liuzhou

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!

It was the equivalent of $33 CND here, inc delivery.

Yes, the wikipedi article on champagne is surprisngly good for once!

Depends where you are. Most major countries agree that only sparkling wine made under strict conditions and specifications in Champagne, France can legally be named champagne. The USA is the stand out exception. They adopted the international standard in 2006 (over 100 years after mostly everyone else). The name can still be used in the US for non-Champagne champagnes if they were used on a specific product prior to 2006 and also give the true origin.

That is decidedly NOT champagne!

Today, I took possession of these. Three butter cutters. Now, you may be asking why I have three of the things. Well, I thought I'd take up butter cutting as a fetish, just to see how that works out. Or I bought them online and there was a minimum order of three. Some lucky souls will be getting one each for Christmas. Now I just need some butter! I'm right out and it's too hot to to risk it taking three days or longer to get here. I think I just failed the butter cutting fetishist's entrance exam!

35. 箬叶 (ruò yè) – Bamboo Leaf and 芭蕉叶 (bā jiāo yè) – Banana Leaf Bamboo Leaves Bamboo (竹 - zhú) is wonderful! It is used in so many ways. We eat it; we cook in it; we serve food in it; we eat with it (bamboo chopsticks); we make clothes with it; we make houses with it; we use it as scaffolding and props in building houses; I have seen bamboo keyboard and mouse sets which I could use to type and post this; and much more. It is also a beautiful plant. And yet, it is a type of grass in the Bambusoideae family. Not all types of bamboo are edible though and even those that are require special treatment to make them safe as many contain toxic taxiphyllin which turns to cyanide in the gut. But it is one herbal use that I am thinking about here. Bamboo leaf - 箬叶 (ruò yè). Bamboo Leaves The leaves are regularly used to wrap dumplings, especially 粽子 (zòng zi), the glutinous rice dumpling favourite which is mainly eaten around the Dragon Boat Festival which usually takes place in June by our calendar. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month by the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. In fact, so associated with the festival are they, that they are often just called 粽叶 (zòng yè), meaning ‘zongzi leaves’. "Zongzi Leaves" The sticky rice and flavourings are wrapped in the leaves and then steamed. The leaves, of course, hold the dumpling together while the are cooked, but also impart a delicate bamboo flavour and aroma to the contents. The leaves are not eaten. Zongzi Zongzi Bamboo leaf is available in every supermarket year round, but especially June. Bamboo stems are also attractive fodder for Omphisa fuscidentalis, the bamboo worm, known in Chinese as 竹虫 (zhú chóng). They eat their way into the stem, then are harvested by people in SE Asia and China’s Yunnan province as a delicacy! They too take on the bamboo flavour. Yes I’ve tried them! I'll spare you the pictues! Banana leaves (蕉叶 - jiāo yè) from the herbaceous species Musa are used in the same way but, of course, impart a different flavour and fragrance. They are also used as serving dishes in places.

I'm fairly sure that hazlenut paste has been around a lot longer than food processors, so no, you don't need one. My mother made it 70 years ago and never possessed such a thing in her life. She used a mortar and pestle, as @Duvelhas said.

BLT baguette.

That is quite common for all kinds of books. I have one friend (British) who bought Fuchsia Dunlop's "Sichuan Cookery" and loved it so much that, when she saw another book called "Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking" by the same author, she had to have that, too. When it was delivered she was disappointed to discover it she now had two copies of the same book - the only minor difference being that weights were in grams in the UK version but in some obscure medieval concepts like 'cups' and 'taels'or some such in the US version. When Dunlop published 'The Food of Sichuan' later, my friend was suspicious. Quite rightly. It is a revised version of the two she already has. It too, has the same slight differences between the USA and UK versions, but the same cover. It has been translated and to my amusement the Chinese name is 川菜 which is a direct translation of the first title, 'Sichuan Cookery'! Here is my battered and splash-stained copy of the first title. and the third in the UK version

Yes. What @Anna Nsaid. For many years, my late wife and I ate scrambled egg with smoked salmon for Christmas breakfast. Washed down with champagne. Now I'm old and wifeless, I just go straight for the champagne.

How an 18th-Century Cookbook Offers Glimpses of Jane Austen’s Domestic Life

Slow braised chicken legs with black garlic, chillies, fresh turmeric, anchovies and wine. Stir-fried Brussels sprouts with regular garlic. There was a baked potato off-stage to the right.

It has that reputation worldwide. Unfortunately perhaps, there are no studies that back up that reputation.

