liuzhou

...and I am in no doubt that you are correct for Canada, one of the least populous countries. However, nearly all the sardine catch worldwide is canned. Fresh sardines are unknown in China*, the world's most populous country. Same in Russia - the world's largest. Canned fish is a luxury food in Japan. Canned sardines are still a staple in the UK. In the last hour I have asked my daughter and two granddaughters if they buy canned sardines. They all answered 'always'. None of them have eaten fresh sardines. I never ate them in the UK. Nor did I see them often. That was a treat reserved for France. *China does have fresh fish they call 沙丁鱼 (shā dīng yú), which often gets translated as 'sardines' as the Chinese name has been chosen to be a close phonetic rendition of the English. However, they ain't sardines. They are Japanese Sardinella, a different thing altogether. I mentioned this before, in more detail, here.

and my point is that those parts of the world are very much in the minority.

I'm fairly sure the majority of people in the world today have only ever eaten canned sardines or anchovies.

I think that the main difficulty in in recreating Sriracha as made in Sriracha is quite simply that the chillies they use are not the ones found in America. Yes of course, chillies are native to the Americas but, around the world, there are now 100s of different cultivars with different flavours as well as heat levels. When I read the article linked to in the first post I was sort of amused at the list of chillies they are short of. I'm fairly sure they are totally unavailable in Sriracha, but they manage just fine.

The same place nearly caused a diplomatic incident One of their promotional leaflets trumpets the joy of “Week cheddar cheese soup”. Another Computer Mis-Translate disaster. The word ‘week’ gets thrown into the ‘translation’ as it is the literal meaning of the first of the two characters used to phonetically approximate “cheddar” (周打 - zhōu dá). But this is not the major offence. The Chinese name is somewhat different. Wars have been fought over less than this – Hundred Year Wars. According to the Chinese the soup is 法国周打芝士汤, which translates as ‘French cheddar cheese soup’. French cheddar cheese? France might be the only country in the world which doesn’t make cheddar cheese. I can hear Napoleon and De Gaulle turning in their respective graves. The good people of Cheddar probably ain’t too happy either. Can’t they see the irony in claiming to be Italian experts then attempting to sell French cheese which actually originated in England? There is nothing Italian about it! Idiozia! This is just ignorance. As I’ve asked before, what makes people open restaurants ‘specialising’ in food they know nothing about? It can’t be about making money. Few do. One pizza place in that mall didn’t even survive the first month.

