liuzhou

It's the same in London. Suddenly Cantonese is the minority Chinese language there (as it is in China even more so.)

More important than the amount of oil is the temperature. Your description of 'sticking together' suggest to me the oil temp is too low. However, too little oil is worse than too much, at least in shallow frying. Chinese chefs scrupulously avoid adding more oil to a dish once they've started their stir-fries. As you've noted, the temperature drops (even further) and the dishes end up oily. Too much oil, especially in deep frying, is simply a waste and dangerous, too.

I'm going to take it that your third picture is of the cake also in your first. I do hope so, otherwise what I am about to say will be gibberish. I wouldn't translate the name 蜂巢糕 (fēng cháo gāo) as Bee Nest Cake. Its more common meaning would be Honeycomb Cake* which also seems to fit image No. 3 more. I'm hoping it was honey flavoured. * It also translates as 'bee hive' but that seems less apt. The cake resembles the steamed sponge cake we get around here and mentioned here. Your second cake, 杞子桂花糕 (qǐ zǐ guì huā gāo), the goji berry and osmanthus cake, I haven't encountered although the two ingredients are a very common pairing. Osmanthius is huge here. The abbreviation for Guangxi is 桂 (guì) which is the Chinese character meaning 'osmanthus'. The name of the nearby tourist city of Guilin (桂林 - guì lín) literally means 'osmanthus forest'. That said, osmanthus is also very popular as a flavouring in Guangdong and Hong Kong, as is the steamed cake genre, so I'd bet on these being Cantonese / Hong Kong in origin.

I have to be careful buying duck eggs in local markets. Here are three. Not all the same. One is a salted egg, one is a century egg and the third a fresh egg. Which is which?

He was asking if it could be used with dried duck. I pointed out that I'd never heard of that being done. Thats all.

I was answering how people rehydrate dried duck here. Yes, its employable but few people, if any, use it.

i know but its not common here.

The dried shrimp smell (which isn't that bad) disappears when they are cooked. Total waste of wine. Steaming the duck doesn't only rehydrate it; it is also partially cooking it. Soaking it only does the first. I wouldn't.

Peking duck and Pekin duck are only confused in English. In fact, they were originally both the same till some not-so-bright spark came up with Pekin for the breed in order to reduce the confusion. One of modern life's great success stories. Not. Even worse is that neither the dish nor the breed originated in Beijing and certainly not anywhere called Peking. I wish I had a yuan for everytime I've been asked why and when the capital of China changed its name. It didn't. It has always been pronounced Beijing - all that changed was the transliteration system used in the west from the unreliable Wade-Giles to to the more accurate Pinyin. Peking was never officially accepted as the name, although Peking University is allowed to retain that name for use in English, due to its international fame. It is one of a handful of names not switched to Pinyin. Tsingtao Beer is actually Qingdao beer in China and Moutai, the strong spirit is Maotai in Pinyin. The duck breed's exact origin is uncertain but almost certainly somewhere in south-east Asia (perhaps China, but probably not), far from Beijing. It came to the atttention of the imperial court and slowly gained in popluarity. The dish, Beijing duck originated in Nanjing, the Ming Dynasty capital, then migrated to Beijing when the emperors relocated, establishing Beijing as the new capital. In Beijing, the dish became more available to those outside the court and rapidly gained popularity. It was then it was given the Beijing name. Regarding the lack of confusion in Chinese, the duck is called 北京鸭 (běi jīng yā), literally 'Beijing Duck' in Mandarin while the dish is always referred to as 北京烤鸭 (běi jīng kǎo yā ), literally Beijing Roast Duck. 北京烤鸭 ("Peking Duck") in a Chinese Walmart store Some Chinese ducks (10 hens and two drakes) were imported to the USA in 1872 and a breeding program put in place. This mostly took place on Long Island and gave rise to the American Pekin duck. At the same time ducks were imported to the UK. Some of the UK ducks found their way to Germany where they were bred. Today, nearly all Peking ducks in Europe are German Pekin. They have even been reimported to the UK. Chinese, American and German Pekins vary due to the different breeding programs utilised. The Chinese Pekins, as still used in Beijing's restaurants are, of course, the Chinese variety and are less fatty than the US and German types. Chinese Pekin Duck Legs My local shopkeeper with two live Pekin Ducks.

Yes, steam the meat then use it as you prefer. I first came across it when I lived in Hunan. There, people would fry the steamed meat with both green and red chillies and scallions. 25 years later, I still do the same. One favourite restaurant used the meat in a dry hotpot with potato and spices. It's an area of Chinese cuusine that hasnt been covered in English language books. Very little in Chinese, either. The internet has info but in Chinese. search Google for 鸭肉干.

Chef's treat: Rabbit liver, heart and kidneys. Lovely! Just fried in olive oil with salt and pepper.

None of your healthy stuff this morning. Bacon, mixed mushrooms (boletes and wild shiitake) fried tomato and two fried duck eggs.

Got some nice fresh 毛豆 (máo dòu) today. You probably know them better by the Japanese name, edamame.

I live in China, but I'm not Chinese; I'm British. No one knows the term 'dogsbody' here. The word was coined by sailors and took on currency in the 1920s. Girl Friday is from the 1940s, first used in Time Magazine.

Damn! I want skin and bone. It's the calcium, you know.

Dogsbody

Indeed, but I can't recommend choosing restaurants at random.

As a quick rule of thumb in Scotland, if you wander into a random fish and chip shop and there is a menu featuring deep fried pizzas or, heaven forbid, deep-fried Mars bars or burgers, then you are for sure in the wrong place. They obviously have no respect for food. There is almost certainly somewhere better nearby. Research is key. @Duvelfound the seafood shacks, but I'm afraid missed some great fish and chips. A short distance from St. Andrews and on a pleasant route to Perth would have been to stop in here, one of the best F&C places in the UK. Check out their menu. That is what a proper F&C menu looks like. Yes, it has pizza, but they're not deep fried. I'd stick to the seafood, though. And remember, everywhere has bad rip-off food.

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.