liuzhou

Not in my experience. They are salted and vinegared at the point of sale and not before. Just as well, as I don't take vinegar on mine.

St Andrews, my birthplace and childhood home. Fisher and Donaldson is a local legend. Wonderful bakery.

It is worth pointing out that very few fish and chip places sell the notorious deep-fried Mars bar and most of them sell them to foreign tourists. The natives not so much. Bit like all the clowns in Yangshuo eating snake bile glands because that's what the locals do. Except the locals never touch them.

One of Scotland's healthier inventions. Bad pizzza battered and deep fried.

Welcome to the UK. That is standard.

As an avowed Caledophile, I can say that haggis crisps taste nothing like the delights of real haggis.

52. 烤鱼 (kǎo yú) I surrender. The list refuses to give up. About 6 years ago, there was a sudden craze for 烤鱼 (kǎo yú). It was sold in restaurants, but also in roadside shacks throughout the area. Groups of people would gather in the evenings over a few beers and order up their 烤鱼 (kǎo yú), sharing in its delights. Here is an example that I ate in a corrugated iron hut in the middle of nowhere, somewhere south of Liuzhou. What you see is probably a pile of vegetables, mainly bean sprouts, but buried under that mound of vegetables is the actual 烤鱼 (kǎo yú) – roast fish. Normally, the fish is grilled whole 罗非鱼 (luó fēi yú), tilapia and depending on the size of your group, there will be be one or more of the critters. The dish bears the influence of Sichuan, being spicy with 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng) and chilli peppers. Luxury versions sometimes include snails. Tilapia The vegetation usually includes cow peas, garlic, ginger, greens and I can spot some lizard's tail, aka chameleon plant, heartleaf, or fishwort, Cordata Houttuynia, a local favourite. In Chinese, it is 鱼腥草 (yú xīng cǎo), which literally translates as “fish smell grass”. Taro is also often added. Lizard's Tail With the weather turning chilly, a quite a few tilapia will be be going to bed in a mess of bean sprouts over the next couple of months or more. It hasn't lost any popularity.

‘Surprisingly tasty’: putting Neanderthal cooking to the test

Tonight, I made my first dinner in over a month. Kept it simple. Pan fried pork tenderloin (brined), rice and a salad of 'a drop of red' leaves with a lemony dressing.

What will turn up next?

Same in the UK

Today, I was delighted to lay my hands on a half kilo of Jinhua ham offcuts and trimmings for a mere ¥31.57. This compares to the ¥140+ I would normally pay for an equivalent amount of sliced ham (or the ¥1,000 for a whole 3.5 kg ham), yet these bits and pieces are perfect for soups, sauces or even omelettes, salads etc.

I think she meant the company is Latvian, if not the fish.

51. 甲龟 (jiǎ guī) I should have guessed that as soon as I hung up my hat regarding Guangxi Cuisine, something would turn up which needed mention. Someone mentioned 甲龟 (jiǎ guī), turtles, something I never ate in the UK, (although there was ‘mock turtle soup’, whatever that was all about). However, I have made up for my turtle omission since arriving in Guangxi. It surprises visitors to see live turtles and terrapins crawling around tanks in my local supermarkets but they are a popular local choice. The reptiles are farmed locally under strict conditions to ensure quality and that food safety standards are maintained. Only a few farms are authorised to export the beasts, mainly to Singapore, although that represents a tiny proportion of the output, Annual domestic consumption is estimated to be between 130,000 – 150,000 tons. Singapore imports only an estimated 200 tons per annum. The turtle carries a load of symbolic meaning in Chinese mythology and culture, representing tranquillity, steadfastness, longevity, tenacity, endurance, wisdom and wealth among other attributes. For these reasons turtle soup is often served at wedding banquets. Turtle Soup at Wedding Banquet In fact, it’s just as well the turtles have the symbolism, because they don’t have much in the way of meat or flavour. If gelatinous, chewy textures appeal to you, as they do to many Chinese palates, then turtle is for you. There are streets here in Liuzhou where every restaurant is selling turtle. The soup is always served with the carapace (top shell), presumably to assure you it is real, although of course it does no such thing. They could have been reusing the same shell for years.

