liuzhou

Another new one (at least to here) turned up in the supermarket this morning. 南非冰草 (nán fēi bīng cǎo), literally 'South African Ice Grass', Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, is known in English as 'common ice plant', 'crystalline ice plant' or just plain 'ice plant'. Native to southern Africa and southern Europe, it is a succulent, now naturalised (sometimes invasively) in North and South America and Australia. It is a popular vegetable in Japan where it was first successfully cultivated on a commercial scale. Now it is grown in northern China, especially Shandong. The ice name comes from the bladder cells or water vesicles resembling ice on the leaves and stems. The leaves and stems (and seeds) are all edible. I'm guessing the locals here will just stir fry it. In its native South Africa, the leaves and stems are often pickled. As to taste, it is slightly sweet, with a fresh herbal taste; the texture is pleasantly crisp. The plant has the ability to absorb salt, so be careful with seasoning.

Soft boiled eggs and muffins. Served on a random passing banana leaf for no good reason.

But. Before I go, let me say that I bought some banana leaves today after being inspired by writing about them a few days ago and steaming a fish yesterday. Here they are. They are sold rolled up and covered in plastic wrap. Unrolling them reveals these The longest segment of leaf is 107 cm / 42 inches long. The floor tiles are 30 cm / 1 foot square. I'll be steaming more fish soon in some of them. Thai style, probably, but could be Chinese, too.

I've covered most of the important herbs and spices (and a few obscure ones), but there are hundreds more. I have some non -eG stuff I need to work on over the next few days, so I'm going to pause my new posts in this topic for a bit, although I'll still be popping in and will happily answer any questions or respond to any comments. In the meantime, I leave you with this image of a typical herb shop round these parts. This one is in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, where I live. Most of the herbs inside are dried foraged examples. The fresh stuff, equally wild picked, is out on the sidewalk. Also, most are for medicinal rather than culinary use, but there are exceptions. Nothing is labelled in any language! All great fun!

Vache is female* as is English 'cow'. Boeuf is gender neutral. *I don't mean grammatically feminine, although it's that too.

and then Wontons in chicken broth with chilli, garlic and lettuce. Finished with white pepper.

Yes. 'Chook', originally 'chuckie', is an antipodean corruption of 'chick(en)' and dates back to the 19th century. It changed from 'chucky' to 'chook' in the 1930s.

37. 黄芪 (huáng qí) – Milk vetch – Astragalus membranaceus This is more of a warning than a recommendation. Astralagus is another plant common to the northern hemisphere, but found in the temperate zone. There are over 3,000 species in the family. Not all are edible and some are downright dangerous. As with wild mushrooms, never consume any anything unless you are 110% sure what species it really is. In China and Mongolia, 黄芪 (huáng qí) or 北芪 (běi qí) refers to the root of Astragalus membranaceus aka Astragalus propinquus. It has been used in traditional Mongolian and Chinese medicine (TCM) for over 2,000 years, but there is no scientific evidence it does any good for anything. In fact, most scientific evidence points away from that. The dried root is sliced and sold in my local supermarkets to be added to soups and hot pots, but it is most commonly used here in so-called food supplements such as Lectranal, popular with shamans, food faddists and ‘wellness’ experts idiots who believe it can ‘cure’ hay fever’ a form of allergic rhinitis. The only wellness those people are interested in is the wellness of their bank balances. /endrant So my sincere advice is to have nothing to do with it. Try horse de-wormer instead!

The French didn’t create words to differentiate between animals and meat. Middle English did that, by taking the animal word from Old English and the meat word from French. ‘Boef’ in Old French, ‘bœuf’ in Modern French meant and still means both animal and the meat, as is normal in nearly all languages. ‘Bœuf’ is derived from the Latin ‘bos’ which in turn is derived from the Ancient Greek ‘βοῦς’, the same root which gives us ‘bovine’ etc. ‘Porc’ too comes from the Latin ‘porcus’ meaning both animal and meat. ‘Mouton’ means both ‘sheep’ and their meat in Modern French, too. From Gaulish, the Celtic language used in that part of the world before the Romans turned up. You can still hear traces of it in the Welsh ‘molit’’, Cornish 'mols', Breton ‘maoet’ and Irish ‘molt ram’.

Nope.

The French!

