liuzhou

I have to say that I follow the no fish and cheese 'rule', not so much because I consider the rule to be inviolable; simply because I dislike the two together. I was recently in the local 5 star hotel*'s so-called 'western' restaurant for lunch with a friend and ordered that western classic - seafood curry! It came with American cheese** melted all over it! Utterly disgusting. * The hotel and restaurant are government owned. The star system is administered by the er, government. ** Undoubtedly the most egregious misnomer ever! Cheese?

Slicing thin isn't the problem. It's best sliced thin. The problem is simply one of overcooking. It should only be flash fried for seconds. Perfect.

Slight interruption to normal service and a question. I have always considered chitterlings to be the small intestines of (usually) pigs and all my dictionaries agree. However the USDA seems to define them as the LARGE intestines. Surely not? What's your take?

? I ony got one product. Anyway I got round to trying it. What a disappointment. I regularly buy Iberian canned sardines and anchovies which are wonderful and was expecting something equally exciting. Poor deluded me. First of all, when I have to break aout a pair of pliers to open a can I get pissed off. Then inside, I find a swimming pool of cheap olive oil with stringy bits of tasteless fish. Emptying the tiny quantity onto a saucer I find a tablespoonful of mush. Never again The cheapo stuff I get here (from SE Asia) is just as bad for a quarter of the price. Bargain.

Stovies

Having horrified the more sensitive with stomachs, lungs and fallopian tubes, I thought to give you a break and go a bit more mainstream, but still in the offal arena. Probably the least divisive offal is the liver, whether from poultry as in liver pâté or foie gras, or from mammals as in many dishes around the world. Poultry, whether home made or commercial products, is probably the most common source of livers, but here I’m mainly looking at the mammals. And it’s quite a list. Liver and Onions Like many, I was brought up with ‘liver, bacon and onions’ about once a fortnight. It wasn’t a highlight. Dredged in too much flour then fried to a leather-like consistency, how could it have been? I was astonished when I finally ate barely cooked liver. So delicious! Lamb's Liver The liver of my childhood was nearly always lamb’s liver. Calves liver would have been first choice, but was outside our price range. Still. Nothing wrong with lamb’s liver. I still eat it when I can, although it's not so common here in southern China. When I accidentally moved to China, I could only find pig and beef liver. I quickly got used to pig liver. Although it has a slightly more offal flavour than lamb’s it’s not overpoweringly so. The beef liver I fed to my cat, Nora. She liked it. Pig Liver Since then I’ve eaten horse, donkey, deer and camel liver. Donkey and horse were good. Deer liver was rather gamey and camel even more so. For those with access to deer liver, there is comprehensive information here. Ignore the recipe for deer haggis; putting maple syrup into haggis is a capital offence in Scotland! Or would be if we had maple syrup, which thankfully we don't! Never eat the liver of carnivores. In fact, in general I recommend never eating land-dwelling carnivores*. They just don’t taste good. Polar bear liver will probably kill you. Hypervitaminosis A is an often fatal overdose of vitamin A, which polar bear livers have up to 100 times more than we do. One of the greatest surprises in my life was in a small local restaurant here in Guangxi, but run by a couple from Sichuan. I spotted on the menu 鱼香肝尖, (yú xiāng gān jiān), 腈肝尖 (jīng gān jiān) and 圆葱焗猪肝 (yuán cōng jú zhū gān). These are fish-fragrance liver, quick fried liver and onion steamed pork liver. In fact, they are all pork liver. Over the next few days I sampled them all. The fish-fragrant liver had the classic Sichuan flavours. The quick fried liver was the opposite of what my mother cooked but roughly the same ingredients. The onion steamed pork liver became my favourite liver and onions dish ever. Pork Liver with Flowering Chives I’m not going to be so crass as to to tell you how to cook liver and onions; you probably have your own tried and tested family recipes, but if not the interwebs are full of them – some more inspiring than others. But I do recommend you add some green chilli peppers and Sichuan peppercorns to pep them up. In fact, the internet has hundreds of recipes for all sorts of liver dishes. One thing I don’t remember from growing up is these, available in my local supermarket. These are fish livers from some unidentified species, probably carp. Yes, I spelled that correctly. I’ve never cooked them, but I do like me some monkfish liver – the foie gras of the sea, also available in some stores. That said, as children, we were regularly dosed with cod liver oil, whatever that was about. Monkfish Liver *Although pigs will eat pretty much everything, they are generally vegetarian when left to their own devices.

THE No 1 classic filling for wontons and jiaozi in China is what is known as 三鲜 (sān xiān) flavour - literally 'three delicacies', namely pork, shrimp and shiitake. It's almost a cliché. I don't understand this topic at all. In Asia, seafood and mushrooms is no more unusual than fries and ketchup in the west!

Most of my beef is actually water buffalo.

