liuzhou

This was a somewhat unusual but good lunch. Herbed roast potatoes Chinese style. Black truffle and wild shiitake soup. Damned good South African navel orange.

I was a little worried. Many of the places involved stop lunch deliveries at 2 pm which was looming.

It's a sort of BBQ sauce. With Chinese characteristics.

Lunch was a bit of a screw-up; mostly my fault. First of all I must have pressed the wrong button on the app and accidentally ordered 12 bottles of mineral water rather than my lunch of choice. Once I realised, I sought to correct this but my lunch of choice wasn't the chef's choice and it wasn't available. I was beginning to panic, then remembered there is an OK restaurant right next to the main hospital entrance. Like an idiot, I ordered a pizza. From a Chinese restaurant in China (conveniently situated next to a hospital. Here is the app listing and here is what turned up. It was as bad as it looks. At least I had enough water to wash it away.

and next Hunan Chilli Chicken. This came with an unannounced chicken thigh on the side. And rice. Pretty good.

No matter what you call 'em, those are not the most appealing CHIPS I've ever seen. Lobster looks fine.

Lunch. Squid with red and green hot peppers, Chinese celery, garlic, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine. Best yet (although mine is better.)

BBC Panorama April 1st 1957.

牛肉肉夹馍 Beef Rou Jia Mo. one of two. Not bad but could have done with some chilli heat.

鱼香肉丝 (yú xiāng ròu sī) fish fragrant pork slivers. The name refers to the sauce being more commonly served with fish. There is no fish in my lunch. I always think this is a great example of the principle of cutting all the ingredients to be fried to the same shape and size. Pork, carrot, fresh black woodear fungus, green chilli slivers. Served with rice. I'll replace the image when I get back to civilisation.

It's not just the processing in the "eastern block". The quality of the fish is poor. Portugal and Spain are well-known for the high quality fish and it is treated with respect. Portuguese sardines are widely considered to be the best. Canned fish is as traditional in Chinese cuisine as anywhere else. It is very popular. It is the only canned food sold in most stores. Some is excellent; some less so. Thai and Filipino canned fish is very controversial. Poor working conditions; accusations of slavery. Your choice.

aahh! There is a little green pepper in there. That wouldn't be traditional, no. However, I know the restaurant and it is Sichuan owned. I won't go so far as to call it a "regional" variation outside the region that is that restaurant! 😂

I suspect what you are seeing as pepper is actually carrot and I've certainly seen that in Sichuan.

宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng) with rice. This is what you may call Kung-po Chicken but no one in China does. On the side, a couple of century eggs in chilli sauce.

Adding eggplant to mapo tofu? Unheard of. Sacrilege I beseech you to make yuxiang eggplant instead! Are you using the long thin Asian eggplants? They need no preparation other than cutting to size.

Do you deliver?

Of course, the near-univeral tobacco advertising ban wiped out smoking entirely, didn't it?

I'd never thought about it either, until the last couple of days. Now I'm thinking about ordering a whole roasted camel to see how they cope.

Yes please!

Good question. There are very strict COVID restrictions (although having a very high-ranking in the city's medical hierarchy friend has allowed a couple of my visitors in who wouldn't have been otherwise). Food deliveries are dropped at a specific station somewhere and each relevant ward notified. Someone (a nursing assistant) collects my dinner from there and brings it to my bedside.

Not a drop of sarcasm. It really was excellent. Deeply flavoured and perfectly seasoned. Chicken based but with a good ham in there, I'm sure. Vegetables were perfectly tender without being overdone. Vegetable soup but certainly not vegetarian soup.

Having cooked meals and ingredients etc delivered to your office or home is hugely popular here in China. The biggest supplier is Meituan and you see dozens of their electric scooters dashing around every day. There isn't much you can't buy (anything from a raw egg to flock of live ostriches) and delivery is usually within 30 minutes. I have eaten from this source before but today was my first time to order for myself. This issue is due to my being confined to bed in a hospital with a more than usually dysfunctional kitchen. Anyway, here is my introductory dish. Spicy cumin beef fried rice with a vegetable soup from heaven The broth was indescribable. These dishes are from Lanzhou in NW China. Those who know the China Food Myths topic will note the lack of egg in the fried rice Cost me 26 cents US / 22 pence UK. This includes a huge welcome discount. The regular price is about 12 times that.

They are gaslighting me! I left the hospital the ad hoc supply of breakfast as they had never screwed that up. Every morning they brought rather good 肉包 - pork buns. This morning they were running late and the doctors were getting impatient as they like us to have eaten before taking medication. Finally someone rushed in with my Bao breakfast. Sadly this had metamorphosed into jiaozi dumplings. Then came the evidence of gaslighting. The damn things were full of c@rn!!! Twenty minutes later, the buns turned up. They didn't have the nerve to charge me!

Birds for my mother. I am sure the same tin supplied about ten years worth of Christmases. I haven't had a trifle since I left for university 51 years ago.

My mother's 'recipe' for trifle was largely canned mixed fruit in syrup and powdered custard. She never made a real custard in her 92 years.