liuzhou

27. 牛筒骨 (niú tǒng gǔ) I was thinking about this and the fact that, although very popular, it only ever appears in restaurants; almost never home cooked, never available in the stores. And I was wondering why when the ‘don’t be an idiot; you know why’ light came on. 牛筒骨 (niú tǒng gǔ) literally means ‘beef tube bone’. It is, of course, marrow bone. And the locals love it – as do I. What we are talking is roast bone marrow. And the reason it’s restaurant only, is that so few people have ovens. Almost no one. I do, but for a long time I was unable to source the bones. Seemed they were all reserved for the restaurant trade. My favourite mini-chain 哈尔滨架子王 (hā ěr bīn jiǎo zi wáng) - Harbin Jiaozi King restaurants serve up steaming plates of marrow and dispense plastic gloves for the handling of bones. They do mean jiaozi (dumplings), too. Recently, I have been able to acquire the bones online (750 grams / $3.59 USD). The essential parsley is more expensive at $3.77 for a mere 250 grams!

Many were the happy hours I spent in The Last Drop in my 20s. I last visited in 2018, very much no longer in my 20s. You have already seen the best of the castle. Formidable from the outside, dull inside.

Some meals over the last couple of days or parts thereof. This is 皮蛋肉粥 (pí dàn ròu zhōu）- century egg and pork congee. Unusually for me, I had this as part of lunch today. And enjoyed it. They're pushing me to upping my protein, so 蒸蛋饺 (zhēng dàn jiǎo) steamed dumplings with egg wrapper and 清蒸芙蓉蛋 (qīng zhēng fú róng dàn) steamed egg. This looked like a bowl of greenery 青菜 (qīng cài), but then I remembered ordering it. Under that forest of greens lie hidden wontons 云吞 (yún tūn) in broth. Dinner tonight was called 酸菜焖鱼 (suān cài mèn yú) braised fish with pickled cabbage. This was unlike any 酸菜焖鱼 I've ever experienced, but was OK. Served with rice. Roll on tomorrow.

The Guardian has today published a selection of food-related Christmas gifts at various price points. It is very British. There are several items there I woudn't complain about receiving; I'm less sure about giving. Few of my friends woud be looking for food related gifts. (They do have other redeeming qualities.) What food-related gifts would you be likely to give or want to receive this year? From this list or otherwise. I fancy the mushroom playing cards big time. I'm cheap! I suggest you get together and make one big parcel to send to me. The postage to China will be more affordable shared 😁. I have ordered a bunch of outsized cooking chopsticks for everyone!

Yes, indeed.

I'm no trifle maker but my mother always used hard ladyfingers in her trifles. Sponge cake would have turned to mush. She learned from my very British paternal grandmother. Sounds to me like @ElsieD's recipe is short on liquid.

26. 漓泉啤酒 (lí quán pí jiǔ) Beer is not, of course, traditional in China’s culture but its use and production has grown exponentially over recent years. 青岛啤酒 (qīng dǎo pí jiǔ) Tsingtao (Qingdao is the modern transliteration) is at least the spiritual home of beer in China. Set up by the Anglo-German Brewery Co Ltd, in 1903, during the time of foreign control known as the Unequal Treaties period. The brewery fell into Japanese hands between 1914 and 1922 when it became Chinese owned until World War II, when Japan took control again until 1945. The company was eventually nationalised by Mao after the communist takeover in 1949. It is now largely owned by the Chinese state and Asahi Beer. First exported in 1954, it is China’s most widely exported beer, being available in 90 countries. It remains very popular domestically, too. But it isn’t the only beer by a long shot and it isn’t the most popular in Guangxi. That is, without question, 漓泉啤酒 (lí quán pí jiǔ), Liquan Beer, brewed in Guilin and named after the River Li which flows through that city. It has an 80% market share in Guangxi. Like almost all beer in China, it is a light lager, coming in various strengths from 5 - 11% alcohol. Originally operated by a joint venture Chinese-Austrian company, it is now owned by Beijing Yanjing Beer Group, China’s largest. Until recently, the brewmaster was a German national. Probably the most popular in their range is ‘1998 Liquan’. This is not a vintage, but the beer is so named in honour of a certain Bill Clinton, who visited Guilin in that year. Liquan beer is considered to be the only suitable beer for Yangshuo’s beer fish dish, with both the water for the beer and the fish coming from the same river. When I first came to Liuzhou, there was a local brewery making 鱼峰啤酒 (yú fēng pí jiǔ ), named after a local landmark. The stuff was foul, weak and smelled of formaldehyde. I heard one person rudely and disparagingly refer to it as ‘peasant’s beer’ meaning only a poor peasant would buy it. It was very cheap. The peasants have better taste. The brewery closed twenty plus years ago. The main problem I had in the early days was getting a chilled beer. Chinese men are happy to drink the brew lukewarm. With summer temperatures heading for the 40℃s, I need my beer ice cold. Fortunately, after years of training, they are catching on and I have no trouble scoring some chilled refreshment. That said, I mainly drink beer at home. I don’t like drinking in Chinese company. Most people treat beer drinking as a competitive sport with drinking games and endless toasts. The first question you will be asked is “How many bottles can you drink?” I now refuse to play.

