liuzhou

Pan fried spiced up* pork steak with morels and button mushrooms, coriander leaf/cilantro and green onion. Chips. *Freshly ground cumin, coriander seed, fenugreek seed and Sichuan peppercorn.

It's doing OK, but seems to have entered a dormant phase. The existing fungi are fine, but no new growth. I know ganoderma is a slower type, so I'm not too concerned, yet.

炒拉面 (chǎo lā miàn ) - stir fried hand-pulled noodles with pork, shiitake and sliced snow peas. Pork was marinated in Shaoxing wine with garlic, ginger, chilli, Sichuan peppercorns and salt fermented black beans. Soy sauce added near the end.

Neither do I. There aren't any here!

Not something I've ever experienced, but then I've never been to the USA.

Is the look because they don't know what it means, though? Or just that they are surprised that you want to drink it that way? The latter seems a lot more likely to me.

I certainly order brandy / cognac / armagnac etc neat as well as good freezing vodka. Some whiskies. Never had a bartender not understand what I wanted, though.

My Chrismas cheese order arrived this morning. That's 2.6 kg / 5lb 11 oz (approx) of Cheddar and 500 grams / 1 lb of Manchego. I'll unwrap it nearer the day. In preparation, I preordered some waxed paper for storage of the Cheddar in smaller pieces. The paper is covered with this bizarre "recipe" for bread. Ingredients include 'bread'! That is fun. That's it. No instructions.

Agreed, but I guess that during the Depression, 'mouthwatering' was a rare luxury for many people. Basic sustenance would have been more important.

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Pork lenderloin steak with frsh shiitake, coriander leaf/cilantro garlic and rice wine. Carb free. But, I've not been in good shape and I haven't really eaten for days and this is me easing back into foodland.

I'm not that strict! I have to accept limitations here, too. A lot of what you can easily find, I can't.

Yes. That sounds exactly like what I thought was 'Chinese' sweet and sour until I arrived in China. One of the very many misconceptions that soon got bust.

and... Shandong style Sweet and Sour Carp.

Here is my take on a Shanghai style sweet and sour spare ribs. The Chinese chives on top are wilting in the residual heat. No gloop or day-glo orange saucing.

Sweet and sour sauce as such, really doesn't exist here in China. Although many dishes do utilise sweet and sour tastes, they are nothing like sweet and sour sauces served internationally. In a quarter of a century living in China, I have never seen sweet and sour chicken. Kung-po chicken (宫保鸡丁 - gōng bǎo jī dīng) does have sweet and sour elements, but they are only a small part of that dish. (Incidentally, when sour is used, it is nearly always in the form of rice vinegar - white or black depending on the dish. Also, the protein is rarely battered, but when it is, it is a very light batter.) In my large collection of Chinese language cookbooks, there isn't a single recipe for a sweet and sour chicken dish and I've never seen it on a restaurant menu. The sweet and sour dishes I have seen have nearly all been fish, but none of them are called sweet and sour. The most common is 松鼠鳜鱼 (sōng shǔ guì yú), the so-called 'squirrel fish' mentioned before. One notable exception to fish is my favourite, that being 糖醋里脊 (táng cù lǐ jǐ, literally 'sugar vinegar (pork) tenderloin') from Sichuan, although it does not resemble western 'Chinese' sweet and sour in any way.

That quote above is from this review of a restaurant. It's one of the most polite sentences I could find in this scathing takedown.

Interesting podcast.

Well, I got round to it last night. Sorry saury, I won't be buying you again. Insipid.

French toast (eggy wholewheat bread) fried in butter. The first of two slices.

Last night: Pan-fried Pacific saury with turmeric rice, garlic, ginger, chilli, fresh green Sichuan peppercorns, lemon, Shanghai greens and mushrooms.

Yes, but that is typical of many Chinese language cookbooks. I suspect that this was a translation from one of them. They tend to be poorly formatted and skimpy with instructions. But remember please, English language cookbooks were the same not that long ago. Writers assumed a lot of prior knowledge.

I haven't seen the cookbook you are referencing, so this is a guess, but hopefully an educated one! They are probably talking about rock sugar - the most common type here - and people do rinse that to get rid of any dust or worse it may have picked up during processing, handling and distribution etc. I wrote about sugar in China a while back in this topic. Rock Sugar From your accounts, the cookbook certainly seems badly written, but not necessarily wrong.

I know how to rinse sugar!

墨鱼 (mò yú, literally ínk fish), Sepia officinalis, Cuttlefish, a further member of the squid and octopus family, is also a popular seafood item here. It is sold fresh, dried and made into seafood preparations such as fish balls etc. The dried is the most popular and is shredded and eaten as a snack or added to hotpots and soups to enhance umami. Dried Cuttlefish The 18th century Chinese cookery classic 随园食单 (suí yuán shí dān) by Yuan Mei praised the high quality of cuttlefish roe, but noted that it is difficult to prepare. I've never seen it. However their ink is sold in bags and used to colour noodles etc. I have a bag of ink somewhere, but can’t find it right now. Here are instead are some dried cuttlefish ink hand-pulled noodles. 墨鱼汁拉面 (mò yú zhī lā miàn) - Cuttlefish Ink Hand Pulled Noodles The cuttlefish is regarded by some as being one of the sea's most intelligent creatures (along with octopus) and so many avoid eating them. Fresh Cuttlefish and Tofu Salad