liuzhou

It always was! It's meaning has never been defined by chocolate. The original definition and still the most common current definition is Only one of my many dictionaries mentions chocolate and that is just given as an example; not a defining feature.

小笼包 (xiǎo lóng bāo). Soy sauce and Zhenjiang black vinegar dip.

I have no objection to it. It's been around since the 18th century and developed its figurative meaning in the 19th. If we were to ban all words which have changed meaning or have taken on figurative meanings there would be very little language left. Its meaning is nearly always clear from the context. The origin of 'twee' is also the same. It is a childlike corruption of 'sweet'. I would also bring back the now rare 'bonbonnière', a small fancy box to hold sweets.

These sausages were hand made by an amazing 95 year-old woman of the the Dong ethnic minority. She is illiterate and speaks only an unusual Dong dialect spoken by only around 20 similarly aged people. Her language has no written form. I can only communicate with her through her daughter who can speak her dialect, but not fluently. The daughter also speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, standard Dong, French and English (all fluently) and has a doctorate in anthropology (which she studied in French). The mother is ferociously independent and still makes her own food and clothing, grows vegetables and slaughters pigs and chickens at the drop of a hat! And makes sausages. But, on rare visits to the city, refuses to use elevators or escalators - they are the work of the devil! Like many of the older generations of some ethnic minorities she has a strong taboo against being photographed, so no picture. Sorry. The sausages are pork with glutinous rice and are quite spicy.

Yes. Those machines are universal. The sausages may or may not be.

Even worse than the 'train sausages' above are these monstrosities. 'Pork' sausages which sit all day on these revolving heated rollers in cabinets in many convenience stores and shopping malls. Sold on a stick and dripping with grease - I've had drier soups! A disgrace to the name sausage. People refuse vaccines because they 'don't know what's in them' but willingly digest these obesity bombs! 😳

I had to laugh when I saw this. My usual horse meat vendor was out of stock in the sausage department when I tried to reorder some the other day, so I went to one I hadn't used before and ordered a kilo of their smoked horse sausage. It arrived yesterday evening. To my amazement, instead of a kilo of sausages, I got a kilo of sausage. One huge sausage weighing a shade under a kilo but well within their specified tolerance. More information and images on the Chinese Sausage topic.

My usual horse meat vendor was out of stock in the sausage department when I tried to reorder some the other day, so I went to one I hadn't used before and ordered a kilo of their smoked horse sausage. It arrived yesterday evening. To my amazement, instead of a kilo of sausages, I got a kilo of sausage. One huge sausage weighing a shade under a kilo but well within their specified tolerance. The intention was to freeze the sausages, but I can't fit this monster into the fridge whole, so I've halved it. I did slice one piece off to let you see the interior. When I get round to cooking some, I'll add some images.

Spiral peeled pineapple. This one was in the supermarket today and had been peeled out of sight, so no pics of process, yet.

These little turds are about 4 inches / 10 cm long and are sold as 方家柴火丸子 (fāng jiā chái huo wán zi), which literally means 'Fang family firewood balls', but they are sausages, just the same. The name carries rustic implications in Chinese but in fact they are factory made in Hunan. They are smoked pork and pork blood sausages and quite dense for their size, each sausage weighing 5½ ounces / 156 grams. Not bad; not great.

Yeah. Everywhere. When I lived in Hunan, there was a woman who stood outside the gates of a local college with an oil drum stove. She only sold two things. Deep fried sprigs of coriander leaf / cilantro and similarly deep fried 'train sausages' which she first cut as in the image below, fried, then drenched in hot chilli sauce. Oddly compelling after a night on the beers. The coriander I could eat any time.

