liuzhou

A pint of cream.

Braised duck leg finished with a sprinkling of shichimi togarashi. With duck-fat-fried potatoes and morels. Mango relish on the side.

Fancy some pancakes? Here’s a 16th century recipe which uses “two or three spoonefuls of ale” — (from The Good Huswifes Jewell, an English cookery book from 1585) Image and text is Public Domain via the British Library.

I have never seen any kind of mustard powder. And none of my local friends have heard of it. And none of the major online grocery sites have it. Maybe a Hong Kong thing? The British inflluence?

Well, I've lived in southern China for 25 years and never come across it and can't buy it. And I can't count how many times I've eaten 白切鸡.

does not compute!

I've never had savoury tang yuan; only the sweet ones served as a dessert, which to be honest I don't really like. What's in the savoury variety?

I've been freezing it for decades (not the same bit, obviously! 😆)

Spicy prawns with orzo. Prawns, garlic, ginger, chilli, 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng), scallions. Orzo.

That's how I usually make scrambled eggs, too!

One pot wonder. Pork, onions, potato, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, chilli, white wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, S+P. Served with mango relish.

"unctuosity" has been used in English since at least 1398 with precisely the same definition. 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. xix. xxxiii. (Bodl. MS.), For vnctuosite leide to þe tunge openeþ swiþe & dissolueþ, & sotel substaunce entreþ ful swiþe. Nothing to do with the net! Google was still trying to invent the abacus then!

The survey is flawed in many ways. It needs definitions. It makes assumptions which will not be valid for everyone. For example, I don't keep glassware in a "top cupboard" whatever one of them is. I'm not sure that the amount of spices I have or how many I use per day correlates to any frustration level. "Per day" is also pretty unhelpful. Some days I cook for just myself; others I cook for several people. It varies widely. I never buy prepared breakfast cereals, so that quesion is irrelevant. Also I seldom buy what you call "soft packets". I'm sure people would be glad to help, but you need to rethink the questionnaire.

Sausage, mushrooms and scrambled egg - or is it brouillade?

It's New Year's Day - Year of the Ox. Perfect time for the market to be selling these. They have two names in Chinese. 贡柑 (gòng gān), meaning "Tribute Tangerine". "Tribute" applied to food usually means that it was once reserved for the Emperor and his household. Commoners would be executed for eating them. The second name is 发财柑 (fā cái gān), meaning "Get Rich Tangerine". 发财 (fā cái) is the Mandarin version of "fat choy" as featured in the Cantonese new year greeting, 恭喜发财 / 恭喜發財 (gong hei fat choy) which means "wishing you great happiness and riches". In Mandarin, this expression is rarely used and Chinese people here are baffled as to why foreigners address them in Cantonese, a language less than 5% speak! And the few who do live mainly in the south and Hong Kong. The most common greeting elsewhere is a simple 新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè), meaning "Happy New Year". Now, you are probably thinking 'tangerines! those small orange-like fruits!' These are like no other tangerines. They are huge. They are also incrediby juicy. I ate the one on the right and needed a shower! Biting into it is like I imagine it would be biting into a water-filled balloon. Next time, I'll just eat them in the shower. The also contain a lot of seeds and are quite bitter - but not unpleasantly so. I have attempted to find an English or Latin name, but failed. So far.

Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.

Boiled egg in a laver soup.

Pork fried rice with chilli, garlic, ginger, onion, Shanghai greens, scallions.

14. The mysterious missing mustard sauce. Spring Rolls - 春卷 (chūn juǎn) If you are American and plan on visiting China, you may be looking forward to enjoying your egg rolls with that yellow mustard condiment known as "Chinese Hot Mustard Sauce" as served in your local Lucky Bamboo. I'm sorry to say you will be very disappointed. First of all, as noted above, egg rolls aren't Chinese, but American. More importantly, "Chinese Hot Mustard Sauce" simply doesn't exist! I only first heard of it a couple of days ago thanks to this topic here on eG. I won't repeat the full conversation, but will sum up my viewpoint. Apart from leaf mustard sold as a green vegetable, I have never seen mustard in any Chinese supermarket, store or market. No seeds; no powder; no paste; no sauce. China's largest on-line shopping site Taobao doesn't list it. (They do have imported Dijon, whole grain mustard, American mustard etc at import prices - but nothing Chinese). I have searched my copious collection of Chinese language recipe books. None mention mustard. My Chinese language dictionary of food terms does list 'mustard sauce' and informs me that it is English, invented in 1729 in Durham, and that there are French and Italian versions. That's it. No mention of it being used in Chinese cuisine. None of my friends have heard of it. It doesn't seem to exist outside of the USA. Certainly, I've never seen it in any Chinese restaurant in Asia or Europe. Definitely belongs here among the other myths.

Many of the recipes I've seen for this mysterious "Chinese mustard" use Colman's Mustard. Yes. It is English. My Chinese language food dictionary's entry for "mustard sauce" mentions that it was invented in Durham, England in 1729, then describes French and Italain mustard sauces. No mention of it being used in China.

Now that is a dish I often make and eat! But not with black bean sauce from a bottle!

Let's remember that Irene Kuo left China in the 1940s and prior to that lived a very privileged life in Shanghai - a foreign controlled city. Many things were available to her that wouldn't be available to most Chinese people. But you are right. Mustard powder or paste is not to be found in Chinese stores in China.