liuzhou

18. Monkeying Around Or so the story goes, with various embelishments. I have several times read that the live monkey sits under the circular table and sticks its head through a hole in the centre to allow the diners access to the cranial delights on offer. The main problem with the story is that it is utter BS. No one has ever satisfactorily photographed or filmed this practice - YouTube videos are obvious fakes. Any accounts are always third or (3,000th) person anecdotes. Wikipedia unconvincingly suggests that the legend may have risen due to a mushroom known as 猴头菇 (hóu tóu gū - Hericium erinaceus), which means 'monkey head mushroom'. The mushroom is white when fresh but turns brown when dried - the most common way they are sold. Allegedly it looks like a monkey's brain. No! It vaguely looks like a monkey's intact, furry head - hence the name. Fresh Monkey Head Mushroom Dried Monkey Head Mushroom My main problem with that theory is that you would have to be brainless to confuse a mushroom with a brain! My own theory is that when some westerners came to China they saw tables like this in many restaurants... ... and some wag came up with the story to explain why the table has a hole in the centre. Of course, the hole is to hold a burner for hot pots. These are disappearing rapidly as built-in induction stoves are taking their place. The story spread as some sort of sick joke or, more often, racist anti-Chinese propoganda. Note: Eating monkey is illegal in China and attracts a minimum 10 year sentence behind bars for both the restaurant owners and customers.

I suppose it depends how much is used, but what do I know?

Ōwakudan Valley in Hakone. Yes. I've been there and sampled one of the black eggs. Interesting and different. I believe it's now closed due to volcanic activity. The eggs are called Kuro-tamago and are boiled unlike century eggs, which are just cured.

http://www.foodreference.com/html/fchicoryandendive.html Wikipedia

What makes you think that is a myth? Fields are most certainly irrigated and fertilised with 'night soil'. Chinese people wash vegetables thoroughly and still eat almost nothing raw for this very reason. It's not that long since night soil was used in the USA and UK, too!

Could be, but it still seems an odd thing to list. Montmorillonite clay is a common anti-diarrhoea treatment here. Useful after eating non-existent sparrows!

I thought it was well known that crab sticks don't contain crab. They are made from surimi (i.e fish paste made from the stuff they can't sell!) That's why, in many places, they cannot be labelled or advertised using the name 'crab'. So we get Krab Sticks', Ocean Sticks, Sea Legs and Imitation Crab Sticks etc.

Pork in soup with fresh rice noodles, century eggs (皮蛋 - pí dàn ) and spinach. Garlic, ginger, chilli, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce.

17. A Mixed Bag The article which included the horse urine nonense above also went on as follows. I've put their claims in italics; my comments follow unitalicised. 1. Sparrows are a common food both in the street and as a snack at home. No they aren't. Never seen any such thing. 2. Banquet specialities include cow's lung soaked in chili sauce, goose stomachs, fish lips with celery, goat's feet tendons in wheat noodles, shark's stomach soup, chicken-feet soup, monkey's head, ox forehead, turtle casserole, pigeon brain, deer ligament and snake venom, also lily bulb. Some of these are common world-wide. Chicken-feet soup, for example. Some (marked in red) are extremely rare or mythical. It is well-known that sharks are de-finned then cruelly thrown back into the sea to die. They take their stomachs with them. Fish maw (float bladders) , usually from freshwater fish, are used in soups. Snakes are eaten; their venom rarely if ever. Grass Carp with its Float Bladder What is so surprising about lily bulb? 3. Some people in China eat dirt as "famine food." What? Drivel! 4. Huangshan Stone Frog is a speciality of the Anhui province. Yes. So? Frogs of many varieties are eaten world-wide. 5. Interestingly, the Chinese considered many foods eaten by non-Chinese to be strange. They consider eating a plain cooked steak as primitive and unappetizing. Many regard eating cheese or butter as disgusting and find the French custom of eating snails to be strange. Yes. But you might want to consider that if a food is popular in a country with a population of 1.5 billion, but 'strange' in a country with only 330 million, then maybe it is you who are strange! And you should have stopped at cheese and butter (but see my comments on dairy above). Snails are extremely popular in China. Why would they think France was strange? Chillied snails in my local market These Jade snails below are imported from Africa at great expense and are considered a delicacy in China. "Don't believe anything you read on the internet" - Plato.

