liuzhou

But the water isn't clean. It's fertilised with night soil*, then dried and processed in a dusty hut full of rodents. *Human excrement

I'm sure Mrs Mapo never saw an elk in her life, but I'm also sure she would approve!

Truffle oil is garbage. Most doesn't even contain truffles or, if it does, only in microscopic amounts. Avoid Chinese truffles, too. They are truffles (usually), but the lowest quality.

Not me, I think. But many fruits look similar. I have eaten zapote in Vietnam, though. It's known there as sapôchê. Fresh tamarind is a thing of great joy! I've never had it, but I'd imagine tamarind ice cream would be great.

Rice Washer, Presidential Palace Kitchen, Saigon, Vietnam. I have no idea if it Japanese or not. Probably not.

All looks great, but I"m still intrigued by the 'lemon maringue'!

Was thinking about Drummond Street again and remembered this. I hope it's interesting.

No one has been able to farm the rare, expensive fungus on a commercial scale – until now. Here

Definitely B. sprouts and roast potatoes. Usually boiled carrots, too. Burdall's gravy (similar to Bisto, but better - no longer made.

I know you are in the UK, but don't know where. But I'm betting you know Drummond Street in London. Vegetarian Indian food central. I studied then worked at University College London just across the road for years and Drummond Street was my canteen! And I'm not even vegetarian!

I often buy baby squid, but fresh not canned. I do use in a salad with a ginger, citrus, chilli and fish sauce dressing, radish, cucumber, mint, coriander leaf and cashews. No peaches! I use a slightly adapted version of this first recipe. I have to make my own stem ginger to get the syrup. Also, the baby squid only get one minute cooking.

Probably true, but good restaurants are in the minority.

There is already a discussion on this topic here.

I abbreviated your words. That's all. Same meaning with less typing. But really, not the point.

Well, "round here" isn't everywhere.

I'm not convinced it's a binary choice. Many restaurants serve oversized plates - hence the doggie bag culture. Cutting them back makes more sense. I want dinner; not dinner and tomorrow's lunch. Cut size and, if necessary, raise the price a bit, too.

Came across these Thai snacks yesterday. Not bad. Of course, they looked nothing like the package image.

I am in raptures! About two or more years ago this flavour disappeared from all my local stores and I thought the company had stoppped making them, but they appeared in the supermarket this morning. My favourite potato crisps (I refuse to call them 'chips' - ridiculous name). They are made by this Philippine company and sold all over Asia. These are the super-rare and exotic POTATO flavour!

Chicken (and duck) feet are hugely common here in China. They are everywhere - in supermarkets to street stalls. Day and night. Spicy Chicken Feet Duck Feet with Pickled Chilis

eventually. as does all food.

I'm confused, as usual. You don't use seafood shells to make stocks?

The least flavourful part of the bird. I prefer the feet!

Absolutely nothing to do with red food colouring. That would make them look even less Asian. I've never seen that used on ribs anywhere in East or S.E. Asia. What I noticed was the size of the pieces. They would normally be bite-sized here - half the size of those at the forefront of Norm's picture. We use chopsticks! But what clinched it for me was that they appear to be sprinkled with sesame seeds, a peculiar western practice to make dishes look Asian. It rarely happens here.

I think this belongs here. One of my Chinese friends has stumbled across Masterchef US videos and wanted to me to watch a couple as she had some questions. I'm not a fan, mainly because I find Joe Bastardanich an unbearable, ignorant, arrogant bully. Anyway, the first sample was from the first season - part four. In the early part of the episode a contestant had won an advantage by being allowed to choose one of three ingredients for everyone to make a Chinese dish. She was offered a range of Chinese mushrooms (some of which Ramsay listed using their Japanese names), mandarin oranges or duck. The contestant said she didn't know of any Chinese dishes using duck! Peking Duck is probably the most famous Chinese dish! But she chose the mandarin oranges, something I have never, ever seen in any Chinese cooking - domestic or professional. The fourteen contestants then cooked a range of 'Chinese dishes' none of which anyone in China would recognise. They used ingredients unknown in China - allspice, for example. And all the 'wrong' cooking techniques. But every cliché in the book. My friend asked "What are they doing? Using his best American English, Ramsay asks one contestant if her dish is a starter or my least favourite word, an 'entreé'. There are no such concepts in Chinese cuisine. My friend, an Americanophile, was utterly baffled. "Ramsay claims that no one knows more about food than he does. How can he get this so wrong?" Then we moved on to Series 8 Episode 1 for some comedy. One would-be contestant at the audition stage stated: "I spent a lot of time in China. I have studied the culture and the food." Three minutes later she said "I lived in China for two months." As my friend reminded me, I have lived in China for 25 years and am nowhere near an expert in Chinese food or culture. No one is. Two months barely gives you time to work out where the nearest restaurant is! And she didn't speak Chinese. Her audition dish was, according to her, a 'Beijing Duck Taco'. The duck component was nowhere near a Beijing duck. And it didn't even look like a taco. She failed the audition and was sent packing. Now I'm trying to find a Chinese video of people trying to cook western food and getting it totally wrong.