liuzhou

So does China.

You don't believe that "British bacon isn't like this" because you ate Danish bacon⁈

Believe whatever you like. The fact is that in almost 70 years of being British, I have never eaten canned bacon; nor do I recall ever seeing it. However a little research does indicate that what little canned bacon is sold in UK, is and has been imported. From the USA!

8. 甘草 (gān cǎo) – Liquorice / Licorice – Glycyrrhiza glabra / Glycyrrhiza uralensis 甘草 (gān cǎo, literally 'sweet grass') is the root of a leguminous plant containing compounds similar in taste to anise although the two plants are only very distantly related. It is widely used in Chinese confectionery as an “artificial” sweetener. The sweetness comes from glycyrrhizic acid, which is between 30 and 50 times sweeter than sugar. Like most of the herbs and spices mentioned here it is also used extensively in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), particularly in the form of a 'tea' made from the root plus other strange roots and what not. But it is its use in cooking in which we are interested. These small slices of the root are often added to hot pot broths and to many noodles dishes, including the very popular Lanzhou beef noodles and Liuzhou's signature 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn - river snail noodles). In case you get bored by the cross-sectional cuts, they sometimes slice it laterally. I rarely use it in my own cooking.

7. 孜然 (zī rán) – Cumin – Cuminum cyminum These, the seeds of a herbaceous plant, are probably China’s most used spice. Apart from being a key ingredient of some five-spice powders, it is used in a variety of other ways. Perhaps most famous are the lamb (and other meat) kebabs (羊肉串 - yáng ròu chuàn) from China’s far west. These are available, grilled over charcoal burners, in roadside night markets in almost every city. Small pieces of fatty lamb (or mutton) are threaded on to sticks and grilled. As they cook, the vendor lavishly sprinkles them with cumin and chilli. Another well known dish, available all over, is Hunan Cumin Beef (孜然牛肉 – zī rán niú ròu). This, I often make at home. It’s a simple dish of fried beef with cumin and copious amounts of green and red chillis. Not one for the chilli wimps. Cumin is sold here both as whole seeds and pre-ground. As always, I recommend buying the whole seeds, lightly roasting them in a dry wok immediately before using and grinding them yourself, either with a mortar and pestle, as I do, or in an electric grinder. The pre-ground stuff, if not already stale by the time you buy it, will lose its flavour very rapidly.

花生糊 (Mandarin Chinese: huā shēng hú; Cantonese: faa1 sang1 wu4*2), literally 'peanut paste' is a Cantonese dessert, so yes, it is Chinese. That said, it is not a common dish, mainly being restricted to Hong Kong and Gaungdong Province where Cantonese is spoken.

I'd agree. Among the Dai people it would be sticky rice. Among the Han majority, maybe; maybe not. Away from Yunnan probably regular "steamed" rice (which is seldom actually steamed). Jasmine rice is very rare in restaurants in China. Too expensive!

Will do later. Not at home right now.

I have contacted by PM her with a recipe.

Indeed. Yangzhou lion's heads are slightly different from the Shanghai version (mostly in the way they are served), but neither are steamed. Or contain eggs.

Hmmm.The three tablespoons of sugar seems widely excessive. Looking through my Chinese language books, no recipe has near as much. In fact, most have no sugar. Same with the three large eggs. Few recipes use eggs, at all. That sounds like a lion's omelette! And not one of my recipes suggests steaming them. They all simmer them in a broth.