34. 姜黄 (jiāng huáng) – Turmeric – Curcuma longa Ground Turmeric I guess most people associate 姜黄 (jiāng huáng), turmeric with India. I know I always did. But, in fact, it has been known in China and SE Asia for centuries. In China, it has long been used in TCM, despite there being no real evidence of any therapeutic powers, but in recent years, has became more available to the home cook. It has been used in industrial food production for much longer, both as a colouring agent and for its earthy, bitter, peppery flavour. 姜黄 (jiāng huáng) literally means 'ginger yellow', reflecting that it is closely related to common ginger. The unusual order of the two words suggests that it was originally used for its colour, more than anything else. Here, I see it in supermarkets and in bakery supply stores. It comes in three forms. By far the most common, as it is worldwide, is the ground turmeric. The spice in this bottle is grown in Shandong Province in north-east China. However, I can also get the fresh rhizomes from which the powder is derived. Fresh Turmeric Rhizomes The rhizomes can be stored and used exactly as you would with ginger. And finally I can get the boiled and then dried turmeric which is ready for me to grind myself or just to be dropped into a hot pot or soup. Right now, I have all three in the pantry, although the ground type is running low – time for a restock, methinks. Sliced, Boiled and Dried Turmeric

33. 香料 (xiāng liào) – Spice Mixes I’m guessing that everyone knows five-spice powder. I have no intention of talking much about that here other than to point out again that it is used far more often in the west than it actually is in China! There are literally hundreds of different mixes, many of which are more interesting than boring old 5-spice. And 5-spice is about to be outbid below. There is no way I’m going to cover 100s of mixes but I will start with two I think may be interesting. 1. 干蘸粉 (gān zhàn fěn) – Dry Dip Powder. China has many dips and they are normally offered with every meal, Most are liquid, being based on soy sauce, oils and vinegars flavoured with spices. But there are also dry dips, which are usually served with meats. My favourite is this one which comes in this small can containing 40 grams / 1.4 ounces. It contains sand ginger, cassia, star anise, fennel, sugar, Sichuan peppercorn, chilli, salt, cumin; all of which I’ve mentioned above, except sugar*. It is fragrant and spicy hot. 2. 十三香 (shí sān xiāng) – 13 Spices 香 (xiāng) is an interesting but multi-purpose word in Chinese and difficult to translate. It can mean fragrant; sweet-smelling; aromatic; with relish; with good appetite; (sleep) soundly; popular; welcome; perfume or spice; incense; joss stick. Take your pick. Then when combined with other characters, dozens more meanings. Cilantro / coriander, for example is 香菜 (xiāng cài, literally ‘xiang vegetable’). This popular mix is actually often easier to find here than 5-spice. It contains sand kernels, cloves, angelica, star anise, fennel, pepper, galangal, orange peel, black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, dried ginger, hawthorn, and licorice. Most of which I’ve covered. Will get round to the others soon. It is used in much the same way as 5-spice. Rubs, marinades, hot pots, stir-fries etc. Available in the USA and UK via Amazon and in many Asian markets. * Sugar in China - a topic from 2016.

Just to add. I also use a lot of black garlic - both regular cloves and single-headed.

This arrived today. I only bought it for a bit of fun. A can / drink chiller. I tested it with a warm can of tonic water (35℃ / 95℉ ambient temperature in kitchen). Took a lot longer to chill to a decent temperature than it would by my usual method - chucking the can in a freezer for 15-20 minutes. However, I can see it being useful to keep already cooled cans or other drinks in that cool state as I work at my desk, sipping away. It might also be useful for people in offices with no other cooling devices, but I work from home (a little) and have two freezers. I need my cold beer.

I try never to store fresh herbs. I grow most of the ones I use. In pots of various sizes on my balcony and on window sills. I never store coriander / cilantro or grow it. Did try growing it but without much success. Instead, I buy it. Luckily, in the market, it comes unbunched, so I can buy just as much or as little as I like. I kid you not. I could buy as little as one or two stems and the vendor wouldn't blink. So. any I buy (and I buy it nearly every day) is used that day at its freshest.

For me, it varies depending on what I'm cooking and how. I use whole cloves, halved cloves. I mince it, crush it, pound it to a paste. I slice it thickly, thinly, more thinly. I grate it. Mincing it is my go to for most dishes. I also pickle it and sometimes have it raw. I buy both regular bulbs and, more often, single-headed garlic. I have never used or even seen garlic powder. That seems to be an American thing.

32. 芡实 (qiàn shí) – Fox Nut / Gorgon Fruit – Euryale ferox These are normally sold in the spice section in supermarkets or on spice stalls in the open markets. However I wonder if they really should be classified as spice; when I’m feeling kind I’d say they are slightly sweet and a little sour – when I’m feeling mean, they are pretty tasteless. 芡实 (qiàn shí), fox nuts are the dried, split seeds of a type of water-lily. They are also known as ‘prickly waterlily’, ‘Gorgon seeds’ or in Hindi, 'मखाना (makhaana)’. The plant is native to East and South Asia and 90% of the world supply is produced by Behar State in India. They are also grown in China and Japan. They are often added to porridge / congee, used in hot pots and feature in many soups. I’m told that they can be roasted or fried and they puff up like popcorn, although I’ve never seen this in China. More of an Indian thing. Should you want to try them amd your local Asian markets don't have them, try a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) shop. Like almost everything in this topic, they are used medicinally.

To my intense surprise, while in the supermarket picking out the usual, I spotted these! First time ever in a Chinese supermarket. Brussels sprouts. I have bought them online before at great expense, but never seen in a store or market. None of my friends know what they are. Looks like civilisation is arriving! By the way they are known in Chinese as '孢子甘蓝 (bāo zǐ gān lán) which translates as 'spore cabbage'.