25. 黄姚古镇 (huáng yáo gǔ zhèn) Movie Poster - Fair Use As I mentioned in the last instalment, the 2006 movie The Painted Veil was largely filmed in Guangxi. Only the Shanghai and London scenes were not – they were both shot in Shanghai. As I noted the river scenes were shot in Yizhou, leaving only the town where the couple lived and the hospital where they worked to be accounted for. These were shot in 黄姚古镇 (huáng yáo gǔ zhèn), Huangyao Ancient Town, which is in Hezhou (贺州 - hè zhōu) prefecture of eastern Guangxi. Many movies and television shows have been shot in this picturesque old town. The historic part of the town is around 1,000 years old and has changed little in that time. Today, it is quite a tourist destination, charging ¥100 per adult to visit (¥50 per child between 120 – 140 cm tall. Over 80s and kids 120 cm and under accompanied by a ticket holding adult go free.) More information here. Apart from the historical and general sightseeing attraction, the town is also of some culinary significance. The stuffed tofu I mentioned in the first post is considered to be a local speciality and the town is known for high grade soy beans and especially fermented black beans 豆豉 (dòu chǐ). But two products in particular stand out. Huangyao Fermented Black Beans 黄姚豆腐 (huáng yáo dòu fu) This literally just means ‘Huangyao Tofu’ but refers to a rather special type of fried then braised bun. Tofu made using water from the local well is crumbled and mixed with half-fat minced pork. This mixture is shaped into buns and half-fried. It is then braised in fermented bean sauce. It is claimed the Song Dynasty poet, 苏东坡 (sū dōng pō) (1037-1101) praised the dish in his writings, despite no one seeming to be able to quote the relevant passage although he was known as an early travel and food writer. The Hangzhou dish, Dongpo Pork is named in his honour. Almost every restaurant and café in the town serves the dish. "Huangyao Tofu" Hangyao Lobster Sauce In Chinese, “lobster sauce” is not a sauce made using lobsters, but a sauce suitable for serving with lobsters. Miles from the sea, there are not many lobsters in the town. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the Sichuanese “fish-flavoured” dishes, none of which include fish, but do contain ingredients often cooked with fish. Huangyao lobster sauce is only sold locally. It is made from fermented soy beans, the local speciality. It does not appear to be sold commercially but is widely available in the town. I do recommend the movie, but the original 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham is much better. The story was not originally set in Guangxi (or Shanghai). Although fictional, the historical and social background is realistic.

24. 血肠 (xuè cháng) 血肠 (xuè cháng), blood sausage is made and consumed in most parts of China from Hunan to Xinjiang (horse blood sausage a speciality) to the ethnically Korean community in Jilin province. I’ve tried most of them, but my favourite are from right here in Guangxi. 宜州 (yí zhōu) is a small city in Guangxi’s Hechi prefecture which borders Liuzhou. Movie fans may have seen it. The river scenes in The Painted Veil, directed by John Curran and starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton were filmed in Yizhou. In fact, most of the movie was filmed in Guangxi, but not Guilin as many suppose. Yizhou, Guangxi - 广西宜州市 Liuzhou to Yizhou is approx 100km / 62 miles – about 1¼ hours by car. Every morning in the cool months, this lady travels here with her trolley which contains a gas tank and burner. She sets up and sells her steaming 宜州血肠 (yí zhōu xuè cháng) - Yizhou Blood Sausages, a local speciality, to office workers and passing foreigners. Her wares are made from fresh pigs’ blood and glutinous rice and taste remarkably similar to good Stornoway black pudding from Scotland, although they don't use rice and the spicing is different. The sausages freeze well if you remove the casing (it hates the cold). Yizhou Blood Sausage

Finally, I get something with a bit of spicy heat in a Chinese hospital. Perusing the menu app I noticed their take on 辣子鸡 (là zi jī), my favourite Sichuan dish of chicken with chilli peppers. I clicked! At noon today, it arrived for lunch as requested. The green chillies wouldn't pass muster in Sichuan, but it was good and spicy. With rice, natch.

