liuzhou

35. Preserved Ginger – 酸姜 (suān jiāng) - Pickled Ginger, 干姜 (gān jiāng) - Dried Ginger, plus I’ve mentioned preserved garlic; I’ve mentioned preserved chillies; so now it’s time to complete China’s holy trinity. First up, we have 酸姜 (suān jiāng), pickled ginger. I’ve only ever seen young ginger pickled. It is both home made and sold in markets, street stalls and supermarkets. I usually make my own. This is exactly the same as the pickled sliced ginger used in Japanese cuisine as a palate cleanser. Here is a commercial version. 嫩姜 (nèn jiāng) means 'tender ginger'. Then we have the dried ginger, (干姜 gān jiāng). This is used to make ginger tea, or powdered to make ginger soup. Ginger Soup Mix Finally we have crystalized ginger. I've only ever seen this once. but no worries, I make my own. liuzhou's home made crystalized ginger.

Yeah, thanks. Like @Anna N, I worked it out in the end. Hey! I hadn't had my first coffee!

I just think this is weird. But first, I admire how, in Chinese dinner parties at home (or in a restaurant), no one thinks twice if offered a store-bought dish along with home cooked. This was a friend's food a few days ago. She has given her permission for me to post it here. I could make out that plastic box contains what I took to be salmon, some slices of lemon and what appears to be mayonnaise, but to be sure I asked her. She sent me the ingredients label, which fortunately she still had. This lists the ingredients as: Atlantic salmon, butter, mayonnnaise, garlic, vegetable oil, Moravian cheese, salt, lemon and spices. This is odd in itself. Moravianan cheese, I'm taking to be Olomoucké tvarůžky, the soft cheese from Loštice, Moravia, in the Czech Republic, rather than the Italian-sounding Gran Moravia, the hard cheese, also made in the Czech Republic, but using traditional Italian methods. But who knows? Not my friend. But what really spooks me is that it comes with clear instructions on how to cook the dish: Home oven: Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200℃; or pan fry on a low heat for about 3 minutes. Yet, there it is on the table, clearly uncooked. Of course, I asked my friend. "Oh! I didn't notice that! I thought it tasted a bit strange, but just guessed that is what foreign food is meant to taste like!" Full marks for being adventurous, zero for reading her own language. P.S. She teaches Chinese language in a high school!

34. 干豆腐 (gān dòu fu) – Dried Tofu As well as fermenting tofu, it is also preserved by drying. 干豆腐 (gān dòu fu)* comes in many formats. Some are also flavoured by stewing with spices etc, first. Some are dried then smoked. Here are a few. Dried Tofu Layer Cake Dried Tofu Layer Cake Dried Tofu Shapes White Dried Tofu 豆腐卷 (dòu fu juǎn) Tofu Roll Tofu Roll Unwrapped 5-Spice Tofu Red Tofu "Noodles" White Tofu Noodles A Different Type of Rolled Tofu Smoked Tofu "White Chicken" Tofu Here in Liuzhou, a highly popular tofu iten is 腐竹 (fǔ zhú), which is made from the skin which forms on the top of the soy milk when being made into tofu. The layer of skin is lifted off and dried. Often it is rolled into sticks. Dried 腐竹 (fǔ zhú) Rehydrated 腐竹 (fǔ zhú) Fried 腐竹 (fǔ zhú) 腐竹 (fǔ zhú) is an essential part of Liuzhou's signature dish, 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn) or 'river snail rice noodles', but is also used in other dishes. 柳州螺蛳粉 (liǔ zhōu luó sī fěn) Lamb with 腐竹 (fǔ zhú) Tofu is also frozen, but this is not to preserve it. Freezing then thawing regular tofu makes it spongy, so ideal for soaking up sauces and hotpot flavours. * Sometimes the 干 (gān) meaning 'dried, is at the end - 豆腐干 (dòu fu gān). The meaning is the same.

Confused me too!

Oh no! That is so sad.

It was very unusual for me; normally I'm a light breakfaster. But then, I'm not usually up at 5am either. Unless I'm on the way home from the night before, which wasn't the case this time.

5 a.m. Sunday morning. Sausage, Egg and Chips. Plus Tomato. Hunanese blood sausage, fried duck egg. I can cook in my sleep!

33. 腊八蒜 (là bā suàn) - Laba Garlic Laba Garlic @Tropicalseniormentioned these on her 'My Pickled Garlic Experiment' topic here. These jade green pickled garlic cloves are traditionally made for the Laba Festival – 腊八节 (là bā jié), held on the eighth day of the 12th month by the traditional Chinese solar-lunar calendar. Hence the Chinese name 腊八蒜 (là bā suàn), 蒜 (suàn) meaning 'garlic'. The preparation couldn’t be simpler. The garlic cloves are washed and put into jars with white rice vinegar (sugar can also be added according to preference), then left for around three weeks in a warm place. That’s it. The longer it is left, the greener it becomes. Laba Garlic in Jars Image Credits I have used these images from Wiikipedia, which I don't normally do, because I can't find any of the garlic now (wrong time of year) and I have no desire to make any just to take a photograph; not that I mind eating it. 1. Laba Garlic - Image by Dennis Wu6; This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. 2. Laba Garlic in Jars - Image by N509FZ; This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

