liuzhou

Having smelled fish sauce being made in both Vietnam and Thailand, I can tell you few people would want to do it at home, especially in an apartment building or near any other peoples' homes. Those vats are more typically used for soy sauce.

It suddenly struck me that I never mentioned my second strongest dislike. I never drink the mammary secretions of mammals (or any of their plant substitutes), although I love cheese and plain yoghurt, especially Greek style. I regularly make my own. I was reminded of this when I received this as a 'gift' when I bought a six-pack of beer - a proper drink, yesterday. Labelled 早餐奶 (zǎo cān nǎi), meaning 'breakfast milk', the ingredients, as translated by my cell phone* are I'd need to look back at what 'bunsen' and 'carafe' really should be, but I very sensibly binned the stuff before noticing. * I was too lazy to do the long list myself.

We've discussed this before but I'd say it depends on the dish and how highly flavoured the overall dish is. Generally, I do detect a difference between red and white, the only two I have access to.

窝窝头 (wō wo tóu), steamed nest buns stuffed with stir fried egg, mustard greens and chilli.

Ah! Another member of the Stupid Company Name Club. I see they've fallen for the Himalayan pink salt scam. too! Still bad writing though. Should the menu have read Sourdough and Ampers&nd Butter it may have been less confusing. Even just capitalising Ampersand might have helped. Thanks for the clarification.

A couple of days ago, I read something online about a London pub which was my local in the 1970s. It appeared from what I read that it is now a 'gastropub'. Back in the day, it was a fine pub but the only food you may have found would be a bag of salted peanuts. So, I look them up and their rather basic website had a link to a sample menu. I clicked and was told the link was invalid. But I could see that it wasn't really to a normal sample menu but to an old Christmas dinner menu. Further intrigued, I did something I rarely do. I emailed them to ask if they were aware of their broken link. They replied thanking me for pointing it out and explained They also asked me if I would like them to send me a sample message by email. It arrived yesterday evening. First item on said menu is I have emailed them to ask how to make ampersand butter. I have attached the menu they sent. There are other errors. I have redacted the name of the establishment to not shame them, too much. They still haven't corrected the link. Saturday lunch 1.3.25.docx

Well-travelled indeed but not the most well-travelled in my arsenal. Many years ago I was given a bottle of Gleneagles mineral water on a British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London. It is a Scottish brand. It amused me that it had already travelled half way round the world and was about to travel back. I didn’t drink it but took it with me. Then travelled back, first to HK again, then into mainland China. For no good reason, I have carried that bottle of water with me everywhere I have travelled for the last 30 years. It has been to the UK and back at least 7 times. It has been to Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain. It has been to almost every SE Asian country (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and to Vietnam, etc). It has been to Japan twice and has travelled the length and breadth of China. I cant think why, but it amuses me. I’m not in the least superstitious so, it’s not for ‘luck’ as most people I’ve told assume. Nor is it ‘emotional support’. I take my pet ostrich for that! The bottle is looking a bit bashed now, but still intact.

I thought this was fun. Found today. Spanish Chorizo. Made in Spain. Imported to England. Exported to China. Label information in English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. No Chinese.

Wah! I haven't had areyes in decades. I'd completely forgotten they exist! I can get pita bread here, but the spices are more difficult. If I do make them, I'll be taking a lot more liberties. Beautiful looking plate of food.

Oh! Happy Day! I just took possession of 526 grams of the 诺邓火腿 (nuò dèng huǒ tuǐ) as described two posts back! Vacuum packed and sitting in my fridge waiting to see what I do with it!

It is more than a whole chicken, but I I wouldn't say the difference is huge. Whole 土鸡 (tǔ jī) organic chickens are roughly about $12-$20 USD per bird. China most certainly has 放山鸡 (fàng shān jī) free-range chickens. In a similar price range as the organic depending on the breed. I listed some of the more prized breeds up-thread starting here. Many Chinese shoppers are incredibly fussy about their poultry, often buying chicken or ducks live in farmer's markets rather than supermarkets - especially at holidays or wedding celebrations etc. However, we can also get the cheap supermarket mutants sold as chicken, usually as butchered parts.

The ones in this topic.

