liuzhou

Ahh! The famous bamboo steamer baskets that everyone in China uses! Except almost no one does. Number 3 in the China Food Myths topic.

As promised, clarification. The Chinese name is slightly more helpful. 冰皮月饼 (bīng pí yuè bǐng）means íce skin mooncakes. Basically they are sweetened durian pulp wrapped in a sort of artificial cream and frozen. From my Chinese-English food dictionary: It is wrong about 'snow'. 冰 definitely means íce'. 'Snow is 雪 (xuě). Ingredients as listed are: Durian pulp, pure milk, ice skin powder [hydroxyendyl distarch phosphates, white sugar powder, non-dairy cream (glucose syrup, hydrogenated coconut oil, casein, diglycerol fatty acid ester, diacetyl tartaric mono and digyceride, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, sugar, xanthan gum, salt) beta carotene]. Lovely! So 100% durian! They aren't even Malaysian. They are Cantonese. Yet, surprisingly moreish.

Yeah. And cloves of raw garlic in Vietnam. Xi'an restaurants also have raw garlic on the table.

I (and the kitchen) despair when seeing diners in restaurants automatically reach for the salt and pepper then use it without having tasted anything! My father was a major indulger in this madness. I do not possess table salt or pepper dispensers. Never seen them here. Seasoning is done in the kitchen. Seasoning post-cooking can seldom replicate cooking properly seasoned ingredients. Even when it does work, say salting fries, it is still better to do it immediately - in the kitchen.

Yes. It's 14. Sorry. Typo. Neither 13 or 14 hold any significance.

When they say 100% durian, I think they mean the durian used is 100% durian! 😂. I'll cut one in half and take a picture later. I'll also translate the lengthy ingredient list!\ But I still love 'em!

The main purpose of advertising is to persuade people into buying things they don't need. We all need food, so that is very low priority in advertising terms. Ever seen an advertisement for lettuce? Even when food or drink is advertised, it is seldom the actual product that is being advertised, but the brand name.

It has been an odd day. At 4:30 pm, three people from the local government turned up at my home with two boxes of mooncakes for me! Mid-Autumn Festival is this weekend and is the traditional time to eat mooncakes. These are an upmarket version as sold in the local Ramada hotel. I'll add more detail when I actually eat one or eight! Then at 5:45 my phone rang. "Delivery Service. Are you at home?" Somewhat baffled I answered the door to a courier bearing three parcels. All addressed to me. The first was followed by a bunch of bunches of grapes and last but not least 14 kiwi fruit. Sent to me as a gift from an old friend. Again to mark the festival! Happy day! I know which I will enjoy the most. Durian Ice Mooncakes!

My party piece is using two pairs of chopsticks simultaneously, one in each hand, and eating twice as quickly as everyone else.

This is my bone cleaver. 690 grams as opposed to 350 grams of my regular Chinese cooks' knife. The bone cleaver has cut through everything I've given it. It does need a regular touch up with the steel, though.

I did consider that. But it is about 38℃ here and the fridges are full! I'm sleeping in one of them!

I bought me some smoked duck breasts. Decided to try one. Very pleasant. Five more in freezer.

Not at all weird. All Chinese 菜刀 are the same. I don't know what you are used to but it ain't these!

It will surprise no one, I'm sure, but here every market and supermarket has 4 or 5 types of bean sprouts. Soy bean sprouts and mung bean sprouts are the most common, but I can usually find alfalfa sprouts, peanut sprouts and pea sprouts. Sometimes chickpea/garbanzo sprouts. The good news for those not lucky enough to live beside me (😁), they are all easy to propogate at home.

No. By far, most of the weight is in the blade.

Is this a snack or a starter with a long break until the main course arrived? Could be either. Hot smoked sturgeon (served cold) with canned Portuguese sardines and pickled lime. Served with bread and butter.

The blade is 205 mm long and it weighs 449 grams. A bone cutting cleaver woild be heavier, yes.

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.