6. Pepper – 胡椒 (hú jiāo) - Piper nigrum I suppose I should mention common pepper. Both black and white pepper are available. However, white pepper is by far the most commonly used in Chinese cuisine. The ‘hot’ in traditional ‘hot and sour soup’’ is from white pepper, not chilli. After all, chilli is a relatively new ingredient to Asia having been introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, but not immediately being adopted. That didn't happen until the 18th century. Pepper was introduced from Kerala, India to which it is native, over two millennia ago. The Chinese name 胡椒 (hú jiāo), literally means ‘foreign pepper’. White Pepper 白胡椒 (bái hú jiāo), white pepper, the dried ripe seed of the plant, is sold everywhere, either as whole seeds or, for the terminally lazy and clueless, pre-ground. It is the go-to pepper for all Chinese cuisine, being used in every part of China. That said, it isn’t added to every savoury dish to the extent we do in the west. It, too, is in many five-spice powders. You are never going to see salt and pepper on a Chinese dining table. Black pepper 黑胡椒 (hēi hú jiāo), black pepper, made from the cooked unripe fruit which is then dried, used to be rather difficult to source, but today it is in most larger supermarkets in the cities, again whole corns or pre-ground. In the countryside or small towns, forget about it. It is mainly used in foreign dishes and everyone knows that the only sauce foreigners know how to make is the black pepper sauce lathered over every steak – the only meat foreigners eat. They also pour the same sauce over pasta and call it Italian! Jars of the revolting concoction are available in some supermarkets. Criminal Offence! Many years ago, I bought both types of pepper in these grinders. I've never bought them that way since. I just keep refilling them from small (30g / 1oz) bags which I buy regularly. Illegitimi non carborundum

Buttery muffin and a banana. There was also a glass of tomato juice which I managed (just) not to Bloody Mary-ize!

5. Black Cardamom – 草果 (cǎo guǒ) - Lanxangia tsaoko (or, less often in China, Amomum subulatum) Only distantly related to the green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), black cardamoms are the seed pods of a herbaceous plant in the ginger family. They are dried over an open fire, giving them a distinct, strong smoky flavour. Do not substitute them for green cardamom, which has a much milder flavour. The are sometimes used in five-spice powders, few of which actually contain only five spices. Numbers are often only vague in the Chinese language. More often they are added to hot pots, stews and braises. It is best to crack the pods before dropping them into your pan. They are usually removed before serving. Pre-ground black cardamom is a good buy if you like throwing money away. Always buy the pods. They will last a year or longer in a cool, dark place.

Yes. I'd seen that video. The residual heat technique is very common in many cuisines. I use it almost every day and did so long before I came to China. I have expanded more on Dai culture in this new topic.

I am posting this in connection with the dish mentioned in the Chinese Herbs and Spices topic, where a question arose about the use of mint in Yunnan cuisine. Rather than fully respond there and derail that topic, I thought a new topic would be better. Yunnan, for those who don’t know, is a province in the south of China. Within China, it borders Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. On its southern and western sides, it borders Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Yunnan's Dai people are ethnolinguistically related to the Thai people and most of them live in the south of Yunnan, mainly in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. Xishuangbanna is where that pack of wild elephants which went walkabout come from. They are now safely back home. The area also has wild tigers. I spent Chinese New Year 1998 in the small city of Ruili in Dehong, right beside the border with Myanmar's troubled Kachin State. Every day local people were wandering back and forward over the border, mostly unchecked. I was unable to use the official crossing, but more on that later. It was a fairly lawless region and many goods (and people) were routinely smuggled in both directions. It is near the notorious 'Golden Triangle' and drugs, particularly heroin, were a major problem, as was prostitution. Yunnan had the highest AIDS infection rate in China. On the evening of Chinese New Year’s day, I was invited to a celebratory dinner, all of which was Dai cuisine. Not surprisingly, it was highly reminiscent of Thai and other SE Asian cuisines. However, of the many dishes, none included mint, though other herbs mentioned in the video posted here did appear. Here are a few images of the people, area, and market. Unfortunately, I don't have the photographs of that dinner here. They are back in England. Please remember these images are scans of old pre-digital photographs, so not of the usual quality. These Burmese boys (yes, boys) have crossed into China hoping to sell their brushes. The end of that striped field with the tree in the centre marks the border between China and Myanmar's Kachin State. The field is in China; the tree is in Myanmar. As you can see, no border control whatsover. The Market Do you want chili or chili with that? Wow! I got my chicken and change! Herbery Dai Houses are made from bamboo and the walls roll up to ventilate the inside as required. I want one! One day, I went on a long trek trying to find this monastery / temple (雷装相 - léi zhuāng xiāng) I'd read about and got happily but hopelessly lost. At one point I was wandering down this road, no one in sight, when I came across a deserted village. I don't know how I worked it out, but it suddenly came into my head that I had accidentally crossed the border and was in Myanmar. I turned round and ran back to China. Getting caught in Myanmar, without even a passport, never mind a visa would have me shot as a spy! Back in China, I was standing staring at this sign in three languages, trying to glean any useful information. I knew the bottom language was Chinese, but the other two baffled me. At that time my Chinese reading skills were very limited, so that didn't help either. One of the others is the Dai script, I now know, but can't read. The other possibly Burmese. Don't ask me which is which! As I stood there being puzzled, I saw this orange-robed, Chinese monk approaching. He stopped and asked me in perfect London-accented English if he could help! I was stunned! He explained that he had studied in London when younger before taking holy orders and entering the very monastery which I was looking for. He escorted me to the temple / monastery chatting all the long way.