23. 八宝饭 (bā bǎo fàn) 八宝 (bā bǎo) is an expression you quickly get used to seeing and hearing in China. It literally means ‘eight treasures’ and is applied to all sorts of things, especially foods. Eight treasure congee may or may not contain exactly eight ingredients. Neither might eight treasure soup or eight treasure picked vegetables or eight treasure tea. It generally just means a selection of ingredients. Eight is just their favourite lucky number. I first met today’s offering in a Miao peasant farmer’s home in the middle of nowhere in the Guangxi countryside. I’ll never forget it. Basically it was (is) a dessert dish of glutinous rice flavoured with unrefined cane sugar, peanuts, lotus seeds, sesame seeds, fox nuts, wolfberry (goji), jujubes etc. It is a favourite at the luni-solar New Year festivities. It certainly reinforced in my mind that glutinous rice is often called sticky rice. This was like eating mouthfuls of superglue. I couldn’t get my mouth open and could feel the rice lying on my stomach wall for hours after I ingested it. It is usually home-made, but occasionally can be bought pre-cooked in the market. Bundles can be seen in my picture. You may take it that this is not a recommendation – unless you have a crush on your orthodontist.

Dinner: 鸡汤 (jī tāng) - Chicken Soup (Very meaty) 香菇炒鸡肉 (xiāng gū chǎo jī ròu) - Stir Fried Chicken with Shiitake Sort of overdid the chicken when I ordered.

@JeanneCake I have learned that although the hospital does not employ a nutritionist directly, a woman fulfills that role freelance with the hospital's cooperation, charging the patients directly.

22. 油茶 (yóu chá) I’ll probably lose my honorary citizenship if I miss out this culturally important part of the local cuisine. In 2008, 油茶 (yóu chá) or oil tea was listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guangxi. All of the ethnic minorities claim it as their own and the Han majority are known to sometimes indulge. Depending on where you find yourself, you may hear it referred to as Dong Oil Tea; elsewhere Miao Oil Tea or Yao Oil Tea. Yao oil tea made headlines in 2019 when it set a Guinness World Record with 2,019 people making oil tea simultaneously. Oil Tea Ingredients The tourist trap city of Guilin even falsely claims it as its own. It isn’t exclusive to Guangxi either. Cross into Hunan and the Miao and Tujia there also claim it. Same in Guizhou. I’ve never heard of the Zhuang claiming it, but they certainly use it. All these groups’ oil tea is basically the same and they all agree on the name 油茶 (yóu chá) when using Chinese. Oil Tea Awaiting the Tea! I have written about this before, so some of you may have read parts of this on other topics. Sorry. Despite the unappealing name, I’ve grown to look forward to oil tea and its culture. It is essential for these ethnic minorities to welcome guests with the dish. I say dish because it ain’t a cup of tea. Instead it is more like a soup. And it isn’t oily. Oil Tea Camellia tree seeds are pressed to make tea seed oil, which is used both as a cooking oil and as the basis for the oil tea. This oil is used to fry regular tea leaves, green or black according to preference. I find black tea (which the Chinese call ‘red tea’) is the more common. The fried tea leaves are then used to make tea in the usual manner, by adding hot water and leaving it to steep. When the tea is suitably done, the leaves are scooped out using a bamboo scoop (see below). Green onions, ginger, garlic and salt are usually added but not so much by the Miao. Sometimes, pork offal is cooked in the tea, then discarded. Cooked glutinous rice is dried in the sun then fried in the same tea seed oil which causes it to puff up in a similar manner to popcorn. Peanuts and soybeans are also stir-fried. It is then served as shown above. It is considered polite to partake of a minimum of two bowls of the tea. Your host will keep replenishing your bowl until you make it clear you are definitely done. The tea tastes a little bitter on first tasting, but then the rice and peanuts etc kick in and mellow it out. Oil Tea Scoop It certainly keeps social life flowing among these minority people. Preparing Oil Tea in a Restaurant

21. 南宁中山路美食街 (zhōng shān lù měi shí jiē) In case anyone is concerned about my sore lack of seafood, let me take you on a trip to 中山路美食街 (zhōng shān lù měi shí jiē), Zhongshan Road Culinary Delicacy Street, the most popular food street in Guangxi's capital, Nanning. Every night from around 6 pm, it is packed with people snacking on freshly cooked seafood. I have captioned nothing and present it in random order, which is how it goes in the street. and many more...

