liuzhou

The English word 'lemon' came from the Spanish 'limon' in the 14th century.

I am working on more posts on this topic right now. Watch this space! London has large Spanish population and Spanish restaurants and stores are easy to find there. Not so much outside London, though. P.S. I was born in St. Andrews, but haven't been back in a while.

Lemons are everywhere. They grow here. I have the opposite problem. If I ask for limes, lemons turn up! I've only found real limes here once, several years ago. The Chinese for lime is 青柠檬 (qīng níng méng), which translates literally as 'green lemon'. Unfortunately, we do get green-skinned lemons here. They are ripe, but the skin remains green. So, that is what turns up when I ask for lime. When I lived in Hunan 23 years ago, I never saw lemons. Not sure about now. I shall ask. Green lemons.

Lemon pork with coriander seed and okra.

Not much difference. But it's not a topic I'm going to get into here.

Beliefs have guided food choices for centuries. Look how many creeds have lists of prohibited and permitted foods. Nothing new there.

Chinese: 毛豆 (máo dòu); Japanese: 枝豆 (eda mame); Me: Delicious (dɪˈlɪʃəs)

It's a lot easier to wash your hands than to wash a food processor.

I'd need lots of studies before I'd believe that their parents cannot.

Me too. Also a Bamix. Exactly what I was thinking.

I don't think how to pronounce a food is off-topic. From my understanding, lee-chee is more American and ligh-chee more British, although I'm sure there are exceptions. The Mandarin is closer to lee-dji. But the Cantonese is closer to ligh-zi. So we are no furher forward! Call them what feels most comfortable to you!

I found my sister's canal-side pub on that site, too. It never reopened as a pub after she lost it and, according to that website, is now residential property. There was always accomodation above the pub (where my sister lived, so she also lost her home), so it wouldn't have taken much to convert it, I suppose.

I have no idea what you find suggestive about the caption or what you imagine it is I was suggesting. I named the topic so because of the name of the yellow lychees in Chinese. And I have no idea what image you are talking about, either. There are 12 images in my post - none of which are suggestive in any way.

Britain has been losing its pubs for years. This BBC article from 2009 says that 52 pubs closed every week. In 2020, with Covid , it is estimated that 6,000 licensed premises were lost, 2,500 of which were pubs. Obviously Covid has had a devasting impact, but the trend was there long before. I'm working on something longer and more detailed about pubs and food which I will post sometime in the next few days.

Thanks. It was in the 1980s that I was there a lot. Natasha wasn't mandated but necessary for me to do my work. I was free to go most places. I lived very near a large tourist hotel where many foreigners stayed - usually in tour groups. Every day, there were gangs of young, male (usually) Russians outside the hotel selling far from the best caviar at vastly inflated prices. Inside was mostly full of young, female Russians trading in a very different commodity. I used to hang out in a hidden bar in the basement. Unlike in the main bar, which was usually full of drunken Finns (alcohol in Finland was extremely expensive (still is), so a lot of visitors from that country thought the bar was cheap (it wasn't) and rather overdid things). The basement bar took roubles only whereas the main bar only accepted USD. Really it was a bar for the staff and locals. And me. The main offering was local beer (not good) and what the barman called "Cocktail". This was a mix of Georgian Brandy, Russian champagne and decent vodka in equal proportions. Deadly and so cheap it was almost free. In fact, as the evening passed the barman got bored and just left the three bottles on the bartop and left us to help ourselves! Luckily, I lived only a short, two minute stagger away. No caviar was on offer in the basement. I don't remember there being any food. Everything was available upstairs. And I mean everything from caviar to nuclear warheads!

Many years ago, when I was working closely with the USSR*, I was regularly treated to caviar feasts, both in Moscow and London. It was always served with champagne - in Russia with Russian champagne (surprisingly good) and in London with the real French deal. Also, caviar was nearly always served on its own or simply with blinis and sour cream. It is not something you want to complicate. Caviar is a real prima donna and doesn't take well to being overshadowed. * No, I am not a spy, nor have I ever been a spy (which is exactly what a spy would say, I know). A bit more explanation here.

According to the fount of all misinformation, Wikipedia, the lychee entry states that "the outside of the fruit is pink-red". Ignorant fools! A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a jar of lychee honey from the family plot. Yesterday, I went to visit her and was taken to see the lychees. This involved quite a trek uphill! Anyway, we got there. The lychees (荔枝 - lì zhī) are being harvested as quickly as they can be, in order to get them to market in perfect condition before the season ends soon. The first thing I noticed was the surprising range of colours in the fruit. I immediately assumed that they were at different stages or degrees of ripeness. The "stupid foreigner", aka me, was soon put straight. "No! They are all ripe. That is why we are hurrryng to harvest them!" I didn't hear the "idiot!" at the end of the sentence, but it was all there in the tone!* It appears that lychees are pink/red when they are pink/red, but not pink/red when they are not pink/red. In fact they come in different colours. Some were politely growing to Wiki specfications; others were doing as they damn-well pleased and they were pleased to be yellow (some with a scattering of red freckles to increase their allure) These yellow babies are not only yellow, but are larger than the red ones (the last two pictures show my friend's average sized lady-hand for scale. They are also noticeably more sweet and juicy. The yellow ones are known as 情人荔 (qíng rén lì) meaning 'lover lychee' as the fruits are heart-shaped. Finally, I saw these. 青荔 (qīng lì) meaning 'green lychee'. These, I was told, are a new cultivar and still very rare (and expensive). The family has only been harvesting these for two years. They are ripe. I know. I ate the one in the centre of that last image! * Actually, everyone was very polite, welcoming and happy to explain anything I asked about.

Well, I know what I'd do. I'd just lock the world out then open the can and the champagne and deposit the contents of both into my cakehole. There really is no better way.

Chicken (leg meat), black garlic, capers, chilli, white wine, black and white pepper, black vinegar, snow peas. Served over orzo.

I found this recipe from the Guardian today interesting, not so much for the chocolate cake, but for the author's use of betroot skin powder made from the skins.

Proper pilaf is not made with leftover rice. The point is to cook the rice in a stock with spices so that it soaks up the flavours. Pre-cooked rice won't do that.

I sure have. I remember it well. You wouldn't get Xi Jinping saying anything like that!

I was reading something today totally unrelated to anything food related when I came across something which grabbed my attention. As I'm sure everyone knows, English has these little idioms we use when someone asks a dumb question with an obvious answer. We use rhetorical question such as: "Do bears shit in the woods?" "Is the pope a catholic?" The writer of the piece I was reading used "Do children hate broccoli?" with exactly the same meaning - "Of course. Everyone knows that!" Other languages have the same constructs. That one works in English, but if I were to translate it to Chinese, it wouldn't work that way at all. It would just be a rather strange but literal question. And I see that not only as a linguistic difference, but a cultural one regarding children's food choices. For the record, both my children loved broccoli; it was me who was reticent on the matter. Still not my favourite.

Thanks for that Anna. That list of lost pubs is depressingly long, though. My sister ran a pub for a few years but ran into financial problems and lost it. It has lain abandoned ever since. Sad.