liuzhou

We get those, too. But the young ones more often.

I just checked online. 250g Pea Shoots = $1.44 USD

While in hospital, I had heard that a new Thai restaurant had opened in the shopping mall near my home. While serching the delivery app last night, I came across it! So lunch was from there. Pineapple Crab Fried Rice, Thai Garlic Flavour Ribs, Fried Cabbage, Tom Yum Soup All very good and arrived piping hot - the restaurant is only about 7 minutes walk away. No time by motorcycle.

I've been asked by friends to recommend a recipe for the hand torn chicken above. Nearly all I found on the internet were terrible. "Boneless chicken breasts". I don't think so! The only one I have any confidence in recommending is this. Slow Cooker Crispy Chinese Shredded Chicken The cooking technique is somewhat unorthodox, but the flavours would seem to be spot-on.

That site is prompting a malware warning in my browser. The domain name does look suspect. .co.uk is standard in the UK, not that.

It comes and goes, but when it's gone, I force myself.

Tonight was redemption for local delivery food. You may recognise the rice and vergetable dish (right) from yesterday's meal. Yes. leftovers. But the protein was new. 手撕鸡 (shǒu sī jī), Hand Torn Chicken, one of the few Chinese dishes served at room temperature. It is chicken braised in a spicy sauce, then, yes torn by hand into bite size pieces or smaller. Served with peanuts. Seldom made at home, this is available in every market. Not that it would be diffcult to make. This was GOOD. I was really sorry when I reached the bottom of the containers! And two-thirds of the meal was leftovers! Hand Torn Chicken Jo Buying Hand Torn Chicken in the Market, 2008

Yes. I realise and appreciate that. My problem is with the dishes which don't have the ethnic group in the titles. I am unfortunately unable to access Amazon or Google books at present.

Yes. I've identified some dishes, but many use titles that are so vague as to be useless. I mean "Chile Oil' is made everywhere. Guangxi has more ethnic minorities than any other, yet only one is shown. There are 30 in Liuzhou alone. Miao and Hmong are not synonymous. Hmong is a subgroup of the Miao. I would just add that nearly all of that map is "Within the Great Wall" in China's terms. P.S, Obviously, I'm not interested in anything with c@rn in it!

Well, I for one wouldn't have heard of this book or paid it any attention if you hadn't raised it here. Have some respect. Ignore it. In our celebrity-obsessed culture someone's always going to try to cash in. Don't encourage them.

I'd ask my daughter to send me the book from the UK, but it probably wouldn't turn up. Books and videoes are another thing they are terrified of! .

Anna, you champion! If you really don't mind, I would be eternally grateful. Don't wear your eyes out for me! P.S. I've eaten the Miao "sticky rice sandwiches". Not bad, although sticky rice is not my favourite mouth feel.

Yes. I have looked at that. Without fuller descriptions, it is impossible to be sure what cuisine many of the recipes are from. The randomness of translation is also an obstacle. But it is useful in a limited way. But thanks.

Thanks. That is really useful. Unfortunately, I'm severely hampered in the internet stakes for now. The Communist Party are about to start their annual rubber stamp session and, as always, they have shut down 90% of the internet including my getting round the blocks tricks. This will go on for a couple of weeks. They are terrified me looking up recipes and listening to Tom Waits on YouTube will bring the whole edifice down.

Thanks. The urgency is just as soon as possible. If I have to wait, I have to wait. My question is basically, does the book cover Zhuang, Miao, Dong ethnic minority foods and if so, which dishes? Any mention of Guangxi?

This is probably a long shot, but does anyone have a copy of, or access to, this book. I have an urgent question regarding its content and there is no way to get hold of a copy here. Many thanks in advance.

I agree but the baby stems are very different and arrive with plenty of bite.

清蒸海鲈 (qīng zhēng hǎi lú), Steamed Sea Bass 酸辣炒空心采梗 (suān là chǎo kōng xīn cǎi gěng) Spicy Pickle Fried Water Spinach Stems 高压锅软米饭 (gāo yā guō ruǎn mǐ fàn) Pressure Cooker Soft Rice Steamed Sea Bass Water Spinach Stems This was the first real disappointment. The fish was underdone and underseasoned and was resting on a ton of tofu which wasn't advertised. I don't know who put the overall combination of the meal together, but the fish is very much Cantonese style whereas the water spinach was prepared in a very Sichuanese style. They clashed. I'm not sure why they mention how the rice was cooked unless it's code for overdone. Looking forward to getting back to cooking.

I've seen it but never tried it. I'll look out for it .

My local bakery (a place I normally avoid) is under the delusion that these are croissants. So, wy did I buy them? I was intrigued by the description given in the listing which translates as "sea salt French morning bread". I'm always on the lookout for anything not intolerably sweet from Chinese bakers, so I had to check them out. They were nicely salty as advertised but nothing like crossants. Salty over spongy bread rolls, more like.

See new topic. Siracha in Thailand

The internet is full of ludicrous accounts of how Sriracha sauce was invented by a "David" Chan in the USA in the 1980s. Nonsense. The origin of of Sriracha is well documented. It was invented in the 1930s by Ms. Thanom Chakkapak, from the town of Si Racha, an hour’s drive south of Bangkok, Thailand. She called her sauce Sriraja Panich. the name under which it is still sold. Sriraja Panich In 1978, a Chinese-Vietnamese man named Chan, emigrated to the USA in 1978 and set up Huy Fong, named after the ship that brought him and his family to the USA. He manufactured the sauce which has become known to the world as Sriracha, based on the original recipe. It is no coincidence that the only language other than English of a bottle of Mr Chan’s product as sold in the US is Vietnamese, not Thai. Neither Ms. Chakkapak nor Chan thought to trademark the name “Sriracha”, so it is now considered a generic term, available for anyone to use. However, the original sauce was a dipping sauce and is tangier and runnier than what has become known informally as “rooster sauce”. Unfortunately, perhaps, in recent years, the success of Huy Yong has resulted in Thai manufacturers copying the American recipe and marketing devices such as the bottle shape and distinctive logos, in the hope of grabbing some export trade. Damn! They also copy the Vietnamese! Rooster brand has been introduced to Thailand and the Thais are fighting back. Ms. Chakkapak’s Sriraja Panich is sometimes available in the USA check out Amazon, Whole Foods etc) but it remains rare. It is slightly more available here in China, with Thailand being a lot nearer! The one I used in the China Food Deliveries post which prompted this topic, was one of the American recipe clones. Made in Bangkok. I can buy ‘rooster sauce’ here, but never have done. Call me a locovore! Unfortunately, I am out of Panich and post-hospitalisation mobility issues prevent me from restocking just at the moment. Some brands that I have resorted to include: Airborne. This is the one I used the in the Chna Deliveries topic. Note the bottle design and the Vietnamese! Not a word of Thai. RealThai brand iswidely distributed and although it is made in Thailand, it is to the US recipe. and Fairy brand, again an American recipe clone. So there are alternatives to the rooster, but all following Chan's recipe, down to the same preservatives. Let's hope the original Thai recipe becomes more widely available - it is a whole other experience.

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.