liuzhou

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.

Glad to have you and this topic back. The Scot in me feels obliged to point out that Scotland produces 'whisky'; not 'whiskey'. This is not mere pedantry or a case of a simple spelling disparity betweeh British and American English.. The Scots (and the Japanese) consider whisky and whiskey to be two different drinks. They are made from different ingredients in a different manner. The Irish aren't sure!

48. 一点红 (yī diǎn hóng) / 叶下红 (yè xià hóng) 一点红 (yī diǎn hóng) or 叶下红 (yè xià hóng), Emilia sonchifolia, also known as lilac tasselflower or by many other names, is probably native to east Asia, but naturalised in all the world’s tropics. The Chinese names both refer to ‘a drop of red’, this presumably being in respect of the flowers. Considered a weed most places, it is used both medicinally and culinarily in China. It is always foraged from the wilds. 一点红 (yī diǎn hóng) Medicinally, it is used to treat snake bites, as well as fever, sore throats and diarrhea. In the dining room, the young leaves are served as a green vegetable, usually stir-fried. I’ve also had it in a broth with century egg – a nice dish accompanying Zhuang Lemon Duck in Nanning. The leaves are always picked before the plant flowers and can be eaten raw in salads, but the Chinese don’t do that.

They are usually served just as is - sauceless. A fuller description of the oil tea appears in this earlier post.

Congee, also spelled conjee or conji is actually an Indian word. It comes from the Tamil word 'kanji' meaning the water the rice was boiled in. It was borrowed into English in the 17th century, possibly via Portuguese. I'd guess the Taiwanese you heard using 'congee' picked it up from English. Congee in its modern meaning and 粥 - zhōu are the same. Zhou is also used in Taiwan - most Taiwanese use Mandarin, but it is muê (糜) in Taiwanwese and may have yet other names in other native dialects. It is 'jook' in Cantonese - 'zuk1' in jyutping transliteration.

The Last Supper (hopefully). I passed my tests and will be going home at 9 am tomorrow morning. 香菇炒鸡 (xiāng gū chǎo jī) - Stir-fried chicken and shiitake. Served with rice and stir-fried Chinese cabbage.

47. 巴马瑶族自治县 (bā mǎ yáo zú zì zhì xiàn) 河池 Hechi (hé chí) prefecture lies to the west of Liuzhou and borders Hunan and Guizhou to its north. The prefecture has an 85.23% ethnic minority population (2021) including the only 毛南族 (máo nán zú) Maonan ethnic group and 仫佬族 (mù lǎo zú) Mulao ethnic group autonomous counties in China. The Maonan population numbers a mere 107,166, being one of China's smallest ethnic minorities, while the Mulao is 207,352 (2018 figures). These two groups live alongside the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Dong, Shui and Han peoples. Over 67% of the population are Zhuang. South-west of Hechi city, close to the border with Baise prefecture lies 巴马瑶族自治县 (bā mǎ yáo zú zì zhì xiàn), Bama Yao Autonomous County, home to the Yao minority. The county is famous within China for being the location of the largest longevity cluster in China and one of the world’s largest. With a population of only around 240,000, the county has more than 80 residents over the age of 100 (as of 2021). The official standard for longevity set by The United Nations is over 75 centenarians per million people. Of course, scientists have investigated why so many people reach these ages, without any definite answer being reached. The people do live simple lives in relatively unpolluted areas and work hard physically. Their diet is simple and largely consists of vegetables. Only at important festivals do they break out the meat, favouring roast suckling pig. Bama Suckling Pig Hemp seed also features heavily in their diet, being added to their rice porridge etc and is also processed to provide their main cooking oil. Hemp Seeds Basically cannabis, but a form negligibly low in tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC), the active agent in the stoners’ lifestyle. The local water supply has been examined for clues with no significant results, although this hasn’t stopped a Nanning company selling Bama bottled water to the gullible seekers of long-life, something particularly valued in Chinese culture. I'm guessing the key factor is probably genetic, something the visitors can't buy into. The local authorities are also cashing in, turning the area into a Disney-esque longevity theme park with thousands of tourists destroying what they came to see. I’ve never been. They mainly survive on c@rn! My longevity would be severely curtailed!

