liuzhou

I'm looking forward to this. A little information here.

This news was released at 11 am, China time, but proved to be premature. He had been taken to hospital. However, at 2 pm, it was confirmed that he had passed way.

Yuan Longping (袁隆平), the Chinese agronomist, known throughout China and beyond for being the first to develop modern rice hybrids died in Changsha, Hunan on May 22nd, 2021, aged 91. Here is the Wikipedia page on his achievements. Hybrid rice has since been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia—providing a robust food source in areas with a high risk of famine. For his contributions, Yuan is always called the "Father of Hybrid Rice" by the Chinese media. Wikipedia. He is very highly respected in China, as his work not only reduced famine, but helped raise the standard of living among China's rural population. This news is going viral on China's top social media sites as I write. The country is mourning a national hero.

That is essentially what I did.

While I've eaten more than my fair share of green mangoes, it has always been in restaurants as far as I remember. Never tried to ripen one, but aren't all mangoes picked green before being shipped to mango-less countries? I don't know. By the way, we get 青芒 (qīng máng), literally green mangoes here which are ripe. They are just a varierty that don't fully colour up when ripe.

There is a whole old Mooncake topic here. And another more recent one here.

'Minute steaks' are common throughout the UK and Ireland as well as Australia.

Can you record your audio clips and upload them elsewhere, then give us the link? I did that before on eG when I was asked how to pronounce 'liuzhou'.

You're a better woman than me. Well, I'm not a woman at all, but you know what I mean.

No. The texture was as normal. Just the taste knocked me out. The way they absorbed the vinegary taste with hints of chicken fat.

Clearly ( I hope), this not all of my dinner, but I bring it to tell you something important! I have stumbled on my new favourite way to cook potatoes. I was braising some skinless chicken drumsticks in Shaoxing wine and Zhenjiang (Chinkiang) black vinegar with some onion. Decided to have the chicken with simply boiled, skin-on, new potatoes. At that moment terminal laziness struck and I just threw the potatoes in with the chicken and braising liquid instead of getting out a new pan. A revelation! Potatoes done in Zhenjiang vinegar, Shaoxing wine and some chicken exudance juices are the future of potatoes! Some of dinner. Served with a side of stir-fried greenery, which I can't even remember eating. I was more in awe at the awsomeness of the awesome potatoes. Did I mention, they were quite good?

It is a resort! She is the director of a luxury spa/hotel company and has a beautiful home as part of her renumeration. According to the packaging, the one in my first picture which is unlike the others lasts 60 days from date of manufacture, May 5th 2021. The other four allow for 80 days and were manufactured the same date. The first four she sent me were all different and one contained salted egg; one contained meat and the other two were all fruit, beans and nuts. She asked me which I preferred and I said the two without eggs or meat*, so she sent me the second batch. These are eggless and meatless, but not necessarily vegan! * Not that I don't eat salted eggs or meat! Just not at the same time as cake!

My lemongrass cuttings are rooting nicely. Soon be able to plant them out, then sit back and wait. I have another three running a few days behind but they are also showing tiny new roots.

Another of my friends, who has recently relocated to the southern, tropical island province of Hainan, has taken up a bizarre new hobby. She has taken to sending me mooncakes. Thirty minutes ago a delivery of 5 turned up. These were to supplement the four she sent me two weeks ago. The thing is mooncakes are traditionally sent to friends and eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival which isn't until September 19th, this year. Oh well, I'm happy if she is happy! Here are a couple of shots taken from her apartment.

Can't speak for the others but for me it is sad for you! I don't feel sad for these obnoxious, attention-seeking morons with their self-entitlement issues. I've come across it here with tourists (usually all clutching their Lonely Planets like life jackets), demanding food the country quite simply doesn't have. In one idyllic spot, deep in the countryside, where I often stayed for work reasons, the wife of the couple who ran the only hotel cooked an evening meal for everyone at a very reasonable price. In fact, there could have been no way she covered her costs. There was no menu; you got what she found at the market that day and what her family would have been eating anyway. It was delicious. Often Western tourists would complain about the food or the cooking process or anything really. One time I was there, a group of French tourists arrived and started plotting among themselves (in French) what they would complain about. What they didn't realise was that I was giving the woman's husband a running translation of their French into Chinese as they moaned and complained through their meal, while throwing out random insults about China and the Chinese. They didn't know a word of Chinese, so couldn't know what I was saying, not that they paid any attention to anything but themselves. He just shrugged resignedly as if to say "What can I do about it?" Then the leader of the group said that, when it came time to pay, they would claim that the copious amount of beer they had drunk should be included in the price quoted for the meal only. I translated this too and the man exploded in rage. They said in worse English than his that, in France, that is normal. I stood up and said to them in French "That is a damned lie! You are a disgrace to France. Blah-blah-blah!" Well, something like that. Less polite, as I recall. The look on their faces was a prize. They knew they had been roundly busted! They sheepishly paid the correct price (still very cheap) and went off to their rooms to hide. Next morning they set off, thinking they were 'independent travellers', to the next destination printed in their guide book. What the idiots didn't realise is that hotel-keepers, bar-owners, restaurant people etc all know each other. Even before they left, the man had phoned ahead to their next destination, another one hotel spot, warning them. I heard later that when the French group arrived there , the hotel was mysteriously full! They hadn't booked, thnking they were explorers arriving in some remote village which had never seen white people before, so the hotel must be empty. In fact, the hotel wasn't full (or empty). This was just their come-uppance. I imagine the rest of their trip was the same as word of their approach spread down the well-trodden line. I particularly resent this kind of behaviour as it means many people assume that all foreigners are like that - arrogant, dishonest, self-entitled scum. They just make it more difficult for everyone else, especially those who live here. I'm not going home in two weeks after pissing everyone off. And they wouldn't dare act like that at home! Luckily, the couple know me well and are more enlightened than that, although he did once tell me his list of the top three nations whose visitors were the worst. I won't repeat it.

Orzo, asparagus, shrimp, garlic, ponzu. Simple. Delicious.

Bread pudding, not to be confused with bread and butter pudding which uses fresher bread.

It''s not so much a recipe as a method. Take cucumber(s) and bash (not too hard) with the back of a cleaver or similar to break the flesh, then slice into large bite size pieces. Mix one part finely chopped garlic, 1 part light soy sauce, 2 parts rice vinegar (I use black but white is OK, too) and two parts Sichuan chili oil. Some people like to add sugar, too. I don't. Use this mixture to dress the cucumber. I usually garnish with a chili or two.

Smashed cucumbers has converted many a cuke hater. It did so for my father, too.

I should have noted that none of us have any intentions of making my mother's recipes, but we enjoyed reminiscing about them. One of her grand-daughters, my niece, does want to try to recreate the sherry trifle she made every Christmas. I never liked that.

I usually do that with mangoes, but never have done with that variety. I don't see why they would be any different.

Not so different. The common Thai name is Phram Khai Mia in the official transliteration system. Vietnamese took the name from the Thai, slightly altering it.