32. 泡椒 (pào jiāo) – Pickled Chilli Peppers; 辣椒干 (là jiāo gān) – Dried Chilli Peppers When Peter Piper picked his peck of pickled peppers, he probably didn’t realise that a peck wouldn’t last a day in the average Sichuan or Hunan kitchen. Both provinces use copious amounts of both dried and pickled peppers, as do Guizhou and Northern Guangxi. These are often made at home but can also be found in every market and supermarket. My downstairs neighbour is drying these outside her apartment window right now. Sichuan Dried Peppers Dried "Pointing to Heaven" chillies - 指天椒 (zhǐ tiān jiāo) 米椒 (mǐ jiāo, literally 'rice peppers') drying in the sun. Pickled Peppers Pickled Red Chillies Pickled Small Green Peppers Commercially produced 小米椒 (xiǎo mǐ jiāo) - Pickled Small Rice Peppers Commercially produced 小米椒 (xiǎo mǐ jiāo) - Pickled Small Rice Peppers 灯笼椒 (dēng lóng jiāo) - Lantern Chilli (very hot!) 灯笼辣椒酱 (dēng lóng là jiāo jiàng) - Lantern Chilli Paste (very hot!) There are many more, to which I shall doubtless return.

That last blood sausage is always cooked, usually in dishes as shown in the video I linked to. The main Hunan condiment, if you call it that, is chilli. That said, those tofu and blood sausages contain minimal amounts of blood compared with most blood sausages around the world. I do not detect any metallic taste in any blood sausage, but that may differ for other people.

Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Fish and Rice(eG-friendly Amazon.com link) has been published today in Chinese translation. This is the third of her books to be translated and published in China, following Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). A rare honour and a rare achievement.

31. 农家柴火丸子 (nóng jiā chái huo wán zi) – Peasant Family Firewood Balls Now, I know you are looking at the picture and thinking “they’re not balls”, and of course, you’re right. But that’s their name (sometimes they are balls). They’re not firewood, either. Or made by peasant families; at least these ones weren’t. What they are is firewood smoked tofu and pigs’ blood sausages. The ingredients as listed are: Soy beans, water, pork, pigs’ blood, vegetable oil, salt, chilli, Sichuan peppercorn, star anise and cassia bark. They are a speciality of Hunan, especially 邵阳 (shào yáng), a city in the south-west of the province. These I like. There is video on their preparation and usage here. ht

I have many friends here who like it a lot, but it escapes me!

Shrimp (with garlic and a little doubanjiang), wakame, and crab roe. Orzo.

30. 肉松 (ròu sōng) - Pork Floss 肉松 (ròu sōng) - Pork Floss When I posted regarding preserved meat products earlier, I had this in mind, but didn’t have any to hand. You’ll see why in the next paragraph. To quote myself from something I wrote in 2012 It is served on top of congee (rice porridge) or rice, and stuffed into steamed buns, cakes and breads. It is even eaten as it is for a snack. I'd serve with it with c@rn, if I allowed either anywhere near my kitchen! There is also a version made from fish - 鱼松 (yú sōng). It smells and probably tastes like urine-soaked mattresses.

Well, many non-scientific fish names are surprisingly imprecise. Anchovies, for example, comprise over than 140 species in 17 genera, according to some accounts.

Trachurus novaezelandiae There are many shads,

The yellowtail shad is sometimes sold, mislabelled as salted anchovies. But do make a good substitute, unless of course you are one of the anchovy haters. Me, I love 'em.

Not so different from snacking on beef jerky really. I mean in principle.

The larger ones, mainly in stocks, soups, hot pots etc. The smaller ones as snacks.

29. 鱼干 (yú gān) - Dried Fish As promised, I get to dried fish. As I mentioned upthread, fresh saltwater fish is difficult to find in the interior of China, but for centuries fish has been dried and shipped overland. Here is the selection from one supermarket, yesterday. Note: It is sometimes difficult to know what some fish species here are, even when I have the Chinese name. Names differ from place to place and many species simply don’t have English names. But I think I’ve cracked most of this lot. In no particular order: 鲨鱼干 (shā yú gān) - Dried Shark 多味鱼 (duō wèi yú ) - Dried Yellow Croaker 巴浪鱼 (bā làng yú) - Yellowtail Scad 春只鱼 (chūn zhǐ yú) - Honnibe Croaker 海鳗鱼段 (hǎi mán yú duàn) - Dried Conger Pike 红鱼干 (hóng yú gān) - Dried Red Snapper 鳕鱼干 (xuě yú gān) - Dried Cod 金线鱼干 (jīn xiàn yú gān) - Dried Boregata 面条鱼 (miàn tiáo yú , literally 'noodle fish') - Pacific sand lance 浦鱼鳍 (pǔ yú qí) - Dried River Fish Fin and these as were merely labelled as seafish.Very helpful. 湖南小鱼 (hú nán xiǎo yú) - Hunan Little Fish I often buy Hunan Little Fish to snack on. Usually with shichimi togarashi as above, or just flaked chilli.