liuzhou

This morning, I paid my annual property management fee for 2025. It covers maintenance of communal areas of the apartment building, electricity in communal areas and elevators etc. Also, my water. It wasn't a lot - just short of $150 USD equivalent. A few minutes ago someone turned up at my door with this. A 5 kg sack of 香米 (xiāng mǐ), literally 'fragrant rice. It is locally grown. A 'thank you' for paying the above (although I bet I paid for it really. Or perhaps I shouldn't be so cynical?). Also, early in the day I received a ¥100 voucher from Taobao (China's Amazon-like on line shopping site) for having spent most of my pension through them! That's $13.74 at today's exchange rate. Still.

Or maybe not. They are all marked sold out! But I'm in the wrong business. The bowl and spoon set I bought cost $3.50 USD! for two; that company was charging $35 for two sets reduced from almost $60!

I buy these. Bamboo charcoal. $1.80 for 10. They do the job. Obviously, they are Chinese but something similar should be available, I guess.

Some of you may be interested in this Guardian article about panettone. Although it appertains to the UK, it is still indicative of the interest in this festive food. ‘£60 ($76) for Dolce and Gabbana’: how posh panettone is becoming a Christmas staple

Basa fish (Pangasius bocourti), black rice, stir fried baby leaf mustard with garlic and pickled baby lotus shoots. The fish is known in English as swai, river cobbler, cobbler, basa, pangasius or panga depending on region. Here in China it is farmed and known as 巴沙鱼 (bā shā yú), In its native Vietnam it is cá basa and in Japan バサ and Korea 베트남메기. It is also farmed in those countries. I breaded it in yellow panko after a long hunt for such panko which didn’t use cØrn to supply the yellow colour. Most do. But I succeeded! The other half of the fillet was also eaten. The black rice is sometimes known as ‘forbidden rice’, referring to a legand that it was once reserved only for the emperors family, although there is little evidence for that, More likely it was only consumed by the upper classes due to its scarcity and resultant high prices. The lotus root is bought already pickled in white rice vinegar. The pickled chilli is from the pickle bag.

These are the makings of my lunch. Caprese salad in a large ciabatta bun. Homemade buffalo mozzarella balls, tomato, the last of my balcony basil for this year. EVOO just out of shot. (The small white tubes are for something else later.)

I already have a couple of these coconut shell bowls and love them. Saw they were advertising a bowl and coconut spoon combo and had to bite. just the thing for my morning congee!

Had just enough minced ostrich meat left from dinner last night to make another burger for lunch today, so

Two large 肉包 (ròu bāo), minced pork steamed bao buns.

My New Mug An imaginary landscape scene based on the surrounding karst terrain and rivers. Brightens up my morning coffee.

Perhaps you may prefer some hamburger carpet slippers?

It was advertised as a wearable Shrimp Pillow.

Ostrich burger on ciabatta bun. The ostrich meat is very lean and I was worried it might dry out but it was juicy enough. Ate two. Resting burger and mise Slid to the left a bit when I moved it. Next project: Ostrich meat encased quail scotch eggs. Coming soon.

Bought myself a new scarf. (No. I. Didn't.)

Like many places which have either banned or imposed a punishment tax on single use plastic bags, carrier bags, shopping bags, whatever you call them, China has gone the fine route. The charge however, is miniscule and doesn't apply to small stores or delivery services. I do try to minimise their use or to re-use them, but due to my recent limited mobility, often rely on delivery services. However, some of the bags are very decorative, so I thought I'd share some. Many of them are food-themed. Here are a couple just from the last few days. I'll post any other interesting samples as when I get them Also, of course, I'd like to see any of yours.

There are two things with ‘nut’ in their popular names which are found here, but are so un-nut-like that I don’t feel they belong here. I have mentioned them before at the links below. Nutmeg 肉豆蔻 (ròu dòu kòu), Myristica fragrans Houtt, while nut-like is not used as a nut*, but ground as a spice, so gets disqualified. Fox nuts 芡实 (qiàn shí), Euryale ferox are totally misnamed. Which nut thought they were nuts? * Other than by aging relics from the 1960s looking for a high!