I have been asked by PM about English language cookbooks that I would recommend. I prefer to answer openly as other people may also want to know. However my answer won't be particularly illuminating. 99% of my Chinese cookbooks are in Chinese! I only have about five in English - all by Gullet embers as it happens, albeit inactive members. First, Fuchsia Dunlop The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and Land of Fish and Rice (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). That latter covers eastern Chinese cuisine. These two are particularly good, but all her books are sound. Beware! Her Land of Plenty and Sichuan Cookery are earlier editions of the same book. The one I link to is the latest update. Hopefully, the last. Second, Carolyn Phillips All Under Heaven (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is a good introduction to regional Chinese food, although no one book could cover all. That would require a library! She also has a short book on Dim Sum, but I can't find my copy. I very rarely eat dim sum anyway. Beyond the Great Wall (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) - Naiomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford covers only a few regions but IS a good read. I no longer have a copy. I wonder what happened to it. Generally (and I know there must be exceptions), I find English language books and websites tend at best to concentrate on western renditions of Cantonese food, rather than food you would find in most of China - if anywhere in China. I'm really not the best person to answer the question.

Back in November last year, I wrote that pheasant is only available from itinerant peasants on the streets. They catch them wild in the mountains. Today, I was going through my online grocery app, looking for some organic chicken legs, and came across this. Going solely on this image from the app they are Phasianus colchicus torquatus, Chinese ring-necked pheasants. Yes. They are now offering peasant free pheasants. Still wild. So probably they're buying them from the peasants. Whatever, saves me from going out hunting peasants with pheasants. They're listed alongside the chickens as the Chinese name for pheasant is 山野鸡 (shān yě jī), literally mountain (and) field chicken. However, 'mountain and field' is also used to indicate 'wild'. Around $22-23 USD per bird. (Got my organic chicken legs, too)

I don't know about weird coating, but I always quickly fry spinach in home rendered lard (pig fat) but then that is the standard treatment for most greenery in China.

驴肉火烧 (lǘ ròu huǒ shāo), Donkey burgers or sandwiches. Donkey meat, chilli, cumin. Flaky buns.

I bought this online. Arrived this morning. According to the manufacturer: Actually, it's very mild with little goat flavour. And tolerance or lack of is not an issue for me. The odd thing was that it was described as Roquefort on the shopping app listing. I knew it wasn't just by looking at the image. And Roquefort is a protected species in Europe. No such thing as Dutch Roquefort would ever be allowed! Anyway, I was happy to buy it for a try, knowing what it really was!

I would describe it as typical AI .

Blood sausage on ciabatta. Locally made pig's blood and glutinous rice sausage (糯米血肠 - nuò mǐ xuè cháng).

I have successfully soften over-hard cheese 🧀 by wrapping it in damp paper towels and leaving it overnight in the fridge. I'm a little surprised you consider 7 oz to be such a great amount. That's around 200 grams, the smallest amount I can buy. You could buy a whole cheese - only 35 kilos or 77 lbs! Image: taobao.com China's largest online shopping service

Have you actually tried it? I didn't write it. But they are definitely seared.

A proper breakfast. Banana 🍌. This one. Mashed onto wholewheat bread 🍞. Perfect with a nice gin and tonic.

Well, we get plant based everything now, so why not butter? It's called marketing. Or lying.

How happy I ham! Anyone who knows me, knows I love blood sausage / black pudding. I've tried it all around the world from Scotland to North Korea. These I'd heard rumours of, but never managed to find, even when, back in 2003. I visited where they originate. But today I did! Online. They are Inner Mongolian blood sausages, but with a difference from those from that region I've had before. These are sheep's blood. I can only buy a minimum of a kilo, but at the equivalent to $17 USD affordable. They are winging their way to me now. I shall report back. Images from Taobao online shopping portal.

When I fancied this for lunch today, I thought I’d have a look to see what I said about it here. To my surprise, I said nothing! It is very popular indeed I’m talking about octopus. Formally known as 章鱼 (zhāng yú), but more colloquially 八爪鱼 (bā zhuǎ yú), literally meaning “eight claw fish”. Yes, they don’t have claws and they aren’t fish, but the Chinese classes many aquatic animals as fish, at least in their names. I don’t know which of the circa 300 members of the Octopoda order we get here. I doubt the vendors know either. Mostly we get these baby octopuses*, although I can buy larger beasts or even bits of beast online. Never in markets or supermarkets. They are mostly stir fried or boiled, but looking at my food delivery app, I see that the most common dish is to fry them and dress with a sesame and chilli sauce. I've had them in hotpots, too. Sesame Chilli Dressed Octopus as pictured on Meituan food delivery app. I’m not sure yet, what I’ll do with them later today. *Yes the plural is octopuses. Octopi is nonsensical. It isn't even octopi in Latin or the original source of the word, Ancient Greek. It is octopodes, a term now only found in 18th century texts.