We were invited down to dinner with the Maids of Honour, namely, Mrs. Ogle, Blake, and Howard, which did me good to have the honour to dine with, and look on; and the Mother of the Maids, and Mrs. Howard, the mother of the Maid of Honour of that name, and the Duke’s housekeeper. And here drank most excellent, and great variety, and plenty of wines, more than I have drank, at once, these seven years, but yet did me no great hurt. Samuel Pepys – March 3rd 1669 Been there done that liuzhou - March 4th 2022

Saw this and immediately thought of @CantCookStillTryand her husband, although I don't remember any key involvement there. (I wish to point out the appalling grammar ain't be down to me!

I wouldn't want to give the impression that China is ALL homemade and artisan sausages incorporating exotic meats and made like this: This image is of the packaging of the yak meat sausages above. Far from it. While there are great sausages, there are also a number of companies which have perfected the art of taking pork (and chicken) and turning it into a wide range of products, all labelled with the names of the different styles they are, while simultaneously making them taste exactly the same. Of nothing. The worst offenders are those who make these revolting objects or as I call them "train sausages". Made from mechanically recovered meat and preservatives and with the texture of wet cardboard, they were for many years all you could buy on long, slow train journeys (the longest I ever took lasted five days!) along with your instant noodles. Today, China has the world's most extensive high speed train service and somewhat better catering. Yes, these sausages persist. I have no idea who eats them. They tend to come in two flavours - pork or chicken, but taste of neither. The quality of the sausage is reflected in the price $4 USD for 90 sausages (approx 4½ pounds). And that is overpriced!

Looks terrible, I know, but tasty. Soy sauce braised chicken legs with stir fried yak sausage and cabbage over rice.

Horse meat is eaten all over China, especially in the north and in the far western province of Xinjiang. It is also popular in Guilin, Guangxi's tourist city where there are many horse restaurants. These are usually identified by a no messing picture of a horse on their signage. There is at least one here in Liuzhou. Their horse noodles are very good. Horse is one of my favourite meats, only slightly pipped by donkey, but that's a tale for another day. Adjacent Horse Meat Restaurants, Guilin, Guangxi These horse meat sausages 咸马肠 (xián mǎ cháng) or 熏马场 (xūn mǎ cháng) are from Xinjiang and are heavily smoked. Smoked horse meat jerky is also popular.

By long standing tradition and precedent, 'food' here is allowed to encompass drink.

Stornoway is just over 9,000 miles away from me, so not very local. It was more local when I was a child - a mere 186 miles. I assume you mean morcilla. It is made more like the Chinese version in that it uses rice. No. I can buy any part of the pig, except its squeal.

Most people probably think of yaks as being Tibetan, but their habitat stretches much wider. Also parts of China other than Tibet itself are on the Tibetan Plateau, including Qinghai, parts of Yunnan, Gansu and Xinjiang and western SIchuan provinces in west China. Yaks are also found in Inner Mongolia many miles away. These sausages are yak meat from Sichuan. Apart from the yak meat they also contain chili, Sichuan peppercorn, salt, baijiu (Chinese liquor), chicken seasoning, spices, sugar, MSG, and preservatives in a natural yak intestine casing. They come in three categories. Lightly spiced (by Sichuan standards that means quite spicy), medium (very spicy) and extra spicy (incendiary). These are the medium version. The packaging says to wash them and then boil for 25 minutes. I don't do that. I fry 'em (preferably in yak butter ghee). Alternatively I may place some on top of my rice in the rice cooker. They really flavour the rice. Recommended storage time after opening vacuum pack: Fridge 3 days; Freezer 180 days. I freeze them, but have never gotten close to 180 days.

There are very seldom snails in the dish. They are used in the broth but then discarded. That said the image looks like a very underwhelming luosifen. It should be bright red from chili!

I know! I know! It's friendly aliens trying to protect us from evil!

I read that Los Angeles based chain Qin West Noodle is featuring luosifen on its menu (stupidly labelled in English as 'Liu Zhou Soup'. In fact, all their English names are somewhat silly.) Anyone close to one and willing to take one for the team? I'd love to hear about it. Or not.