liuzhou

Tonight, unusally, I made myself a starter and a two plate main. Starter: Smoked sturgeon with litsea oil. This has a citrus flavour similar (but different) to lemon. I love smoked sturgeon. Main: Cast iron pan fried pork steak with flower shiitake, toaster oven roast potatoes and, on the side plate, 鹤斗白 (hè dǒu bái) simply stir fried with a smidgeon of garlic. Dessert: A six pack of beer! (OK! Two six-packs!)

That is one of the reasons I seldom buy veg in supermarkets. I live alone and don't need 18 tomatoes, thank you! Instead, I use the local wet market where I can buy one tomato if need be (I never have!) or just enough of what I need. They all know me and happily oblige. I've been going there 25 years. The supermarket staff changes every day and they don't know me from Adam and don't care, either. (Not blaming them as people!)

The best way to do asparagus, in my humble.

The main trouble with term 'bok choy' is that, in Chinese, it simply means 'cabbage' which covers hundreds of different varieties. It's a family, not a type.

No. I know what that is. Different.

I seem to have started a civil war in China over this one. One friend called it 'Shanghai baby bok choy'. So I asked my Shanghainese friend what she called it and she said "Never seen that in my life!"

Yeah. I know it gets called that, but it isn't the name used in China. And curly 'baby bok choy' is not the same as regular 'baby bok choy', is it? Only the former has that cup-shaped interior.

When I first moved to China (1996), virtually no western food was available. Butter, olive oil, sardines, anchovies, bread, onions, pasta, capers, coffee and certainly, cheese were all distant dreams. But slowly it changed. I remember the first time I found olive oil. The first time I took a selfie (or is that shelfie, now) was of me holding a bottle of EVOO I had found! I sent the pic to my family in celebration! I'm still not the selfie type, though. Now EVOO is in every supermarket. As is pasta. We found one shop in town which carried random imports. Butter, liver pâté, anchovies etc. We called it the butter shop. And one day, we even found a bakery making really good French bread. Today, there is very little I can't get. China adopted on-line shopping very early on. In fact, China's equivalent of Black Friday is a bigger earner by far! And while most of the food is, naturally, Chinese there are also a lot of sellers of imported goods. Still can't get haggis, though!

I just weighed one of my eggs. 34g. So same ballpark.

Here is a brassica variety I don't recall seeing before. In Chinese, it is 鹤斗白 (hè dǒu bái, which is untranslatable into anything sensible*), but I have been unable to find a proper English name or a more specific scientific name. Each head is about the same size as what many of you call baby bok choy**. 鹤斗白 The leaves of this one are darker and curled and the whole head forms a sort of cup shape (which is the meaning of the second character. I'll be having it with my dinner later and shall report on the taste. * The name translates literally as 'crane (the bird) cup-shaped white) ** but the Chinese don't - it's called Shanghai greens here. Baby bok choy here is something different. See up thread.

Nah. I've eaten top grade beef and pork and still been unimpressed by the beef..

Interesting. I too, prefer pork to beef every time. I've never understood the fascination with steak and I have had them in MIchelin restaurants. Yes, prefer all the other proteins. Pork, lamb, seafood, duck, chicken, snails, hamster, snake. Camel ain't bad! The only cattle-related thing I regularly eat is yogurt.

These are the smallest chicken eggs I've ever seen. Heading down to quail size. And I totally misjudged the cook on them. Over-boiled eggs on toasted muffins.

Yes. I've never worked out what that's about. They do have a thing about saxophones here, though. Santa Claus is regularly shown playing one and they actually think Kenny G is a musician! One of my first batch of students in China came with a couple of her friends to see me - bearing peanuts to munch on during the visit. She ate most of them herself and I renamed her Peanut, to everyone's delight. She is still called Peanut 25 years later and proudly uses the name on Chinese social media. Lovely lady. She did shock me during that visit. One of them asked me what my hobbies were and I turned the question back to them. Peanut said "I love sex!". I spat out my mouthful of beer. This very demure,virginal Chinese girl said that? That contradicted everything I'd been told about young Chinese women. Turned out she had accidentally mispronounced "sax". Yeah! Being a Kenny G fan was her only sin!

Well, as you know, Western people add tons of black pepper to everything. We have black pepper sauce on our cornflakes! Everyone in China knows that! They have gotten much better at serving cold drinks (sadly including the red wine!), although you do still sometimes have to specify that's what you want. I've trained them well! 冰的 (bīng de), meaning iced is the magic word.

It certainly looks like it.

Yeah. I've had tra vai tea in Huế.

If not the same thing, they are very closely related. I've been told mine only exist here, too. Not so.

Here is one most of you may not know. Known here as 五指毛桃果 (wǔ zhǐ máo táo guǒ, literally five-finger hairy peach fruit), these are Ficus simplicissima Lour., a type of Asian fig. In the local Zhuang language, they are known as 牛奶子 （niú nǎi zǐ- meaning ‘milk') because of its milky interior. It'd call it 'sap' rather then milk. It also 'bleeds' from the stems. They are slightly sweet and, even here, kind of rare.

Wow! I haven't seen or thought of that in about 60 years.

Escoffier's Guide to Modern Cookery 1907 edition is now online and searchable. \\ Here.

I had a bit of a shock yesterday. I had decided to top up my reserves of Portuguese sardines and order nine cans from my usual supplier. My delivery turned up yesterday and had only one can (you can't even order one can - and they had charged me for nine). A quick phone call and I was refunded for all nine and told to accept the one can free as an apology. They then explained that they are out of stock and don't know when they can restock them, if ever! I was in despair for at least ten minutes, then got back online and searched for an alternative supply. Almost immediately I found I can get the same sardines at a much lower price. Instead of three cans for ¥89.74, the new (to me) supplier does 5 cans for ¥79.14! Bargain! Next time I may just order 25 cans at a mere ¥373.70!

Very sensible. I was born in St. Andrews so I know the area well. Love kippers but my favourite fish in Scotland is Arbroath Smokies. Arbroath Smokies

I very rarely eat desserts. Even more rarely make them. About once every five years I may make an apple crumble. If I could find rhubarb here, I'd crumbelate that too!

Hugh Fairly Whatshisname is correct. The names are completely variable depending on location. I'd never come across the word 'pikelet' until about four years ago (I'm also in my 70s) and assumed it was some kind of fish! Still not convinced I am wrong.