Quick rule of thumb. If your "cinnamon" is S.E. Asian, it's probably cassia. If it's from Sri Lanka or India. it's probably cinnamon.

My Yunnan friend just got back to me to say she can find mint, but it isn't common. She also said she only knows one dish that uses it. 牛肉薄荷 - Beef mint!

1. Thought so. 2. Maybe, but it's American-Chinese 3. As I already said, Lion's Head Meatballs are definitely a thing in China. Just not that recipe. 4. Good. 5. OK 6. Haha! Here in China we eat rice every day! But not with meat balls. We don't eat them with noodles either. 7. The instructions do say "To cook on the hob. Add the noodles to boiling water for 1 to 2 min, drain and serve immediately." My stress. Also, those are Japanese noodles.

I do have a good friend in Yunnan. I'll ask how common it is. I haven't been there since Mao was a baby.

Well, I'm close to the Vietnam border and like I said can only find it sporadically from one vendor. I do grow it myself. In fact, Guangxi is the major trade route btween the two countries - just not for food. It is source of great frustration to me how little vegetation or any other food is imported from Vietnam. I mean I can almost see the damn place from my window! (Slight exaggeration). There isn't a single Vietnam restaurant in town that I'm aware of. I want to go to Vietnam! But, of course, I can't right now.

I am not objecting to American-Chinese cuisine and I'm sure the result would be tasty, but Susan did say the recipe was "real Chinese". It isn't, if you define 'real Chinese' as how it is made in China, which I think was her meaning.. For a more "real", traditional recipe see Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Fish And RIce (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).

Don't I always? 😂 If it is that recipe, it isn't very authentic. (I've never been impressed by that website). As they say but oyster sauce is Cantonese and not at all traditional in Lion's Head Meatballs. Neither is 5-spice powder. This is a heavily American-Chinese orientated recipe. Pork shoulder is all wrong - they are made from pork belly. They are usually served in a broth. I've never seen them with noodles. I'd like to know what noodles she used that turned to wallpaper paste, and how she cooked them, but I'm afraid to ask; it took a lot of effort to find out what the recipe might be! But noodles turning to paste just means they were overcooked.

4. Fresh Herbs I thought I’d get this one out of the way. It won’t take long. In most of China, the only fresh herb available in supermarkets or other food stores is coriander leaf / cilantro. Known in Chinese as 香菜 (xiāng cài, literally ‘fragrant vegetable’). It is used in thousands of dishes from stir-fries to hot pots to fried rice etc. I always have it in the kitchen. Coriander / Cilantro When I lived in Hunan in the 1990s, there was a woman on the street near my home with a large pan of boiling oil over an old, charcoal-fueled, oil can stove who dropped sprigs of the herb into the oil until it deep-fried to crisp perfection - in seconds. She then sprinkled it with salt and chilli flakes and served it wrapped in paper. It was heavenly. I never passed her without buying some. And it cost almost nothing. Incidentally, Chinese cuisine extremely rarely uses coriander seed. I’ve never once seen it in any store or market, other than a market for farmers, selling the seeds for planting. It is not recommended to eat those seeds as they have been artificially treated with seed germination enhancers. Even online, all the seeds for human consumption are imported. The ones I use (in non-Chinese dishes) are from India. One vendor in my market of choice here does occasionally have mint (薄荷 - bò he), although it is rarely used in dishes – more often in ‘teas’ or ‘herbal medicines’. Mint Parsley is even more rarely seen or used. And that is about it. Some plants like garlic chives, sometimes considered herbs in the west are just considered to be vegetables here.

This one?