And now I’m going for the popular vote. Probably finally in this nutty saga, I come to the world’s most popular “nut”, which isn’t a nut, at all. It is a legume. Arachis hypogaea, 花生 (huā shēng), literally ‘flower (of) life’. The peanut, groundnut, goober, goober pea, pindar or monkey nut. 🥜 Not only are these not nuts; they are also rather odd in that they grow underground unlike most legumes. The scientific name hypogeae means ‘under the ground’ from the Attic ὑπόγαιος. The Romantic languages take their names from Arachis, whereas the Spanish name cacahuate comes from the Nahuatl tlālcacahuatl. My favourite is cneuen ddaear, the Welsh. The peanut is native to South America but is now grown in tropical and semi-tropical areas world wide, with China being the highest producer today. A large proportion of China’s production goes to peanut oil which is a major cooking oil in parts of China. 90% of the oil in my local supermarkets is peanut. It is valued for its mild flavour (but it isn’t totally neutral as some claim) and its for its high smoke point of 225°C (437°F). The rest are eaten as roasted nuts, boiled nuts, salted nuts etc same as elsewhere. My favourite are 酒鬼花生 (jiǔ guǐ huā shēng), literally ‘drunkard’s peanuts’ – roasted, salted peanuts with chilli. They also come in a non-chilli version. Drunkard's Peanuts They also appear in many candies, cookies etc. They turn up in sauces and pastes. Most supermarkets also carry peanut butter, both domestic and imported. The American peanut butter and jelly sandwich is unknown, but the hardest part to source would be the bread. Many Chinese dishes incorporate peanuts. Innumerable noodle dishes include them, including this city’s signature dish, luosifen. And of course 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng), known in the west as kung-pao chicken (or variations thereon) traditionally includes peanuts. The recent use of cashews is an American innovation. Gongbao Jiding Then we also get peanut shoots. These are the peanut version of bean sprouts. After all, peanuts are beans, so why not? Peanut Shoots So I leave you with this oddity. Black peanuts. A local cultivar.

窝窝头 (wō wo tóu), steamed bun nests filled with 肉末雪菜 (ròu mò xuě cài), minced pork and 'snow vegetable', which is pickled veg, mainly spicy mustard greens.

I’ve already said I’m going nuts. Now I’m going batty and to the devil. 菱角 (líng jiǎo) are mostly Trapa bicornis although T. natans is also sometimes available. Commonly known, among other names, as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, moustache nut, singhara nut. I call them water caltrops. They also get called water chestnuts but that is a misnomer. Water chestnuts are totally different plants and aren’t nuts in any sense; they are the corms of Eleocharis dulcis. The word caltrop comes from the Old English coltetræppe, this being a name given to various devices that catch or entangle the feet. It then extended to plants that do so. The water caltrops grow underwater up to 15 feet deep, but more typically around 8 feet and can indeed trap the feet. Trapa bicornis are known for their strange appearance, often said to resemble bats’ heads or the devils’ horns, hence the names above. The character 角 – jiǎo in the Chinese name means ‘horns’. Bicornis means ‘two horns’. Some people apparently see a moustache instead. They were once widespread across Asia, Europe and North America. Today, they mostly only survive in Asia; the European caltrops are endangered and the North American variety extinct. The were re-introduced to North America around 1874, but are now regarded as an invasive species from Vermont to Virginia and a noxious weed in Florida, North Carolina, and Washington, as well as in Australia. Trapa natans was illegal to sell or ship in the United States from 1956 until 2020 and subject to a fine and or imprisonment. Water caltrops have been cultivated in China and the Indian subcontinent for their edible nuts for at least 3,000 years. They were used in religious rites in the 2nd century BC and they were mentioned in a Chinese guide to herbal medicines published in 1694 CE with the unsubstantiated claim that they can cure hay fever and alcoholism. The starchy kernel can be eaten raw or cooked but good luck getting intact nuts out of the shells in one piece. They are notoriously difficult to crack. Some people boil them in the shells for twenty minutes then attempt to break in. Care is required as the horns are very sharp. The taste is pleasantly similar to that of chestnuts, with a cooked potato texture. Water caltrops are most often eaten as part of a tradition dinner for Mid-Autumn-Festival which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar (which falls between mid September and early October by the Gregorian calendar – October 6 in 2025). They are also used to make jams, drinks and ground into flour and used to make pancakes and fritters etc.

