liuzhou

It's the end of civilisation!

Everyone was supplied with a red hat and apron and sent to wash their hands. Bowls of essential ingredients and bamboo leaves were laid out and everyone got stuck in. The students are in the red aprons and the "museum" staff are wearing white as they assist. The yellow woman is the museum director Concentration A knotty problems The students had a great time, took it seriously, but finally relaxed fora photo session. and even got to eat some zongzi. I passed; I don't mind the taste, but I prefer not glueing my teeth together!

Class begins! Pay attention! After being introduced to the dark arts of Chinese bakery and a "history" of zongzi and the asociated festival, it was time to get serious. This woman came to educate us in the proper procedure by proceeding to introduce the ingredients and how to wrap them together. Bamboo Leaves Roast Pork Cooked Beans Glutinous Rice The Final Product Now it was the students' turn. A few other passing foreigners, teacher and my friends from government joined in.

Today I went to school. I was double booked. One invitation came from an old friend, who teaches in the local vocational school. They run, among other courses, a Chinese language course for foreign students. I was invited to witness a “special lesson”. The second invitation came from some friends in the local government, whom I often work with, and who mainly wanted me to be the semi-official photographer at an “interesting event”. Fortunately my two invitations were to the same event. Saturday will be 端午节 (duān wǔ jié), the Duanwu festival, also know as “The Dragon Boat Festival”. I won’t repeat the history and the fables it arises from, but you can be sure they are mostly nonsense. WikiSometimesRight has a reasonably accurate version of the unreasonable story. By the way, the Kingdom of Chu, to which the article refers is modern-day Sichuan. I guess they didn’t know. Anyway, the important thing to do at Duanwu is to make and/or eat 粽子 (zòng zi), which are a kind of dumpling made by mixing glutinous rice with various fillings and wrapping them in bamboo leaves before boiling or steaming them. The actual fillings vary by region. Northern China tends to like sweet fillings whereas, down here in the south, we are sweet enough, so prefer to mix the rice with mung beans, barbecued pork and chestnuts. So the event was intended to show the few foreigners in town how to assemble these critters. It was held in what is really a bakery shop, but styles itself a baking museum. True they do have some old stuff on display, but are just one of 54 places styling themselves museums – we have a luosifen museum, a baijiu museum, a coffee museum, a mahogany museum, a bamboo museum, a ticket museum etc., etc. I’m just waiting for them to open a museum museum. So here are a few images. Starting with the building and some of the museum exhibits. Entrance Exterior Interior 1 Mooncake Moulds and more WeddingTableau Old Stuff more soon

Slight interlude. 10 things you might not know about Stornoway Black Pudding

If it's goiing spare, I'd give it a good home.

The only one I possess is the coffee grinder, but I've never used it for coffee, either. Only for spices, the reason I bought it.

I've never come across taramasalata made with mayo, either.

Oh. I do that regularly. Best way to make ice cubes! There was a French restaurant very near my London home, years ago. Sadly long gone. Their signature dish was a dessert of frozen grapes in a pond of straight Pernod! Utterly delicious, but I was always glad home and bed was just around the corner.

Drat! I forgot my cheese knives.

My Chinese friends are baffled. Most of them only have a cleaver and maybe a fruit knife. Yet, all those knives I bought or otherwise acquired right here in China. I just learned many years ago that the correct tool for the job saves a lot of grief. I'm now looking at a dedicated durian knife, but I'll behave myself!

Right! (Many things that are made in China aren't available in China! Or have to be re-imported and attract import duty!)

That is my preferred solution, but I can't find such strips here. At the moment most of the knives live in two knife blocks, but I hate them. Troublesome to keep clean.

That is my most prized knife. Almost my most prized possession. Several years ago there was a Xinjiang restaurant called AliBaBa, here in town. Xinjiang, for those who don't know, is China's westernmost province bordering Mongolia. Kyrgystan, Khazhakstain, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is mainly Muslim. Their food is wonderful, but totally different from what most people think of as Chinese. I ate there regularly with friends and got to know the boss, a Xinjiang native, quite well. He made a point of coming out of the kitchen to say a word or two before rushing back to cook the next order. In 2003, he announced his upcoming retirement and I, with a couple of friends, went to his restaurant for its last service.The place was rammed full. Towards the end of the evening, he came out and announced to the entire restaurant that there would be no charge for dinner that night, but it would be a thank you to his loyal customers for their support over the years. Tears were shed. Then, after the crowd had thinned a bit, to my amazement, he came up to me and handed me the knife he always carried on his front-of-house visits. He said he wanted me to have it as he thought I might actually use and value it, now that he no longer would. There is a story about Johnny Cash handing Bob Dylan his guitar as a mark of respect which blew Dylan's mind. I know exactly how he felt That was the last time I saw him. He moved back to his hometown many, many miles away. But your question was "how is it meant to be used?" My answer is "I don't really know." The only times I ever saw him use it were a) to slice naan bread (the local staple visually resembling pizza bases) into manageable segments and b) to slice mutton from the Xinjiang version of gyros. I think he mainly carried it for effect. It is 40cm / 15¾ inches long in total; the blade being 28cm / 11 inches long. Xinjiang style mutton gyro I mainly use it as a bread knife. Although not serrated and although I do have a bread knife, I've always kept this one as sharp as I can. I also use it to open durians. I used to use it to cut watermelons, but then acquired a dedicated watermelon knife. I do regret that I don't use it more. And I miss him and his restaurant still.

10 kitchen gadgets you really don’t need – from garlic presses to spiralizers This is an article in today's Guardian listing 10 kitchen gadgets which, according to the author, you don't need. Views will, no doubt, differ. I guess I broadly agree as I possess only one of them and don't use it as intended by the manufacturer, but there are others I might add to the list. I'm sure we all have our opinions. Do you agree completely or think the article is idiotic (or anything in between)?

I've been sorting out my knife collection and am looking for better storage. I was surprised how many I have. I found this lot but then remembered another box had some They do all have different functions. Storage options are limited here; I may have to improvise.

Lucky I don't have a husband, but if I did, the butchers' knife would be a fine choice for any intended doing away with him. I would love to get some grapefruit knives, but haven't seen them in years. Certainly not here, anyway.

Today, plums.

Enjoying this already, thanks. Looking forward to more.

We never had a butcher's knife at home when I was growing up. The gamut of kitchen knives amounted to three - a bread knife, a green-handled cake knife and the "sharp knife", which was no such thing. It was a blunt paring knife. Table knives were mostly of the normal variety, but I remember being fascinated by the grapefruit knives as a child.

Flower shiitake! Beautiful indeed. BTW, that price is about four times what I pay for them here!

Certainly not! Almost nothing is frozen in China; never fruit, although I have one friend here who likes to freeze the segments after extraction. But she is strange! Durian ice-cream is wonderful!

As many do in Scotland and northern England. 'Dinner' as the evening meal is a southern English thing. That is why the people who work in school canteens are called "dinner ladies"; they serve dinner, the mid-day meal.