Thanksgiving menu at Plaza Hotel NYC, 1899: All in “cents.”

50. 菜单 (cài dān) Well, I can’t believe I got to 50 posts. I think I’ve exhausted my resources, so unless something pops up, I’ll call it a day here and finish by showing two typical locally flavoured menus (菜单 - cài dān). These aren't fine dining, but reasonably good quality family dining at a fair price. The first (Shatang1), I translated back in 2005 for a local restaurant I frequently frequented. The second (Shatang 3), is more just a list of dishes any restaurant should be able to put together. It was compiled and translated in 2016 from the menus of two adjacent restaurants near my home. Both feature local cuisine plus a scattering of ‘imports’ from other regions as, is Guangxi style. Please ignore the prices – they are way out of date. The files are in PDF format. Should you prefer DOCX or anything else reasonable, please let me know by PM and I'll do my best. Shatang 1.pdf Shatang 3.pdf

Heavier, but I guess the process is basically the same.

The list price has to be the actual price the product is offered at over a specified extended period. You can't go making stuff up.

Goodness. Is that legal? It wouldn't be in the UK or China, for that matter. I'm not au fait with the details of China, but in the UK, goods must have been offered at only a higher price for a specified number of days before any 'sale' price can be advertised. The details of that prior price and dates must also be included in the advertisement. Unless if they've changed it since I've stopped paying attention.

Made from rice. Negligible nutritional value, I'd guess. Ditto, roughage. Convenience. ✅

You can't compare Scotland and Canada. The scale is so different. Canada has almost 4 million square miles; Scotland has 78,000, much of which is mountainous. Of course, camp sites are more spacious in Canada. There is more Canada!

49. 梧州纸包鸡 (wú zhōu zhǐ bāo jī) Traditional 梧州纸包鸡 (wú zhōu zhǐ bāo jī) Another speciality of Wuzhou city is actually a Cantonese version of ‘en papillote’, the supposedly-French method of cooking meats or vegetables in a ‘paper’ bag. But with a difference. There are records of the technique being used at least 2,200 year ago as a tribute to the emperors’ court. In 203 BC, the state of Nanyue was founded with Panyu as its capital. Panyu later became Guangzhou, present-day capital of Guangdong (Canton). At the celebratory banquet at the time of the founding, 梧州纸包鸡 (wú zhōu zhǐ bāo jī), paper wrapped chicken was served as the main dish. Wuzhou’s first paper-duck chicken restaurant, 粤西楼 (yuè xī lóu)*, opened in 1916, before going on to domestic, then international fame. 100 years later, in 2016, the dish was included in Guangxi's Intanglible Culture list. Authentic Wuzhou paper-wrapped chicken utilises local free-range 黄毛鸡 (huáng máo jī), ’yellow chickens’, so-called due to their feather colour. These birds are raised for 120 days before being sent to the kitchen, as opposed to around 40 days maximum for regular broilers. The birds are chopped up on-the-bone and marinaded in dark soy sauce with ginger juice, star anise, fennel seed, tangerine peel, red grain rice, scallions and other seasonings.. White rice wine is added and the chicken wrapped in small bundles with edible paper. These are then fried with peanut oil and served. Each diner gets their own bag. Traditional 梧州纸包鸡 (wú zhōu zhǐ bāo jī) Today, the dish tends to be made more in a French en papillote style – one dish cooked in a bag for every table. The bag is also more likely to be foil than actual paper. I prefer the old way, but I guess the emperors had more disposable cash and help than I do. Individual bags for hundreds of people would have been costly. Modern 梧州纸包鸡 (wú zhōu zhǐ bāo jī) *粤 (yuè) refers to the old union of what is now Guangdong and Guangxi. The restaurant’s name means ‘west yue’ which later became Guangxi.