46. 早饭 (zǎo fàn) Breakfast, 早饭 (zǎo fàn), we are told, is the most important meal of the day. Maybe, but it’s also when people tend to be most conservative. When travelling in foreign parts, many of us are excited to get down with the locals over lunch and dinner. Breakfast, maybe not so much. My breakfast instincts run to bread (toasted) and eggs. Real bacon (i.e. British or Irish). A good sausage, perhaps. Black pudding. In China, I have had to overcome my instincts. I’ve tried ersatz versions of western breakfasts with mixed results. Chinese Soy Cured Bacon with Eggs and Mushrooms - Home Made Bread Tourists can usually find poor imitations of western breakfasts in their hotel buffets. Your fried egg may have been cooked the night before and the bacon is sure to be limp and cold, but hey ho! It’s proper breakfast. The toast will be cake and the butter rock hard. The coffee will be straight from Mr Nestlé’s jar. In the meantime, Chinese guests will be enjoying something very different. So, the question is what? What do the Guangxi people eat for breakfast if it isn’t bacon and eggs? The most popular round here is probably 油条 (yóu tiáo) with 豆奶 (dòu nǎi). 油条 (yóu tiáo), dough sticks are a simple batter formed into long batons and deep fried in very hot oil. It is served warm, often cut into pieces with scissors. The accompanying 豆奶 (dòu nǎi) is soy bean milk, served warm. Very popular with the locals. I don’t mind the sticks of dough, but you can keep the milk. Youtiao (Doughstick) and Dounai (Soy Milk) The dough sticks are also sometimes served with 粥 (zhōu), aka 稀饭 (xī fàn). This is grain porridge – most often rice porridge. You probably know it as congee, a word from Tamil. At its most basic, it is 白粥 (bái zhōu) which is simply plain rice cooked down to porridge consistency in water. Some people like this, but most pep their porridge up with additional items: minced lean pork, chicken, seafood, century eggs, green vegetables, pumpkin, etc. Century Egg and Minced Pork Rice Porridge Black rice may be used or the grains could be millet or mung beans (not technically a grain, I know). Other grains and combinations of grains are possible. See here. Also, popular are 包子 (bāo zi) or steamed stuffed buns. This is as near to bread as you are likely to get. Unstuffed buns, called 馒头 (mán tou) are also popular, if slightly less so. Over the years I’ve become quite partial to 包子 (bāo zi) for breakfast, especially 肉包 (ròu bāo), which are stuffed with minced pork. There is a list of varieties in this post. Baozi Mantou In addition, 小笼包 (xiǎo lóng bāo) are popular. Xiaolongbao literally means ‘small basket buns’ and consist of tiny bite sized baozi, usually pork but also sometimes crab. They often get confused or conflated with Shanghai’s soup dumplings, but they are more accurately known as 汤包 (tāng bāo). Xiaolongbao Dumplings, either 饺子 (jiǎo zi) or wontons, 馄饨 (hún tun) or 云吞 (yún tūn) are also eaten for breakfast, the former steamed or boiled, and both often in soups. Wonton noodle soup is findable, but not huge here. Wontons in Soup Noodles in soup though, are very popular. Liuzhou people will eat 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn) for breakfast, but more often go for less powerfully flavoured noodles such as 桂林米粉 (guì lín mǐ fěn) etc. Fresh Pork Noodles for Breakfast In ethnic minority and tourist areas such as Guilin city, you are going to be offered oil tea, 油茶 (yóu chá) for breakfast. Go for it! Oil Tea - Guilin Other breakfast items include 豆花 (dòu huā, literally 'bean flower' or 'tofu flower'), a very soft, jellified form of tofu served as a desert. It comes in a white form, often with a ginger based sauce or with a black sesame sauce. This is one for the sweet toothed. Tofu Flower Desert The famous 煎饼 (jiān bǐng) pancakes from northern China, particularly Beijing are not that common here. People seem to prefer 葱花饼 (cōng huā bǐng), scallion pancakes. 葱花饼 (cōng huā bǐng), scallion pancakes Most of these breakfast dishes are sold by an army of street vendors who turn up at dawn and hang around until after 9 am selling to people on their way to work. Most restaurants tend not to open until around 10 am, although you will be able to find your rice porridge or noodle fix. Breakfast Sales - Liuzhou Porridge Lady - Liuzhou I can’t go without mentioning the king of breakfasts. Being in an area heavily influenced by Cantonese cuisine, of course we have 饮茶 (yǐn chá) or ‘morning tea’ establishments. I guess many thought I was going to say Dim Sum, but the name of the meal is 饮茶 (yǐn chá) in Mandarin; or 飲茶, in the traditional characters used in Hong Kong. It is Yum Cha in Cantonese and means ‘drink tea’. Dim sum (点心 / 點心 (diǎn xin in Mandarin)) is the food eaten as a Yum Cha meal. These places open as early as 5 am and by noon it’s usually all over. They get very busy (mostly with elderly people) and are incredibly noisy. If it’s your thing, you will get your fill of har gow, siu mai, lo bak go, cheong fun and many other dishes to help your tea go down. There is a good introduction to dim sum here. Personally, I find the experience over-rated, but you may well disagree. If you are travelling on to Hong Kong, I’d wait till you get there.

