liuzhou

I know next to nothing about Mexican food or cooking (way to much c@rn!), but that book is a delightful treasure. What a cookbook should be!

In addition to the usual KFC/McDs/Pizza Hut type fare and badly cooked, low quality steaks, we also get other options. To illustrate, I have selected a few offerings from (美团 - měi tuán), China's main delivery service. All these dishes are from local restaurants. Steak, fried egg and, of course, pasta. Is that c@rn I spy? Even better, serve the pasta unsauced I'm speechless Durian Cheese Waterfall Pizza (their description!) Fruit Pizza with Sweet Kewpie Mayo (of course) Hokkaido Chiken Pizza with Sweet Kewpie Mayo Mango and Shrimp Pizza with Sweet Kewpie Mayo Mango and Eel Pizza? They forgot the mayo! Ah! Here's the Sweet Kewpie Mayo on Mexican Tacos (no further decription offered). Eel Taco Spicy Beef Sandwich Low Fat Beef Sandwich (with more calories than the regular one?) Tuna Sandwich I'll stick to my 螺蛳粉！

What's under the smacked cucumber? Tomato?

My apologies. I have now fixed the link. My bad!

I went a bit more simple tonight. This is what the Chinese call 快餐 (kuài cān) or 'fast food'. 鸡炖蘑菇 (jī dùn mó gu) - Hunan style stewed chicken with mushrooms with 擂辣椒 (léi là jiāo) pounded chillies, served 盖码饭 (gě mǎ fàn) over rice. The overcooked cabbage wasn't mentioned. In addition to this I went for a 原始猪肉夹馍 (yuán shǐ zhū ròu jiá mó) - original pork rou jia mo, made with long stewed pork belly.

Neither do I, as I've said.

But if your fish is frozen and your batter isn't, you're going to run into problems.

Ex-member and food writer, Simon Majumdar has a podcast on this very subject, here. I haven't finished listening yet (it's 45 minutes long) but his regular podcasts are always well-researched, informative and interesting.

Most do. They don't last long otherwise. We are never far from the sea in the UK.

I wouldn't. Apart from the food safety issues, Freezing, thawing and refreezing negatively affects the texture of the fish.

But no one wants thin fish and chips, do they?

When @FauxPasposted a pic of a bottle of Shaoxing containing caramel, I reached out to an friend who is a Chinese wine writer for clarification. She passed my query on to someone more deeply immersed in Shaoxing technicalities. We await his opinion. In the meantime, my friend contacted me today to tell me to look out for a parcel she has sent me. I'm told this is the contents. Apparently, she has a few bottles lying around her office. A nice 20-year old Shaoxing. Looking forward to tasting.

I don't think anyone was denying that a lot of writers recommend dry sherry as a substitute. The question was more about, should they? A matter of opinion. All I am saying is that I don't think it's a great substitute. 1972 was 50 years ago. Things have moved on a bit. That said, I do think the salt is a big problem.

I've never used real maple syrup. so I'll pass. But thanks.

I went further afield today. Xinjiang, to be precise. Well, I didn't go, but my tastesbuds did. Xinjiang, for those who don't know, is China's troubled westernmost province. The local language is closer to Turkish than to Chinese. The original population is mostly Muslim, but in recent years thousands of Han Chinese have been settled there, upsetting the traditions. 新疆烤手工馕 （xīn jiāng kǎo shǒu gōng náng）A Xinjiang Flatbread with cumin, chilli, sesame seeds and salt. Accompanies almost every meal. The name nang is etymologically related to the naan bread of the Indian sub-continent and beyond. 新疆羊肉烤包子 (xīn jiāng yáng ròu kǎo bāo zi) Being Muslim, the locals don't eat pork, so mutton and beef are common. This is a Fried Mutton Bun. Delicious. 奶香肥牛串 (nǎi xiāng féi niú chuàn) Creamy Fatty Beef Skewers, again with cumin and chilli.. Nang Skewers Mutton Bun

Because in the former case the batter has adhered to the unfrozen fresh fish before being frozen, so the extra water content of the pre-frozen fish isn't a factor.

Sorry, but no. Even if the batter adhered (unlikely), the combined thawing and cooking time of the fish in the fryer would incinerate that batter.

I needed a teaspoon or two of fenugreek seeds for an Indian dish*, but could only buy half a kilo. I have enough seeds to feed the planet! *They are widely used in Indian cuisine.

Check out Boesenbergia rotunda on wikipedia.

I do not wish to unnecessarily prolong the discussion either, but you did ask and I was thinking of websites such as this of which there are plenty. To be clear, I have nothing against substitutions. I have to do it all the time with western foods. But I don't pretend I am replicating the dish as originally envisaged or even close.

Indeed, that is what gave rise to American-Chinese cuisine* in the first place. However, I just don't think that dry sherry is as close to Shaoxing as many writers seem to say. As for balsamic vinegar being a good substitute for Zhenjiang (Chinkiang in N. America) Vinegar, give me a break! *And British-Chinese etc.

That's pretty much what my butchers use for the major bones. Everything else is cleavered.

Absolutely. If I had to sub dry sherry for Shaoxing, I'd go bankrupt very quickly! I get through a bottle of cooking grade in two to three weeks.

I have a heavy duty cleaver for bones but still wouldn't attempt a pork shank bone. The local butchers don't either and their cleavers are heavier then mine. They saw them.