surprisingly, a star element. Pan fried prawns with garlic, chilli, Shaoxing wine, culantro.

I would say "most definitely". You may get some information from employers, but to make informed choices and the most of that (and reject the bad advice), you need to learn the basics in detail. I can't recommend any particular school as you don't say where you are.

After the last few posts, I'm kind of embarrassed to post this. However it is Fridge/Freezer Cleaning Eve and tomorrow I have two such things to deal with, so I've been avoiding buying ingredients that need cold. So I had some ground/minced leanish pork in freezer 1 and defrosted that, braised it with garlic (unchopped), sliced shiitake, Kashmiri mirch and Guizhou peppers, white wine, cilantro/coriander leaf and culantro. Served that with rice also from same freezer, and defrosted and heated up by Chef Mike. For a fridge clearing it wasn't at all bad. I may even repeat under more favourable conditions in future.

It's a Cantonese dish made from the skin of, usually dace or grass carp, which is boiled and usually served with soy sauce, ginger, scallions, peanuts, and sesame. I didn't use the peanuts or sesame but added pickled chilies instead, because I'm me. It is full of umami and different textures. Vietnam also has a version, but the recipe is totally different.

I don't know how widely available this is but it's my workhorse. Bought in China, of course. I have two others but this is my go to.

Roasted basa fish with spicy sauce; cold fish skin salad.

I would check out Chinatown. I've never been but I do know Houston has the second largest Indo-Chinese population in the USA after L.A. However, personally I'd never buy any kind of knife for someone else. You have to feel the knife you are going to use for balance etc. and pick the one that feels right for you.

Caesar Salad

Pineapple Prawn Fried Rice

Picked these up today. Two little vials of saffron. 2½ inches in length containing 1 gram in each. For some reason they were labelled "Tibetan Iranian Saffron" Most strange!