I eat duck eggs all the time. Anything you can do with a chicken egg can be done with a duck's to advantage. Additionally, they are great salted or as tea eggs. etc. I posted about duck eggs just yesterday, here.

晚餐 (wǎn cān) Dinner: 芹菜鱿鱼 (qín cài yóu yú) - Squid with Celery

中饭 - Lunch (Monday) 茄椒闷鱼块 (qié jiāo mēn yú kuài) - Tomato and Chilli Braised Fish (no idea what kind of fish, almost certainly freshwater, but not bad, at all. 节瓜肉 (jiē guā ròu) - Waxed Gourd with Pork - I actually ordered this by mistake. Had it yesterday! 青菜 (qīng cài) - Statutory Unidentified Greenery Some good news (probably). If the results of a test tomorrow are satisfactory (as expected), I'll be going home on Wednesday!

45. 火锅 (huǒ guō) Hotpot Advertisement - Mala Fish Hotpot, Organic Chicken Hotpot, Lamb Hotpot, Dog Hotpot. Eating out in China is nearly always a communal event and by far the most popular way to do so is by getting stuck into some 火锅 (huǒ guō), literally ‘fire pot’, but known in English, of course, as hot pot or hotpot. This is especially so as we get into autumnal weather and winter. Of course, hot pots are not confined to Guangxi; they are popular all over China. The two most famous are Mongolian and Sichuan/Chongqing* hotpots and these are both available here with the latter being the more popular. However, both in restaurants and in the home, the locals like to include many of the foodstuffs I have already mentioned here, as the part of the meal. Liuzhou Hotpot Restaurant For anyone who doesn’t know how Chinese hot pots work, a quick summary. A pot of boiling broth is placed in the centre of the table (nearly always circular) and various food items are cooked by the diners therein. The list of possible ingredients is virtually limitless. Sichuan style hotpot often uses a 鸳鸯锅 (yuān yang guō), a two compartment pot and utilises a ‘red’ and a ‘white’ broth side by side. The ‘red’ is fiery hot from chillies and Sichuan peppercorn whereas the ’white’ is more or less chilli free. Take your pick. Yuanyang - Two Chamber Hotpot Dish Liuzhou hotpot is closer to the Sichuan style than to Mongolian, but has its own twists in the choice of ingredients. Here is a partial list of available vegetables from one such local hot point joint. I have excluded the major proteins as they tend to be universal: beef, lamb / mutton, shrimp, fish, seafood, duck, chicken, frog, rabbit, dog etc. Surprisingly rarely pork, although offal is common. Sliced Mutton for Hotpot - It cooks in seconds. Not all hot pots come in a full broth; many are in a more dry format, such as this frog hotpot. * It is disputed but many say that Sichuan hotpot originated in Chongqing. It is kind of irrelevant because at that time, Chongqing was part of Sichuan anyway. It was separated in 1987. The hotpot does, however also get called Chengdu hotpot after Sichuan's capital.