Here’s a bit of pig you are extremely unlikely to come across by accident. 生肠 / 生腸 (Mandarin Pinyin: shēng cháng; Cantonese: sang cheong), these are the lady animal’s fallopian tubes (and sometimes the uterus), which are usually stir fried. A traditional Singaporean dish, it is harder to find there than previously although it can still be found in neighbouring Malaysia. Pig's Fallopian Tubes The tubes are pretty tasteless on their own, but have a crunchy, springing texture which is much appreciated and they take on the flavours of the accompanying ingredients, usually onion, garlic, ginger and hot sauce. They are also often served as 蝦米生腸 (Cantonese: har mai sang cheong), fallopian tubes with dried shrimp, which can bring pungent tastes to the dish. Despite being a Mandarin speaking area, Singapore uses the Cantonese name. 蝦米生腸 (Cantonese: har mai sang cheong), fallopian tubes with dried shrimp These are sometimes incorrectly described in English as intestines as they visually resemble the said organs and because the same Chinese character (肠/腸) is used in both. I've never heard of them being served in mainland China, although they are sometimes seen as street food in Hong Kong. Frog's fallopian tubes (hasma) are used to make a dessert.

Marmite® on Toast (Broken Bread)

This is already labelled in several languages! Spanish, English, Italian and Chinese! Luckily, I can read all four of those! It also has Polish, Czech, Russian, Serbian, Romanian, Albanian, Macedonian, Slovakian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Greek. And that's just the box of four. The individual cans also have French and German.

Not the best cheddar in the world, but OK. Imported from Ireland. Milder than I would prefer. But in China, you take what you can find. This is 3 kg of cheese. Will be portioned tomorrow.

I thought thingy-ma-bobs!

I came across this Spanish tuna in olive oil the other day. Anyone know anything about the brand or the product? The cans are a mere 80 g (less than half the size of most regular cans, but considerbly more expensive). Any information gratefully received other than their own website. PR and marketing, I can live without.

I’m not sure how many people will be able to stomach this. Pig's Stomach If there is one thing which seems to unite the USA ‘s southern states’ soul food tradition and that of China it's that both are partial to a bit of stomach. Pig’s stomach in particular. (I’ll return to other stomachs). Also known as ‘maw’, the Germanic name as opposed to the Greek-via-Latin ‘stomach’, these are popular across the afore-mentioned territories as well as among the Pennsylvania Dutch as a festive dish and in much of Latin America. Pig's stomach never featured in my life growing up in the UK and France. Tripe came from cattle. End of. Lost opportunities! I’m not going to dare say much, if anything, about the typical American treatment of these organs – I know next to nothing about that, but I am partial to some 猪肚 (zhū dǔ, pig stomach) from time to time. Well prepared, it is slightly al dente and mildly flavoured. It often turns up in stir fries and in soups or hotpots. Cleaned and prepared pig tripe 'ladders' in local supermarket First thing to say is that if you thought cleaning lungs was a PITA, buy your stomachs pre-cleaned. They are pigs to wash. You need to repeatedly rinse them with water and vinegar (or rice wine) to get rid of their distinct odour. Bicarb or c⊘rn starch (if you insist) may help with the last traces. There is an excellent guide to all things pig stomach here with an even more detailed, illustrated guide to cleaning the things. (I’m less sure about the accompanying recipe, but that’s just me. I’d want it a lot spicier.) Here, some supermarkets do all that cleaning for you - at a price.

I think most people would go the opposite route.

That is a pairing I've also come across here. In fact, just yesterday I was thinking of ordering some halibut online and the listing was accompanied by a picture of a halibut filet and some yes, ... shiitake. In the end, I didn't order it, but that was nothing to do with the pairing!

Out of curiosity, I just searched Taobao, China and the world's largest online shopping portal, for bouillon cubes. Not a one to be had. The only thing that came close is these Knorr (家樂 - Cantonese: gaa1 lok6) jellified stock concentrates (what are these things actually called in English?) They come in 'old layer chicken flavour' (pictured) and 'pork bone flavour'. Cubes certainly were available a few years back, but as I said before, were far from mainstream. Now they seem to have gone completely. I only ever bought the clam flavour they used to have. * Curiously, if you add a 福 to Knorr's Chinese name, you get the Sinicized name of French supermarket chain, Carrefour (gaa1 lok6 fuk1)

Nothing unusual about shiitake and fish, especially with a 'meaty' fish like monkfish. Steamed fish (I use Japanese sea bass or red drum depending on availability) with shiitake is a well known preparation, here known as 五柳鱼 (wǔ liǔ yú), literally 'five willow fish'. Oyster mushroms are also often paired with lighter fish.

What I thought. Water, salt and yeast (allergens and and preservatives) according to the ingredient list. Which doesn't quite add up, to my mind.