16. Horsing Around With Eggs I read this on the interwebs "Thousand-year-old eggs, a Guangdong delicacy, are made from duck eggs coated with lime, ashes and mud and soaked in horse urine for 100 days until the yolks turns green and the whites become gelatinous and dark brown." Horse urine? Horseshit more like! a) They are not from Guangdong. Tradition has it that they were invented accidentally in Hunan, but no one really knows. They are avalable all over China. b) No horse urine is involved in any way. Known as 皮蛋 (Mandarin: pí dàn; Cantonese: pei4 daan6*2); hundred-year-old eggs, thousand-year-old eggs, millennium eggs, skin eggs, black eggs, etc, the eggs (duck or chicken- less often quail) are preserved by coating them in a mixture of alkaline mud, quicklime and rice chaff and leaving them to cure for weeks or even months. Horse urine is not alkaline, so wouldn't even work if some joker tried to use it. The traditional method involves the mud, but in modern methods various chemicals are used to replicate the curing process. Neither method requires equine assistance. There is a also a version known as 松花蛋 (Mandarin: sōng huā dàn; Cantonese: cung4 faa1 daan6*2), songhua eggs, pine flower eggs or pine-patterned eggs. They are prepared in the same way but are considered superior. Songhua Eggs The eggs are eaten as is, often with a chilli dip or a soy and vinegar dip. Pidan with chilli dip. They are commonly used alongside lean pork in congee (even Pizza Hut does their version). Pizza Hut Pidan and Lean Pork Congee They are often cut up and mixed with tofu in various dishes. They also appear in noodle soup dishes. The eggs sometimes have a faint ammonia odour (which may be the source of the urine myth), but the taste is simply that of intense egginess. I like them a lot! Here is a video which explains the science behind the eggs.

You mean YOU like it. Fine. I don't.

C@rnmeal and c@rn?!?! What are you trying to do to me?

I'm surprised but happy that I got 7/7. There were a couple of lucky guesses.

Millions sign up to anti-food-waste apps to share their unused produce

Spicy prawns with orzo. Doubanjiang (豆瓣酱 Sichuan Broad Bean Chilli Paste), garlic, ginger, chilli and green onions. I'm launching a campaign to have green onions treated as a full vegetable rather then just a garnish.

Okra (Hindi: भिंडी - bhindi) is very common in curries. Bhindi Bhaji is on almost every menu in UK 'Indian' restaurants. Bhindi masala is also popular. Yes, okra is better still somewhat firm. I can't see okra working in hot pots, but the other methods you mention, yes. I was just interested in posting my friend's method as it is the first I've seen it being cooked here - and it looked so good!

Okra is also used in many Indian style 'curries' where it is stewed. The juices which some people find 'slimy' are a tasty and natural thickener, too. But I agree that crispness is good, which is why I liked the Chinese preparation. The two minute boil left it cooked, but crisp.

This is the brand of doubanjiang I see most often - 丹丹郫县豆酱 (dān dān Pí xiàn dòu bàn jiàng) from Pixian, probably the centre of doubanjiang excellence. I've seen it in England, so I know it is exported - hope you can find it.

Soy braised silkworm pupae with chillies. Apologies for picture quality.

Simple but satisfying. Pork tenderloin steak with chips.

I have a fair number of cameras. They range from a top of the range DSLR (one of four DSLRs I have) to an ancient manual camera I bought in Mocow in the communist era. But that said, I take all my food photos with an old Samsung cell phone. It is a bit battered and out of date, but has a great camera, when it comes to taking food pictures. Less so for other applications.

My main camera comes with a 610 page instruction manual. Not sure how big the help pages are - massive. Then there are the separate manuals for lenses!

Doubanjiang (豆瓣酱) is essential for Sichuan cooking. The sweet soy bean paste is not a substitute. The Zhenjiang vinegar you bought is Chinkiang black vinegar. 'Chinkiang' is the old transliteration which only America uses now! I don't know that brand. I'd try to find some aged more than three years (the minimum). Mine is aged for six years (marked 六年陈). I'm always happy to give names in Chinese, should you want to print them out and take to the store to help find those items not labelled in English.

You're not the only one.

Braised chicken legs with onion, garlic, black olives, capers, white wine. Finished with a sprinkling of shichimi togarashi. Served with boiled spuds and wilted endive.