I meant that the photo doesn't look so good.

Lunch - 蒸饺 (zhēng jiǎo) - Steamed Dumplings (with pork and shiitake).

肉粥 (ròu zhōu) There is, I'm sure, no way to make congee look good. This was pork congee and my breakfast. Very good it was, too.

It has long been a staple of TCM and folk medicine. My late wife's favourite, too.

Same with me and passion fruit. I remember exactly where I saw the flowers first and thought (still think) they were so beautiful. Although I like the fruit, it pales beside the flowers.

The dish which comes to my mind most closely matching your description is indeed 茄子皮蛋 (qié zi pí dàn), a relatively mild Sichuan dish, usually employing just a little green chilli pepper. It also makes use of sesame paste, which may account for the sweetness you mention. I have recipes in Chinese for the dish and would be happy to summarise the ingredients and general method, if you think it is what you are after. Just let me know. Alternatively, search for 茄子皮蛋 on the search engine of your choice and it should list Chinese language recipes (with pictures). If any appeals to you as being close to what you are looking for, send me the address.

20. 生蚝 (shēng háo), 牡蛎 (mǔ lì), 海蛎 (hǎi lì), 蚵仔 (é zi) Thousands of 生蚝 (shēng háo) oysters are eaten every day across Guangxi. Every day two women sit in the main seafood market shucking the molluscs. Yes, they deliver to the restaurants pre-shucked losing all the internal juices. The other names listed above are alternatives in different parts of China. The last is only used in Taiwan. Oyster Shuckers - Liuzhou Very few, if any, of those oysters are sold as I like to eat them. The general Chinese reluctance to eat anything raw goes into overdrive at the mention of oysters. Restaurants refuse to sell me raw oysters, fearing lawsuits when I surely drop dead after the first one. That is when they finally realise I’m being serious. They think I’m joking when I ask for them raw with a lemon. Only once, have I managed to persuade a roadside stall holder to serve me a plate and he watched very nervously, then was amazed to see me still alive the next evening, when he refused to repeat the experience. Grilled Oyster Vendor in Laibin, Guangxi. His oysters are farmed in 湛江 (zhàn jiāng) in neighbouring Guangdong. So, I have to eat them at home. No hardship. I can buy them easily enough to take home. I get both wild ‘caught’ and farmed and can also save money by buying them in bulk boxes. They keep well wrapped in a damp towel in the fridge. The locals like to bury them in finely chopped garlic and grill them or, in restaurants, often cover them in fake fake cheese and grill that. By “fake fake” cheese I mean they use local copies of Kraft slices which, in my book, isn’t cheese in the first place. I’m surprised you call it American cheese; most countries would be ashamed to admit it! Fake Fake Cheese Anyway, I wouldn’t put good cheese on oysters either. I am a firm believer in the cheese and seafood don’t mix rule! But then, I am also the kind of person who thinks that the same cheese on a burger ruins the burger. I’m a cheese lover. Sacrilege I treat them with respect, shucking them myself immediately before eating, always careful to keep the internal juices, then hold them momentarily on ice until they are all ready. Unshucked Shucked and on Ice I then eat them with a little lemon or lime juice or with nothing depending on my mood. I did manage to persuade one young friend to try one. She didn't die, found the experience pleasant enough, but is still reluctant to repeat the experience. Pity. I have been eating these oysters here, every week in season, for over 20 years and never got sick once. (He writes from hospital, although my current condition is non-oyster related. They aren't on the hospital menu app, that I have noticed. In fact it's an exclusion zone for seafood of any kind. 😭 )

I messed up dinner and missed the deadine for ordering (which I hadn't been told about). Sweet talking a nurse led to me getting a meal on condition that I accepted whatever the kitchen sent - a risky proposition, but one I had no choice but to accept. I'm sure what they sent is not on the menu in this format. It was a bit of everything they happened to have, but actually quite good. Stir fried chicken with onion, Chinese yam, carrots, wood-ear fungus, potato. Rice. More than I could eat. Equivalent of $1.50 USD. All tomorrow's meals have been ordered.

Breakfast this morning was a winner. 小笼包 (xiǎo lóng bāo).