That is easy! It dates back to the 1066 Norman conquest of England. Norman French became the language of the educated, wealthy ruling classes, the politicians, lawmaker, judges etc. Basically the rich. They naturally used their French words for the meats they ate. The French names for the animals "bœuf" for cattle; "mouton" for sheep "porc" for pigs etc. Several more. The peasantry however, who actually used their own language, Old Engish, for the animals. "Beef" was still "cow meat" etc. Both passed down into modern English. The Old English came to represent the animals and the French the meat. This theory has been disputed, but I've never seen any credible evidence to debunk it. I have never found another language which displays this disparity between animal and meat.

Many years ago, I managed to train my No. 1 fish supplier not to automatically scale, gut and prepare my purchases for the only dish she knows how to cook. She often serves me before other people who are in line, as she knows she only has to throw my fish into a bag, weigh it, print out a ticket, attach said ticket and I will go away happily to pay for it. For her other customers, she has to descale, gut and, depending on the species and said customers' whims, then render it suitable for cooking to their recipe. I prefer to do that myself. Today, however, I decided to do it her way, but habits took over and she did no preparation at all and the fish was in my hands before I knew it. I shrugged and took it home. Normally for this dish, I would use sea bass, but it seems the sea bass catcher decided to take a day off, so this is red drum, a fine substitute. I was planning to steam it in a vaguely Cantonese style, but with twists. So after doing the descaling, gutting etc., I sliced some garlic and slipped it into the slashes I had made along the body of the fish (both sides). The same with some ginger. Then with some hot red chillies (a twist). I rubbed the body and cavity ,which I had previously degutted, with salt and Shaoxing wine, then left the fish for about 20 minutes. It was then put onto my steaming plate and had more chillies and scallions strategically placed on top. After a pause to take its photo, I placed that into my wok on a rack over water and steamed it. After 10 minutes I transferred the fish to a serving plate over some chayote shoots (my spellchecker just tried to "correct" that to "coyote shoots", which would have confused you!) And added a quarter of lemon (another twistette). Here it be. Served along with stir-fried Shanghai greens (what you probably call "baby bok choy") and rice. Happy mouth.

I was sent to bed with no supper if my mother caught me blowing on my food! If I'd pee'd in my soup she wouldn't have been any more disgusted!

36. 当归 (dāng guī) – Chinese Angelica – Angelica Sinensis Angelica Sinensis Root There are over 60 types of angelica, which is a tall herbaceous plant that grows at high altitudes across the northern hemisphere, even being found in Northern Greenland and Iceland. Most, however, is to be found in China. The plants are noted for their floral fragrance, but that varies from species to species. Most angelica is used in medicines. The species that most people are familiar with is Angelica archangelica which is used in many alcoholic drinks, such as gin, absinthe, Chartreuse and Bénédictine etc. while the stems are often candied and dyed to decorate cakes etc. But it is Chinese angelica which concerns us today. This is 当归 (dāng guī) or Angelica Sinensis. Less fragrant than A. archangelica, this is again mainly used in TCM, but the dried roots are also used in Chinese cuisine by being ground and used in some spice mixes such as the 13-spice mixture I mentioned before. The roots are also dried and served in slices or small pieces to be added to hotpots and soups etc. It has a slightly floral, but bitter flavour and is reminiscent of juniper berries. Dried sliced Angelica sinensis root It is important for me to note that Angelica sinensis should not be eaten during pregnancy or by anyone planning to become pregnant as, according to this 2020 report from the US Library of Medicine, there is evidence that it can affect the muscles of the uterus, so inducing miscarriage. Another species used in China is 白芷 (bái zhǐ), Angelica dahurica. This is also aromatic but bitter. It has a nettle-like smell and is mainly used in distilled liquors. I know of no kitchen uses nor do I see it very often. Many other species are used only in TCM.

Another day; another breakfast. Pork sausage, blood sausage, fried egg and fried tomato. There was toast on the side.

If I leave butter out on the counter, it turns to butter soup in 15 minutes. It's 35 ℃ / 95 ℉ in the kitchen most of the year and that's before I turn on any stove or oven.

Fastidious? Me? I'm as lazy and sloppy as they come. ETA. Good edit @Margaret Pilgrim

Only if I'm going to spread it on bread or suchlike. If I'm going to use it cooking, I don't usually want curls. Takes too long to get a sizeable amount.

Nothing, except it's sharper than than most knives associated with butter, so can deal with hard, cold, refrigerated butter.

You don't! I'm just a knife collector - not knife fetishist!