I've been many places where water was more expensive than beer. Makes you wonder where the get the water they use to make the beer. Some beers I've been offered, I could make a good guess!

The translator in your mouth. There's more to saliva than meets the eye tongue. here's the lowdown on how saliva helps us differentiate flavours and even scents. How saliva changes the flavor of food

Today I’m going to be peeking at another nut. Carya illinoinensis is formally 长山核桃 (cháng shān hé tao), which literally means ‘long, mountain walnut’ but less formally and more commonly 碧根果 (bì gēn guǒ), meaning 'jade root nut’. They are in fact a type of hickory. The ‘long’ in the first name points to them not being true nuts but yet another drupe. I’m talking about the humble pecan. Pronunciation varies regionally to the extent that the US National Pecan Growers Association felt obliged in 1927 to choose one while acknowledging the others as legitimate variations. A classic case of hedging their bets. They opted for puh-KAHN, IPA: /pəˈkɑn/ with the stress on the ‘can’, stating: Of course the good people went on pronouncing it as they always had done. The word comes from the native name of the nut in various Algonkin dialects, e.g. Cree pakan, Ojibway pagan, Abnaki pagann, suggesting they couldn’t decided either! The nut itself comes from the southern USA and northern Mexico in the Mississippi region. Although known to the Native Americans and the early colonists, commercial cultivation began only relatively recently – in the 1880s. Nearly all cultivation still takes place in their native range. The pecans here are imported from the USA. As elsewhere, they are used as eating nuts on their own and incorporated into baked goods, but aren’t a mainstream choice. Searching Taobao, China’s Amazon equivalent, for ‘pecans’, returns more instruments of torture for opening the damn things than it does the actual nuts. It is no coincidence that the original Algonquin name meant something like ‘that which is cracked with an instrument, by a stone or hammer’. I heard a rumour that, in the nuts’ native area, people put them into some sort of pie! Obviously fake news! I searched the Chinese internet for ‘pecan pie’ and all I got was children’s comic books! Who starts these stupid stories?

@CantCookStillTry Good to see you back. It seems a while. Your sausage maker's pie is right up my street here in cold China.

A donkey burger and a beer. Hit the spot.

Here’s one grand nut yew may not know. 香榧 (xiāng fěi) is Torreya Grandis, literally ‘fragrant nutmeg yew’ but better known (but not much) as Chinese torreya or Chinese nutmeg yew. They are related to neither nutmegs or yews. These are the seeds of a large conifer endemic to south and South Eastern China. Around 80% are harvested in The Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya Community, a sustainable agriculture heritage site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province where Shaoxing wine originates. These originated in the Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago and are considered to be a living fossil, although people have said that about me. It is know to have been cultivated for at least 1,500 years. There is a similar species in Japan, Torreya nucifera, also known as the Japanese torreya or Japanese Nutmeg Yew. Not very imaginative are they? An American species, Torreya californica has been listed as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on their Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book In addition to be eaten as a snacking nut, Torreya grandis is used in TCM and some of the claims have, unusually, been backed up by modern chemical and medical analysis, It seems that T. grandis does have a number of benefits and curative effects on the human body; for example, it has an inhibitory effect on lymphoblastic leukemia, and also has the effects of regulating blood lipids. In addition, the paclitaxel in the plant’s leaves, bark, and arils can be used to treat a number of types of cancer. Take that as you will; my only medical qualifications are knowing how to call an ambulance and shouting ”more painkillers, nurse!’ These are 芥末味脆皮香榧仁 (jiè mo wèi cuì pí xiāng fěi rén), Mustard-flavoured crispy torreya kernels. The ‘shell’ isn’t the nut’s original shell, but an edible coating. Although the English on the packaging says ‘Wasabi Torreya’, there isn’t a drop of wasabi in them. It’s the usual fake stuff made from mustard and horseradish. The Chinese says it correctly. Still, I’m quite partial to these.