I quickly learned in China to avoid “Western food” restaurants. Just as Chinese food in the west bears little resemblance to the real thing, those restaurants offering western food here fall well short. I am not saying there are zero good places, but the very few there are tend to be in Shanghai and very expensive. I’ve mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating. Most “western” restaurants are managed by people who have never really eaten western food. They employ chefs who have never really cooked or eaten “western food”. They may have seen pictures of “western food”; that’s all. Or they just copy the menus from other Chinese “western food” places. Liuzhou Jia Yong Trading Company was started in the 1990s by a Mr Tan who took advantage of favourable tax allowances for disabled people starting businesses. This scheme was introduced under pressure from then Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping’s eldest son who was himself disabled after falling, jumping or being pushed from a window during the cultural revolution. He has since worked to improve conditions for the disabled in China. Helped by the tax advantage in the early years, Jia Yong expanded to become the biggest grocery chain in the area. They also undertake charitable work among the disabled. Several years ago Mr Tan sold his chain of supermarkets and convenience stores to Lianhua, China’s largest retailer. He made millions and semi-retired. However, he has kept a keen interest in catering and opened a number of restaurants in the city including a chain of KFC look-alikes. A number of his restaurants are ‘foreign food themed’. Why? Oh why? He knows nothing about foreign food. The worst of his forays into western food is a restaurant on the 3rd floor of the large Bubugao Plaza shopping mall. In the advanced depths of his delusion, he has persuaded himself that he has not only an Italian restaurant but that he is an Italian Expert. There is nothing, zero, zilch, niente Italian about the place. This is NOT an Italian restaurant by any stretch of the imagination. Any real “Italian Expert” would probably know that Boston, Hawaii, Texas, Mexico and New Orleans (the supposed origin of the pizzas they list on their menu), are somewhere far to the west of Italy; or the east if you go the other way. He would also know that the signature dish, the “Thin crust pizza in Naples” as his Mis-Translate software renders for him is not in any way related or even on nodding terms with anything Neapolitan. Neapolitan pizza is strictly defined (and legally protected). This shit comes nowhere even close. It is an approximation of an OK pepperoni and olive excuse for a pizza. Neapolitan pizza does not contain cheap, nasty, mechanically retrieved meat sausage or bottled, dyed olives. In fact, it doesn’t contain sausage or olives of any kind. But it does contain tomato and buffalo mozzarella (Their sad excuse for a pizza doesn’t contain the latter. And shows little evidence of the former.) But something concerns me even more. So we begin. My visit. Apart from one almost happy experience, it was much worse than I even anticipated. I rolled up at 17:39 trying to be ahead of the 6 pm rush. Good thinking. The place was almost deserted. I found a seat and a young waitress handed me a menu then told me my name. Seems she knew me from somewhere. Then she left me alone to peruse the selection on offer – bliss. I was expecting the usual Chinese waitress intimidation. The menu begins with set meals then jumps to drinks then desserts then hops towards pizzas, noodles and rice dishes. Finally it ends up with a sparse four mains (sadly listed under the idiotic American term, “entrées”.) Ten minutes later, I place my order. I have decided to go for the “Naples Pizza” just because it is the one they trumpet. I also choose the “Fresh Porcini Rice”, basically because I don’t believe it. Then I throw in a salmon salad. I also ask for a glass of wine from their extensive list of three, none of which are Italian. All of which are crap. Seven minutes later my glass of red wine turns up – ice cold! ¥18 Italian experts who don’t know to serve red wine at room temperature? Still it does have the advantage that you can’t taste it. First food to arrive is the salmon salad. Here it is pictured on the menu. Apologies for picture quality. I was using my primitive cell phone to take pictures of bad pictures! Here is what turned up: Yes. Some lunatic has decided to improve the salad by drowning it in Kewpie Thousand Island Dressing. I hate Thousand Island Dressing! Bizarrely, it also comes with a bowl of soy sauce and wasabi. They are just chucking everything Japanese at it. Except anything remotely Italian. I push it to the side and ignore it. ¥23. Next, at 18:07, my pizza turns up. It looks fine, but, as I’ve said, nothing like anything recognised as a Naples pizza. As I’ve also said, it could be a reasonable, if dull, pepperoni and black olive pizza. It ain’t dull. The first bite has me gagging and downing the glass of water they kindly provided me with when I sat down. This thing is so oversalted! I am very salt tolerant, but I feel like I’ve just exceeded the recommended annual dosage in one small slice of pizza. It is inedible! Utterly disgusting. ¥33 Probably I should have stuck with the “Larry Italian Pizza” which features both “blacl (sic) pepper beef short ribs” and that Italian favourite, ”kungpao chicken”. As eaten by every Italian on a daily basis! What drugs are these people on? And who the hell is Larry? Their drug dealer? Just as I fall into despair, the dish I have least confidence in turns up. My “Fresh Porcini Rice”. To my astonishment this looks nothing like its depiction on the website or leaflets. It actually looks like a reasonable Italian risotto. I take a tentative forkful and it’s delicious. Perfectly cooked and flavoured with those porcini. I’m happy at last. But it’s a bubble about to burst. As I tuck in, I begin to find foreign objects lurking within. Large pieces of raw, cheap, fatty bacon. This is not mentioned on the menu. Lucky I’m not a vegetarian. I wade through the rice digging out the intruders, then settle back to the rice and mushrooms. I still don’t know if the porcini were fresh or dried – I suspect the latter, but they were fine. However, they could have been washed a bit better. As I reach the bottom of the dish, it gets grainier and grainer until I feel I’m eating sand. I can’t say I was disappointed. I got more or less what I expected. Bad, non-Italian food. It wasn’t the worst meal I’ve had in Liuzhou, but it ran a close second. My friendly waitress, whom I still cannot place doesn't even glance at the uneaten food as I ask to pay. Situation normal. Not her concern.