I'm not sure it's 2000s. There have always been ignorant boors. Maybe getting worse, though.

I find the deep frying adds crust enough.

I most certainly don't use c@rnstarch!! Sichuan might use potato starch. I don't think this dish needs it

I'd definitely add the Shaoxing. My omission. I don't add salt as the soy sauce is salty enough. I don't add sugar because I never add sugar. Seldom use MSG either. The dish is strongly flavoured without it.

@Smithy I was editing as you were reading. I've added a few remembered details.

It's a dish I make often at home. I follow Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe in Land of Plenty or the newer Sichuan Cookery, but that recipe is not online. Basically, from memory, chicken meat (in Sichuan that would be on the bone, but boneless breast or, better, leg meat would be OK). The meat is diced to about 1 to 2 cm cubed, marinated briefly in soy sauce and deep fried to sear. Remove chicken and clean wok. For one breast or equivalent of meat, 50 grams of halved and deseeded, dried Sichuan peppers and a tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns are stir fried with garlic until fragrant and the chicken returned to the pan, Add scallions until wilted and serve. It seems like a lot of chilli, but they aren't to be eaten. They do however, give the chicken a spectacular appearance and wonderful flavour.

晚餐 (wǎn cān) Dinner: 四李豆炒肉 (sì lǐ dòu chǎo ròu ) Green Bean Stir-fried Pork 辣子鸡 (là zi jī) Chicken with Chilli - I'm using this almost like a garnish these days. It's the only thing on the menu with a bit of a kick. 青菜 (qīng cài) Stir-fried Greens

44. 钦州海鸭蛋 (qīn zhōu hǎi yā dàn) When they are not busy waxing apples and skinning cucumbers as mentioned here, the people of 钦州 (qīn zhōu) are more occupied with raising oysters. In fact, the city is known as China’s oyster capital. Raised on ropes in Qinzhou’s natural harbour of the 135 square kilometre / 52 square mile, 茅尾海岛 (máo wěi hǎi dǎo), Maoweihai Island which forms the largest oyster breeding base in south China. A few years ago, they sold around 32,000 pounds of oysters a day, but now that has risen to 100s of thousands and is still rising. Regular oysters are a year old, but they also raise some for up to two and a half years by which time they are a man’s palm size or larger. Qinzhou oysters are noted for their pure white flesh. While you're in the area you may get sight of the rare white dolphins that live in the off-lying waters. Qinzhou Oysters But I’ve already talked about Guangxi and oysters. This time I want to mention something different which I’ve been buying regularly for years. Qinzhou’s mangroves are home to a variety of free-range sea ducks. Their eggs are larger than the average duck egg, ranging up to 80 grams each as opposed to the 60 to 70 which is more common. They are also richly flavoured with deep yellow yolks. Newly gathered sea duck eggs These are often in my breakfast boiled, fried or scrambled. make good omelettes, too Boiled Sea Duck Eggs The eggs are sold fresh as well as being salted by steeping in salt water for between 30 and 50 days. Method here. Salted Sea Duck Eggs Qinzhou Salted Sea Duck Eggs In addition, the eggs are made into a type of century egg and are marinated in a red mud then roasted. Red Mud Roasted Sea Duck Eggs I mainly buy the fresh eggs, but have happily tried all varieties. Incidentally, supermarkets and markets here routinely carry a much wider range of eggs than I was used to in the west. In descending order of size, goose (鹅蛋 - é dàn), duck (鸭蛋 -yā dàn), chicken (鸡蛋 -jī dàn), pigeon (鸽蛋 - gē dàn) and quail (鹌鹑蛋 - ān chún dàn). I very occasionally see ostrich eggs (驼蛋 - tuó dàn). My favourite egg dish (with duck or chicken eggs) is scrambled eggs with Tonkin jasmine. I can hear some of you asking "What's that? Tonkin jasmine (Telosma cordata) goes under many names such as pakalana vine, Tonkinese creeper, Chinese violet, cowslip creeper, telosoma etc. In Chinese it is 夜香花 - yè xiāng huā or 夜来香 - yè lái xiāng. It is a flowering plant native to Guangdong and Guangxi of China and also cultivated in Vietnam (on the Gulf of Tonkin, hence the name.) It has a delicate lemony scent and is used in both southern Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine (where it is known as bông thiên lý.) It is usually stir fried, often with eggs, with which it has a particular affinity, or is boiled in soups, often with fish. It is also added to many noodle dishes in Vietnam.

