liuzhou

Although laphet can be made from black tea, in practice it isn't. The flavour is different and not what the Burmese are after. In fact, the article I first linked to mentions a black tea laphet but does stress it is very off-piste.

Thai-style mixed seafood fried rice. On the sea food front, it contained shrimp. squid, mussels and something nautical and familiar I couldn't pin down. I jazzed it up with some Thai Sriracha.

The dry ingredients were still rather warm and not mush, but they got from the restaurant to me in 9 minutes. The soup was still piping hot. I did have to loosen things up a bit after mixing the two, but not over much.

Evening meal 兰州拉面 （lán zhōu lā miàn). Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu Province in NW China and la mian is hand pulled noodles (and the forerunner of Japanese ramen). La mian is now available all over China, but Lanzhou is still considered the best. I ordered this from a small restaurant I know well, owned and staffed by a Lanzhou family. The noodles are hand pulled to order, providing a bit of theatre with your meal. Of course, I didn't get that this time. The Gansu population has a high percentage Muslim population, so pork is not on the menu. Ingredients are the noodles, beef, chilli flakes, chilli oil, chopped coriander leaf/cilantro, ginger, garlic. The dry ingredients were delivered in the eating dish and the beef broth came separately in an insulated bag to be applied at home. And jolly good it was - as always.

Today for lunch, I decided to give the squid another go. Slightly different preparation. This was billed as 爆炒香鱿鱼 I 游刃有余 (bào chǎo xiāng yóu yú I yóu rèn yǒu yú). The first part simply means "Stir fried tasty squid", althought the first two characters literally mean "exploding fried" which refers to very high heat stir frying. The second part is self praise for their knife skills, which, to be honest, aren't that impressive! Not bad, but not worthy of mention. I can do just as well, if not better. The flavour was good though and again the squid not overcooked. Ingredients were squid, fresh green peppers, dried red peppers, Chinese celery, ginger, garlic, Shaoxing wine. If there was soy sauce in there it was a tiny amount. Note: When I order, there is a box to click if you don't want the usual accompanying set of disposal cutlery - disposable bamboo chopsticks, plastic spoon, toothpick and napkin. I guess people at work or similar situations need such, but I'm at home now fully equipped. In hospital, I needed them. When I went mad in hospital and ordered a pizza, that came with a plastic knife and fork. However, they always ignore this request and send the damn things anyway - despite the request being clearly marked on the delivery note. I have read that Beijing alone gets through 2 million of these every day. I dread to think what the whole country gets through! Beijing isn't even the largest city.

There is a good DIY recipe here for laphet, which includes fermenting the leaves, then making a salad. Tea in various forms (not usually fermented) is eaten throughout SE Asia and southern China. Good stuff. Then, of course, there's matcha.

I'm thinking how to do a century egg version!

Yes, that was the first attraction.

That was the impression I got reading it. Apart from the baby food and prunes I can get everything else.

Me too, but in the UK, not all dried grapes are raisins. Hence my question. The ones you show we do, however, call raisins. The Chinese ones are green raisins. BTW, the yang mei are available both dried and fresh. Could use a mixture. I'm thinking around Christmas time.

Yes. Problem is that prunes are not that common round here. I might mush up some 杨梅 (yáng méi) - Myrica rubra, a local fruit instead. Nothing like prunes, but a nice bitter-sweet flavour. Could work. 杨梅 (yáng méi)

I might give that a try some day soon. First I need to thik of a sub for the baby food. And I'm not sure if what you call raisins are what I call raisins.

Is that plain flour in your recipe or ...?

Tunisian Soft Seed Pomegranates and Yunnan Green Skin Tangerines

I like rum. I like raisins. I like ice cream. But agree 100%. Together they are an abomination.

It means fresh from the paddy rice as opposed to aged rice. Mainly a meaningless marketing phrase, I suspect.

A naan bed, with 2 pilaus

Another day, another lunch. A popular dish locally. 黄豆焖鱼仔，稻香米饭，紫菜蛋花汤 (huáng dòu mèn yú zǎi, dào xiāng mǐ fàn, zǐ cài dàn huā tāng). Braised Fish with Yellow Soybeans, Paddy Fragrant Rice, Seaweed Egg Drop Soup (badly photographed as ever). (also Included tomato, garlic, ginger,chilli (red and green) One of my favourites.

They do breakfast, too. 肉包 (ròu bāo) - Pork Bun. One of two.

Dinner Shrimp and Squid Fried Rice I wasn't sure about ordering this. So many places overcook the squid, but I took a chance. It was a fraction more cooked than I would have preferred but acceptable; the shrimp were perfect. Followed by a Chocolate Lava Mooncake I had kicking around from Mid-Autumn Festival.

Lunch today These were billed as Thai Style Spring Rolls. Not at all bad. They they were filled with a curried minced pork mixture with separate carrots and black wood tree fungus. The little pot to the side contained a sweetish chilli sauce. I'm told there is a new Thai restaurant in the local food hall, which has been rated highly by my correspondent who knows her Thai. Unfortunately, it isn't doing deliveries, yet. But I wasn't disappointed by these in the meantime. .

When I moved from England to China in 1996, I only brought one cookbook. A Book of Middle Eastern Food. It is a wonderful read even if you don't eat that food!