Interesting friends! The person who sent me these was one of my students in 1999. She was (still is) extraordinarily beautiful and very clever. On graduating, she quickly got a job on a Chinese wine magazine, by which I mean a magazine aimed at restaurants, wine dealers, and enthusiasts. European and New World wines. Over the years, I often helped her out with translations of the French or Italian info she was sent. She paid me by sending me the wines! Hundreds of bottles! She also introduced me into a sideline of writing for her magazine and others. She worked her way up the ladder and is now the managing director / CEO of the publishing company. Pre-covid, she also organised wine tours of vineyards in France, Italy and South America. I will never forget one day she called me from Paris and said she couldn't find her hotel. I guided her through the streets of Paris, a city which luckily I know well. She doesn't speak French. She is now dipping toes into other publishing avenues - I'm looking forward to see where she goes next. She has never married. I still have a chance! 🤣

This turned up at my door about 30 minutes ago. Inside I found this along with some frozen ice packs. Durian Ice Zongzi. Actually, the only resemblance they have to zongzi is the traditional shape. Zongzi are sticky rice and flavourings, wrapped in bamboo leaves and then steamed. The leaves, of course, hold the dumpling together while the are cooked, but also impart a delicate bamboo flavour and aroma to the contents. These are a kind of iced jelly with a strong durian flavour - a good thing in my book.

Very carefully!

You are very welcome. I know I'm heavily biased but I'll never forget the food I ate in Sri Lanka, a truly beautiful but troubled country. It makes me so sad.

I'm going to have to get hold of Rambutan by Cynthia Shanmugalingam - a new Sri Lankan cookbook. Possibly the best food I ever ate was in Sri Lanka in the the 1970s. More peaceful times. A couple of recipes and more information here.

I have found that using yoghurt as a starter can be hit and miss. I don't pretend to know the science behind it, but sometimes it seems to get tired. I always use a starter culture like this. Clearly, that's a Chinese brand but I'm sure similar products are available almost everywhere. Works every time. (P.S. I do use a dedicated yoghurt maker - cost next to nothing.) Are you able to more precisely explain your problem? "Not sour enough" is a very subjective statement to the point it really says nothing. I know it's not easy. Do you strain your yoghurt once made? You don't mention that stage.

I get nervous when my bank of these Portuguese beauties gets depleted. I order them online in batches of 18* cans at a time and re-order when I'm down to five. I'm down to seven at the moment. Better start saving up - they ain't cheap - four times the price of the supermarket staples, but ten times better! Then these are exactly what you are after. Usually three fat beautiful specimens - sometimes four. I loathe canned sad sardines that come in that cheap, nasty tomato sauce. If I want sardines in tomato sauce (I seldom do) I'll make a sauce myself, thank you! *For some reason they only ship in multiples of three.

When you have breakfast at 2 pm, is it still breakfast? Goose liver sausage, fried tomato and mushroom. There was toast off-stage.

Maybe I've just never had a good French Onion Soup. I like everything involved, but not together. I'd rather have the bread and cheese on the side as a sandwich, thanks.

There are many examples of staff scheduling software available - maybe not all restaurant specific, but is restaurant staff scheduling so different? I think not. A simple Google search for "staff rota software restaurants" turns up many!

I never thought you didn't know!

They are delicious! Especially in soups.

I am unable to see anything on your images other than the plastic wrap. However, here is an image of a black chicken (silkie). I think you can see it is unblemished. From your description, it seems yours has been badly handled and possibly bruised (?). If it's only bruised it shouldn't have any impact on the flavour. (P.S. It is much better to upload any images here rather than forcing people to open third party sites.)

I know the brand Luobawang butnever tried them. I'm worried by the last bag - Luosifen never has tomato in it!

Last night, I remotely walked a Chinese friend through making her first loaf - a soda bread. She has just come out of a two-month lockdown in Shanghai and finally got hold of what she needed - except high gluten flour. She did pretty well, I think for a first effort, although she said it tastes a bit floury. She has high gluten flour on order and has sworn not to give up. The image shows where she tore it open to test the interior.

Beer duck is one of my favourites. Never been served it with konjac, though. I know it is served that way, but not everywhere.

That is remarkably common. I've come across it many places.

I realise many might not regard this as fun, but it's fun to me. After years of being deprived of Indian foodstuffs, I have finally found one purveyor. The choice is limited, but it is all imported from India. Today I took delivery of these two babies.

Sriracha is virtually unknown in China. None of my friends know what it is and, as I said, only one store stocks it - irregularly. 100,000 bottles a month? Sounds to me like marketing BS, but even if true it doesn't amount to anything among 1,400,000,000 people. 0.007%