43. 快餐 (kuài cān) The pervasive arm of American fast food reached China way back in 1990, when McDonald's, known locally as 麦当劳 (mài dāng láo), opened their first store in Shenzhen in 1990. Soon after their Tian'anmen branch in Beijing was the largest McD's in the world. By 2020, the company had 3,300 outlets and was planning to double that by today. Covid prevented that rise although new stores did open. McDonald's first store in Liuzhou - there are now several 肯德基 (kěn dé jī),KFC followed along, opening its first Chinese store in Beijing on Tian’anmen Square in 1993. Today they are everywhere with over 4,000 outlets in almost 800 cities, as it opens a new restaurant almost every day. One of many KFCs in Liuzhou It has not however been a smooth ride for either company. KFC had to apologise for including a carcinogenic dye in one product and McD’s had issues with not-for-human-consumption meats. Yet they both remain successful. They mainly cater to children in China, offering birthday parties to the middle classes and awarding toys with every meal, so much so that KFC has recently been criticised by the state for promoting food waste, as parents were buying meals just to get the toys for their brats then throwing them away – the meals. Not the brats or the toys, unfortunately! YumFoods (terrible name) owners of KFC, also own Pizza Hut (必胜客 - bì shèng kè) which has a presence here serving fake Italian-style food and god-awful pizzas and they even bought out the originally Inner Mongolian hotpot chain, Little Sheep (known in China as 小肥羊 (xiǎo féi yáng) or ‘Little Fat Sheep’. The ‘Fat’ was dropped for the American market. I wonder why.) One of the Pizza Huts in Liuzhou All these chains have adapted their menus to local tastes, especially KFC, selling congee for breakfast for example and McDs was laughed out of town by offering what it called Sichuan sauce with its fries. It was as Sichuanese as maple syrup. But, of course, China has replied with its own versions, often just copying the menus and even decoration of the originals. 开心吧 (kāi xīn bā, Happy Bar), a Liuzhou chain, is the most successful local version, mimicking everything KFC does, but at a slightly lower price. Happy Bar with Dishonest Slogan. I don't like it! One street in the city centre, popular with young people in the evenings, is lined with fast food stalls selling grease on sticks. There are two kinds food on sticks here. The first is made over charcoal, mainly by people from Xinjiang, and is wonderful. The second is made by anyone over a metal hotplate swimming in grease and is horrible. Yet they get busy selling bad chicken, overcooked squid and mechanically recovered meat sausage in batter and grease. Beats me.

早饭 (zǎo fàn) - Breakfast: I happily reverted to my century egg and pork congee after yesterday's side step to green veg congee, but today I added a 油条 (yóu tiáo) deep fried dough stick. Along with two pork buns. 中饭 (zhōng fàn) - Lunch 酸姜炒鸭 (suān jiāng chǎo yā) - Pickled Ginger Stir-fried Duck (again) 节瓜肉 (jiē guā ròu) - Wax Gourd with Pork 米饭 (mǐ fàn) - Rice

Soft, sticky, doughy.

Dinner： 茄子肉末 （qié zi ròu mò) Eggplant /aubergine with miced pork. 素炒苦瓜 (sù chǎo kǔ guā) Stir-fried Bitter melon 米饭 (mǐ fàn) Rice Eggplant with Minced Pork Bitter Melon Dinner