You might not be allowed to buy lungs in the USA, but the USDA does allow this next key ingredient, a feature of dishes around the world. Coursing through the bodies of the animals we eat is highly nutritious food, full of easily absorbable iron and vitamin K, which helps stops you bleeding to death when you cut yourself. This food also aids with the retention of calcium in the bones, important as we get older. Cow's Blood Considered too valuable to waste, the life blood of slaughtered creatures is gathered from chickens, ducks, geese etc, but also from pigs, sheep, cattle, camels, horses, etc, depending on any local or religious taboos. There are few societies which don’t have some kind of blood sausage in their culinary repertoire from British black pudding to North Korean blood and glutinous rice sausage. French boudin, Polish kiszka. Spanish morcilla. Finnish mustamakkara. I could go on. North Korean Blood Sausage with Glutinous Rice But blood bangers are not the only way to go. In China, blood (usually pig’s, cattle or poultry) is allowed to congeal until firm, then cubed and added to soups and hotpots. I’ve eaten it this way in congee, too. It can also be stir fried. Cubed Blood for Stir Frying Stir Fried Pig's Blood with Chillies Because of the similar texture, this is commonly known as ‘blood tofu’ or 血豆腐 (xuè dòu fu) among other names – similar preparations are found across SE Asia and among the Chinese diaspora. And can be found in my local supermarket! Pig's Blood in my Local Supermarket Blood is also used as a thickening agent in many dishes, both western and eastern. One local dish is Quanzhou Blood and Vinegar Duck which is famous in Guangxi and Hunan. The braised duck dish is thickened with the animal's own blood. Bloody delicious! I also must give mention to 毛血旺 (máo xuè wàng) or spicy Sichuan stew traditionally made from beef tripe and duck's blood. However, in The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), Fuchsia Dunlop gives a recipe which ditches the tripe in favour of, of all things, SPAM®! It's that sort of dish; use what you will so long as you use the blood!

Still on the road to poached egg perfection, two duck eggs on some German bread I was given. I don't really like German bread, but waste not... Irish butter. Bread was Vierkornbrot (4-grain bread - Rye 55%, Wheat 5%, oats 5% and barley 5%). Although etymolologically related, 'korn' does not mean the dreaded cØrn, but 'grain'.

Although Chinese bouillon cubes certainly exist, they are somewhat uncommon. Every kitchen in the land (domestic and professional) has at least one pot of this instead. It goes in everything. Only available as chicken flavour.

There is one type of century egg which is prized over all others, yet they are just a matter of luck, really. With 松花蛋 (sōng huā dàn), literally 'pine flower eggs', the processing of the egg leads to the formation of these 'pine flower' patterns in what was the white of the egg. They make no difference to the taste, at all, but can be very visually attractive. I shelled two eggs this morning for my congee; the first was uniformly black but the second had formed 'pine flowers'. Lucky me! 松花蛋 Both went into the congee which had been slow-cooking all night. Also added some fried lean pork and enjoyed 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu) for breakfast. Looks dull after the pine flowers, but tasted just fine, thank you!

I’m thinking few, if anyone here will be gracing the dinner table with this any time soon. In fact, for most members, it would involve a degree of criminality! In the USA, as I understand it, it is legal to consume this foodstuff, but illegal to import or sell it. Lungs have never been mainstream in the Anglophone nations or in western culture in general (with one honourable exception). Yet, they are common enough in Asian cultures, even appearing as a street food speciality in places. The exception, of course, is in Scotland with the ‘Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!’, my beloved haggis. * referred to as ‘lights’ when used in the culinary sense. Usually from sheep. Haggis (Centre) Here in China, the Sichuan dish 夫妻肺片 (fū qī fèi piàn) is justly famous. This literally means ‘man and wife lung slices’ and consists of beef offal including the tripe, heart, tongue and skin, but is notable for containing zero lungs! Fuchsia Dunlop explains in her The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) that the dish is misnamed , probably because of confusion over similar sounding Chinese characters. But all is not lost. Pig's Lungs 猪肺 (zhū fèi), pig’s lungs are easily available and used in soups and other dishes. These can seem alarmingly large, especially when they are soaked to clean them, but they quickly deflate when cooked and become more manageable. Cleaning the lungs is particularly important and it is best to pump water through them until it runs clear. This can take time and several changes of water. Masochists could seek out a recipe for 杏汁猪肺汤 (xìng zhī zhū fèi tāng), Cantonese almond soup with pig’s lungs. More sensibly, find it in a Hong Kong restaurant. This dish is notoriously difficult to prepare and requires around two hours just cleaning the lungs. Or you can do what I do; let someone else do the work. Lungs are cleaned, prepared and cooked as snack food on the streets and in some supermarkets. Lungs on sticks Not bad, but I'm sticking with my haggis.