liuzhou

Today I acquired myself a new 菜刀 (cài dāo), literally vegetable knife, but 菜 (cài) is also used to just mean 'food'. Standard Chinese kitchen knife, but a good one. This is to replace an old one I've had for about 20 years and never really liked.

There is a more complete, but later edition available as a free e-book in various formats here.

老友粉 (lǎo yǒu fěn), literally 'Old Friend Noodles', a specialty of Nanning, capital of Guangxi.

The Art of Cookery, 1747 They are still working on this, but still useful.

Lunch today was horrible. That's all you need to know. Horrible and inedible! What little went into my mouth was spat out in seconds. No pictures, obvously.

I am no food historian, just a casual reader. However, I am certain that while China is renowned (often incorrectly) for steaming, it certainly doesn't own it. Cultures all over the world use it to some extent. The ancient Romans steamed food and they sure didn't learn it from China. Iceland and New Zealand both used geothermal springs to steam over. Modern Italy independently came up up with al cartoccio, better known in French as en papillote - a combination of baking and steaming, also used in China with fish as 纸包鱼 (zhǐ bāo yú - literally 'paper bag fish'). Haggis is steamed in Scotland. People have the same ideas over and over again.

Dalingshan, Guangdong - Cantonese roast goose leg rice noodles. Champion indeed.

Well, I am in China. Not California, home of dim sum.

35-38℃ is normal. I've never eaten dim sum on HK. I can only talk about what I have seen and eaten here. But, as I said, Cantonese food isn't my favourite. Sadly the city is about 50% Cantonese!

When in the year was that? I more often see spring rolls at the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). I'm not sayig they never appear as dim sum, but not that regularly round here.

Staff note: This post and the repsonses to it have been moved from the Dim Sum, San Francisco topic, to maintain focus. I rarely eat dim sum these days. Cantonese food is way down my list of preferred cuisines in China. However, when I have had it, it has never been for lunch. In fact, the dim sum places here are nearly all shutting shop at around 11 am. Yum cha, the event at which dim sum is traditionally eaten is a strictly breakfast or brunch event. They open as early as 5 am and are packed. Also very noisy. Chinese people like a good shout with their breakfast. Also, I don't recall ever seeing chow mein being served with dim sum. Not spring rolls often, either. Especially not now. Spring has long gone!

Many old cookbooks have been republished. De Re Coquinaria, aka Apicius, compiled in the 5th century is widely available in English. It can even be downloaded free as an e-book from here, although there are better, more modern translations available as tree books from the usual bookstores. Amazon has several versions. This one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is not complete, but has a good selection which can be recreated easily.

Plain rice is never salted here in China). It is considered to be a neutral canvas for the other dishes.

The Be-Ro Cookbook is still being published in new editions. I have my mother's from the 1950s and use it for some things. But, I also use much older cookbooks going back to the 5th C AD .

As I said, Rarely. Survival!

I don't eat them often, but always keep a supply of these instant noodles on hand for emergency snacks, usually in the middle of the night. Often, they come in lined cardboard pots in which to 'cook' the noodles, but it is easier to store them when they come in packs and require you to find you own container. For some time I've ben improvising with a soup bowl and a small plate to act as a lid. So, recently I bought this dedicated noodle bowl with lid. It even came with a pair of chopsticks. Here is a souvenir photograph from its maiden voyage!

You don't know where I buy my tomatoes! They are not from some corporate megafarm or bred for storage. In fact I know exactly who grows my tomatoes. Her name is Ma Li Fang and for almost 20 years I watched her tend her plants every day on her small patch of land. She is mainly a subsistance farmer, but grows a few extra tomatoes which she sells from a local farmer's market (with real farmers, unlike most). My office overlooked her land. Still, after my retirement, I buy nearly all my tomatoes from her. Here she is. Like 95% of the world population I do not live in the USA or Canada, so what happens there has no relevance to my tomato purchasing. Nor do I take everything on Serious Eats seriously. That is simply untrue. https://www.marthastewart.com/8199810/should-you-refrigerate-tomatoes

Actually, I've also heard of Ants Swimming the Lake, supposedly a soupy version of Ants Climbing a Tree but I've never come across it. Unreliable source, but a dear friend!

I only know Ants Climbing a Tree.

I think so. I saw that. If he is making cheese in Beijing why is the cheese coming from 2,000 miles away? I searched in Chinese and got no such information.

Refrigerating tomatoes is a terrible idea. Nothing destroys them quicker. They turn mealy very quickly. It drives me crazy when supermarkets keep them in the chill cabinets, never mind a fridge.

Harking back to dairy, for a moment. Here's another example of that dairy produce that doesn't exist. I recently found an online source for this. The Chinese reads 北京蓝 (běi jīng lán)*, which means Beijing Blue. Despite the name, it is made in Xinjiang, China's westernmost province, about as far as you can get from Beijing and still be in China. According to the description listed, it is made from cow's (sheeps) milk! I'm betting on the sheep. The area is known for sheep and not for cattle. I haven't ordered it yet. It takes days to get here and it is over 35℃ heading to 40℃. I will order when it cools down - if it ever does! *This name is now proving problematic as Beijing blue is also the local slang for Beijing's chronic pollution problem.

Forbidden fruit: why vegans are up in arms over Tesco’s oranges and lemons

I very much doubt it. Luosifen takes around 16 hours to make. You ain't going to to do it in 5 minutes. https://www.facebook.com/groups/125375614155376

This makes me smile. It arrived today. OK. You may be thinking that's just a bowl and you'd be both right and wrong. That is a bowl from 景德镇 (jǐng dé zhèn) in Jiangxi Province in eastern China. For over 1,000 years, Jingdezhen has been the centre of ceramic production in China. For much of that time, it exclusively made porcelain ware for the emperors. Some examples have sold for up to 32 million dollars USD. Mine was slightly cheaper at $3 USD. I visited Jingdezhen in 1997. They had, I hope still have, a working museum making ceramics in the traditional way - all hand crafted and hand painted etc. I found it fascinating. Sadly that was pre-cell phone cameras or digital anything, but here are scans of the only three pictures I can find.