liuzhou

I should point out that these are not what Wikipedia describes as Rice-paddy eels. They are much smaller - only a few inches long. I really need to delve deeper.

I don't know much about it. I guess they are semi-farmed in that the paddies are stocked but thereafter left to their own devices. When the paddies are drained any remaining livestock goes wherever the water goes ????? I'll try to get more info next time I'm out and about.

My local supermarket sells live rice paddy eels. I've eaten them in a Sichuan-style preparation and loved it, but never cooked them. I've also had the famous London 'jellied eels'. Those are OK, but I wouldn't weep if I never came across them again.

Haha! Don't be silly!

a horse I often disagree with!

Good, virtually word for word the same article.

I've only twice not been able to finish a dish because it was just TOO spicy. Once in Thailand and once in Hunan. Both times were far from tourist places or places foreigners might turn up, so they didn't think to warn me! The restaurant in Hunan was very near my home and I returned many times, but never had that dish again!

Well thanks! I lived in Hunan for two years in the 1990s and this was a favourite dish. Yes, no sugar! As a person with zero sweet tooth I was delighted. Hunan food is still my favourite and sadly it is mostly unknown outside of China, despite the number of "Hunan" restaurants in the west. It is not only less sweet but probably the spiciest of China's cuisines - more so than Sichuan, I'd say. I'm not quite sure what she means by the last sentence. Sichuan pepper is common in Hunan cuisine, if less so than in Sichuan.

Fried noodles with chicken, carrots, green chilli, daikon radish, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce.

Buttergate was years in the making Interesting article

I've kept duck fat that long without problems. Pork fat I tend to render then use immediately, so no, or just short-term, storage involved.

I want a "Raging Teenager — a mix of vodka, ginger beer, lime juice, and Sichuan peppercorn". Could have done with one when I had a couple of human raging teenagers!

According to this article (and my own observances) street food is returning after being almost completely banished from China's cities. This article relates to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, but the same is happening all over. I see it here in my city. Now I'm wondering, is the same true elsewhere?

I just eat the really thin aparagus spears raw in salads - or use as 'soldiers'with soft boiled eggs.

I can see why you'd think so, but I'd be very surprised. They don't do olives round here. I can buy them, but only low quality canned olives from the specialist import store (at outrageous prices). I'll have a closer look next time I pass KFC, if the poster is still there. P.S. They do have Chinese olives, but they are not at all the same thing and a different colour, anyway.

Well, I'm certainly not going to buy one to find out, but I guess it's a Spam like concoction. BTW. It's KFC; not McD's but same applies.

I'm not sure what to make of this, so I'll let you decide! It reads:: 麻辣香锅风味 (má là xiāng guō fēng wèi) 鸡腿双 层堡 (jī tuǐ shuāng céng bǎo) which means Mala* hotpot flavor Chicken leg two layer burger * i.e. Sichuan style hot and numbing

The story has hit the mainstream press. The Guardian

Yes, I'm aware that 鱼露 is used in Fujian province, especially in Chaoshan cuisine (潮汕菜), but not in the vast majority of Chinese cuisine. I live near the border with Vietnam, but we never see nước mắm here. I always bring some back when I visit. One interesting exception is Shanghai, where the English introduced Worcestershire sauce, which is fish-based. It proved popular and remains so, to the extent that they make their own version locally - and very good it is, too. We did have this discussion 14 years ago. https://forums.egullet.org/topic/107740-fish-sauce-in-chinese-cuisine/

The product is actually Japanese and labelled in Japanese and English - no Chinese! That said, many products in China have English (or what they think is English). It's just a marketing ploy - makes the product seem more exotic! A bit like all the idiots in the west who get tattoos in languages they can't understand or even identify. 90% of them are nonsensical.

No particular story. One of a set of six. Japanese. Well used, as you can see. Only two left. But I have an irrational attachment to them.

Pork tenderloin steak over garlicky lentils with sugar snap peas.

Yes. Fish sauce - in Thai it is nam pla. In Vietnamese, nước mắm. Unusual in Chinese cooking, but essential in SE Asia. Fish oil is a medicinal food supplement; not an ingredient.

On March 1st 2021, a Twitter user announced this Tired of reading hundreds of words of life story, fashion hints, doggy pictures, waffle and irrelevance before reaching the recipes, they decided to strip out all but the most relevant to the actual recipe and repost it. The backlash was immediate. Food writers, bloggers, etc all railed against the idea, some citing copyright violation issues, some saying that, even if copyright does not apply to recipes*, it is still morally reprehensible to 'steal' other peoples' work. Such was the clamour, that the site was taken down the same day it went up! Now it just says: * Copyright does not apply to lists of ingredients; it does apply to any descriptive text or instructions. The unfolding story can be read here.