liuzhou

Mulberries come in three main species (in fact, there are over 60): morus alba, morus nigra and morus rubra – white mulberry, black mulberry and red mulberry respectively. Let me be clear! These are species’ names and do not necessarily reflect the colour of the fruit. Some white mulberries are black, for example. Mulberries Mulberries are important in China’s economy, being the silkworms favourite food. They prefer the morus alba, the least flavoursome of the varieties. And they only eat the leaves! Silly buggers. It will surprise you not at all, but here in China both black and red varieties are a popular table fruit, but are also made into wine. Both commercially but also my a farmers needing to deal with a glut of fresh f ruit. As with yangmei above, there are two beverages called ‘mulberry wine’. One is a true wine; the other is strong white spirits in which the fruit has been steeped. Alternatively, the fruit is used to flavour plain rice wine, taking about three weeks to develop colour and flavour. Mulberry Wine Mulberry wine is low in alcohol (12% or less by vol) and sweet. Too sweet for my taste, but it is marketed as a 'ladies 'wine', whatever that means.

Lunch was confused and confusing. 鲜虾的蔬越南春卷 (xiān xiā de shū yuè nán chūn juǎn)- Fresh Shrimp and Vegetable Vietnamese Spring Rolls. 香煎鸡胸菠菜卷 (xiāng jiān jī xiōng bō cài juǎn) - Fried Chicken Breast Spinach Roll. This I can only describe as being like a burrito, with the spinach a component of the wrapper skin. Inside was salad and the cubed chicken. With a spicy dipping sauce. Bizarre meal, but very good!

This is a version of the Sichuan classic you may well know as Kung-P(a)o Chicken, a name no one in Sichuan (or anywhere else in China) uses. It is 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng). Whatever you call it, this is a strange version. The basic flavours were on point and the chicken was nicely cooked. What threw me was the amount of clery throughout the dish. Little cubes of celery. Cubes are appropriate. That is what 丁 (dīng) means, but so many? The chef at Panda Cafeteria, the local Sichuan restaurant, was also a little heavy-handed with the Sichuan peppercorns, but that's OK by me. Maybe not for everyone. All in all, I was happy, although I can see that there was room for improvement.

金樱子酒 (jīn yīng zǐ jiǔ) is a type of rose hip wine, but not any old rose. It is made from the fruit of the Cherokee Rose, Rosa laevigata, native to southern China, Vietnam and Laos. In Vietnam, it is known as kim anh. It has also been introduced to the United States where it is considered to be an invasive species. Cherokee Rose Hips The wine is made by mixing the somewhat astringent fruit with a syrup containing yeast and citric acid. It is then left for a minimum of two years. The seeds are removed from the hips before processing as they remain bitter. Cherokee Rose Hips Steeping Cherokee Rose Wine The wine is sweet and, of course, floral in aroma and flavour. Hip Hooray!

I think it depends on your kitchen and the type of cooking you typically do. 90% of mine is wok based. There is no way I can do that sitting down.

If you mean this then yes. That is an 'official' tasting glass as supplied with the 2.5 litre jar. That said, it can be drunk and often is from pretty much anything. Including rice bowls.

They have both. These aren't that sweet.

China has a long history of fermenting fruit other than grapes into wines. Here are a few, starting with my favourite. Fresh Bayberries (杨梅） In 1997, I first ate dried 杨梅 (yáng méi), Chinese bayberries, aka waxberry or Myrica rubra*, in Xi’an, home to the Terracotta Warriors and was delighted by their sweet yet tart flavour. Later I moved to Hunan province and was able to buy the fresh fruit there when in season (May and June). I got through a lot in their short time available. They are also easy to find here in Guangxi at the appropriate time. I still get through a lot. I discovered that the locals back where I lived in Hunan 25 years ago ferment the fruit to make a wine. I immediately got my hands on a 2.5 litre jar of this wine. It is 12% ABV. Ingredients listed by amount are water, bayberry pulp, cane wine, and sugar. I am guessing (?) the small amount of cane sugar wine is to introduce the yeasts needed to start the fermentation. The wine is sweet, but not excessively so and retains notes of the tartness found in the fruit. My sample is commercially made, but I’m told by friends from Hunan that many farmers make the wine for their personal use. As may I one day! WARNING: There are two drinks with the same name 杨梅酒 (yáng méi jiǔ) in Chinese. THhis is a problem with translation. That last character can mean either 'wine' or 'alcohol'. The other 杨梅酒 drink is actually 白酒 (bái jiǔ - literally white spirits or alcohol) a strong liquor or spirits, in which fresh yangmei are steeped for weeks or months to flavour and colour the baijiu. It can be lethally strong! Check the alcohol content! around 12% ABV is the wine. The liquor is a minimum of 18%, often much stronger. It also tastes very different. You can't always see the steeping fruit so that is not any guarantee. Yangmei steeping in white spirit or liquor These are also the 白酒 strong liquor but without the fruit showing * Often mistranslated as arbatus, an unrelated fruit.

Sunday Lunch： 猪肝炒土豆粉 (zhū gān chǎo tǔ dòu fěn) - Pork Kidney with Potato Noodles Also contained lean pork, pickled cow peas, omelette, garlic, shredded cabbage, pickled chilli, Chinese chives, soy sauce. Big improvement on last night.

The "in-fruit" of the moment round here is this. Every store has them. Yellow passionfruit. Delicious.

I have a stool of an appropriate height, but it just feels all wrong sitting on it to cook. I must move around more than I realised while cooking.

Thanks for asking. It's slow, but they warned me of that. But I see small improvements. I'd love to get back to cooking, but I can't go shopping or stand up for very long. I can't cook sitting down! I tried! So, for now I'm stuck with delivery food, although to be fair today's experience was atypical.

and why not?

Dinner: I decided to give the new Thai place a second chance. Last chance. It was decidedly sub-par. Never again. It was supposed to be a Thai yellow curry - my mothrer made better out of convenience store curry powder. There was no coconut or lemongrass or chilli or anything you would expect in a Thai curry. The chicken was mostly potato and seriously undercooked carrot (⁈). It came with a side of overcooked cabbage. Very Thai, me don't thinks. The rice was OK. Despite my being able to see from my home the building where the restaurant is located (it's maybe 5 minutes walk), the meal took 45 minutes to arrive and was, of course, cold. I had to nuke it. There was also a bowl of Tom Yum soup, which I have left in the fridge for lunch tomorrow. We'll see. First real failure in three weeks. Mustn't grumble. But I will!

And I ate it!

Saturday lunch: 花甲+虾+鱿鱼+焖意面 (huā jiǎ + xiā + yóu yú + mèn yì miàn - clams + shrimp + squid + braised noodles.) They offered a choice of four spiciness levels: no chilli, mildly spicy or medium hot or very hot. I went with 'medium hot'.

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.