liuzhou

I have been Scottish all my long life, have eaten a zillion bridies and have never seen or heard of bridies containing oats.

My fridge is warmer than the kitchen at the moment!

I should add that for the true mapo tofu experience you need 辣豆瓣酱 (là dòu bàn jiàng). Variations of doubanjiang are made all over China (and doubtlessly elsewhere), but the one you want for mapo tofu is this one. The 辣 (là) means 'hot' as in 'spicy'. Sometimes it may also be labelled 红油 (hóng yóu) which indicates it contains chili oil. The most recommended brand is: Pixian Doubanjiang. Pixian is a city in Sichuan famed for its high quality doubanjiang. It is sold internationally, both in jars and in these plastic pouches. Another excellent brand, also from Pixian is Juancheng doubanjiang. I'm not sure how internationally that is sold, but in the USA, Mala Market stock it.. Juancheng Dobanjiang Others can be very unspicy, especially the Cantonese variety.

As @KennethThas noted, Thai chilis are not traditionally used in Chinese cuisine. In fact, I would strongly caution against doing so.They are far hotter and have a different flavor than the traditionally used varieties in Sichuan. If you subbed them for the Sichuanese varieties in the same quantities, you would have mapo inedible. The traditional chilis used in Sichuan are 朝天椒 (cháo tiān jiāo), 'facing heaven chilis' or the similar 七星椒 (qī xīng jiāo), 'seven star chilis'. Dried Facing Heaven Chilis - 朝天椒干 (cháo tiān jiāo gān) They are used pickled and dried (whole and ground). 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng), 'chili bean paste', sometimes transliterated as 'toban-djan' is also used. It is made using 二荆条辣椒 (èr jīng tiáo là jiāo), erjingtiao chilis, another common, distinctive tasting chili in Sichuan. Mapo Tofu normally only contains the chili bean paste and (only sometimes) ground dried facing heaven chilis.

I just found it in a cupboard I would have sworn I haven't opened in a year. Definitely poltergeists at work.

I'll try not to do what I did this morning. Lose my kettle. I mean it has its own place in the scheme of things and in the kitchen and there it was not there this morning. I have spent all day looking for it without success! Found my long lost potato ricer though I find it somewhat dysfunctional for boiling water. I had the kettle this morning and haven't thrown out anything all day; I haven't been out all day. My home must be haunted by spirits of long-deceased anti-kettle activists idiots.

I'll be first to say not the prettiest dish, but it tasted just fine. Braised chicken legs (bone in) with black garlic and asparagus. Zhejiang black vinegar and Vietnamese fish sauce in there, too. And some Sichuan chilli peppers. I don't mess about! Served with crusty baguettes because I was too damned tired lazy to cook rice!

Here is Sichaun style 酸菜 (suān cài)). This is made by fermenting 芥菜 (jìe cai), a type of leaf mustard, in large pots with salt and leaving it for around 30 days while being pressed by heavy weights. This is usually sold with some of the juices drawn from the mustard during processing. Suancai Here is 榨菜 (zhà cài), also from Sichuan (specifically from Chongqing which until 1997 was part of Sichaun, but now ruled directly from Beijing). It uses a different type of mustard and is made by salting and pressing as above, but it is then dried and covered in a chilli paste then left a bit longer. Zha cai Sometimes, but not often, the chilli paste is removed before consumption. Cleaned zha cai. Both suancai and zha cai are often sliced and sold bagged in supermarkets. This below is zha cai from Fuling, a town in Sichuan, famous for its quality zha cai. Both are also made in other nearby provinces.

Hunan certainly does. But it's different from the Sichuan variety - which my brain automatically switches to when I read 酸菜. I should have been clearer but it was 5 am. The menu doesn't mention 酸菜， but does mention (item 58) 榨菜 (zhà cài), which is different.

Yes. I should have realised. Yes, Cantonese is being pushed aside, not only in NY. London's Chinatown was Cantonese, but when I visited in 2019, I heard putonghua (Mandarin) everywhere. My strangest encounter was in Bangkok when I went iinto a small mom 'n pop store to buy something and the elderly couple were chatting in the Liuzhou dialect (a heavily 'corrupted' version of Mandarin). The only people more surprised than me were them, when this crazy westerner joined their conversation in their language!

On looking again, I've realised what you have is the salted Cantonese version. I've never had that, so use your taste to decide.

I thinkn they go well with any fatty meat, where the pickle cuts through the fattiness. It's strange, I never associate them particularly with Hunan, a place I lived for two years, although I guess they would go well with Hunan red-cooked pork, Mao's alleged favourite. My introduction was in Sichuan, although they are also popular here in Guangxi. Used extensively with fish, especially the aformentioned 酸菜鱼. Re the green on green wrapping, I see things like that all the time. Really annoying. My eyesight is not great a the best of times and low contrasts just screw with me.

Is it Sichuan style? I know it is an American version. 鹹酸菜 (xián suān cài) is traditional Chinese, and means salty pickled vegetable and the "salty" is not usually stated. Taste it first. As to draining or not, to you, really. Certainly drained. Whether or not to rinse it depends on personal taste and intended usage. Normally it is not rinsed, but if you find it overpowering that way, go ahead. What dish are you planning on making? 90% of the time it is used for Sichuan 酸菜鱼 (suān cài yú), pickled vegetable fish where the pickle flavour is wanted (but not excess saltiness.

Of course. I just thought I might get some pointers from more experienced users.

Yes, I saw that but I tend to distrust recipes from the manufacturers. Not exactly impartial.

I have been given* a bottle of liquid smoke, an ingredient I have zero experience of, never having cooked with it or knowingly consumed it. I would appreciate any help on how to use it (if I should at all) and any opinions on this brand. I have consulted Mr. Google, but the information there is contradictory, as usual. Unfortunately the label giving tips for usage has been covered over by a Chinese label which doesn't translate the information. * I think I inherited it bcause the person who gave it to me didn't know what to do with it, either.

I'm with you on that one. Unfortunately, the locals here are very much into sticky rice. I loathe the texture in things like 粽子 (zòng zi), a sort of Chinese ethnic minorities' tamale. The taste is fine but I just can't swallow the damned things. I keep being given them at festivals etc and immediately pass them on to other friends and neighbours.

BBLT: Baguette Bacon Lettuce Tomato. In the Making In the hand

Spotted this in the supermarket this morning and was curious. It lived down to expectations and then went lower. The packaging is reasonably attractive, I suppose. Best not to open it. First alarm went off when I read that it isn't even Vietnamese. It's Australian. Removing the lid reveals yet another foil lid and the "cooking" instructions. Pouring some boiling water on some ingredients isn't what I call cooking. Under the foil lid, I find the ingredients. A bunch of dried rice noodles, a small pink bag of dried vegetable, a slightly larger orange bag containing what they call 'seasoning sauce" and a litttle red bag of chilli sauce. Oh, and a folding plastic fork - which was broken and unusable, not that I intended to use it. Who eats phở with a fork? Applied water and waited precisely the instructed 3 minutes. On re-opening the container I found this horror. It doesn't look like phở; it doesn't smell like phở; it certainly doesn't taste like phở. It isn't phở! The rice noodles are mushy; the seasoning is unpleasantly aggressive and not sour (bur bitter) and the chilli sauce just tastes plain off. And there is zero actual prawn in it. Just a miniscule and undetectable amount of 'prawn powder', whatever that is. Absolutely disgusting. Ingredients as listed.

Hand pulled noodles with pork and okra. Marinaded the pork with garlic, ginger, garlic and Shaoxing wine. Stir fried the okra and Chinese celery then added the meat and its marinade. Blanched the noodles then drained them and added to the wok with some soy sauce. Mixed through and ate.

What I learnt today. It involves snacking, but not, for just this once, by me. I was moving stuff around and found a box of mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews etc) that someone had given me a while back for my snacking requirements. They were somewhat stale, so I offered them to the local bird population to help them through this unusually cold winter. Within an hour they had all disappeared from my window sill. Except the almonds. Fussy birds! Maybe they are waiting for me to peel them! Ungrateful little blighters!

Sorry, just noticed this. That is cumin powder. 孜然粉 (zī rán fěn); not a mix.

I dismissed the Brazil answer because that food item was introduced into China via Xinjiang, China's troubled westernmost province where the local language is much more related to Turkish than any Chinese language. Also the culture and religion (Islam) there is very close to Turkish influences. China's relationship with Brazil is almost zero.