liuzhou

Jay Rayner has filed his last restaurant review for the Observer today, revisiting the oldest surviving restaurant he covered in his 26 years as the newspaper's restaurant critic. I’ve always enjoyed and looked forward to his reviews – some savage but most not. And I know I'm not alone. What happens now, I don’t know but I’m praying his counterpart on sister newspaper, the Guardian doesn’t take over. I can’t stomach her pretentious writing and attitudes – personal opinion. Rayner does sign off by saying “Soon I’ll start writing a new restaurant column elsewhere.” Watch this space!

Yes, but that doesn't mean it isn't still used, sometimes to the exclusion of chillies. That's all I'm saying.

Not necessarily. East Asia, especially China, uses white pepper for heat to this day. Sichuan hot and sour soup, for example, is still made using the traditional white pepper rather than chillies. There are many other such dishes.

藕芽炒牛肉 (ǒu yá chǎo niú ròu), stir fried beef with lotus roots sprouts and pickled chillies. Served with rice.

I bought a set of crab pickers just before Covid struck. The price of crabs went through the roof and then some and never came back down again. So, I've never used them. Not even sure where they are now.

泡椒牛肉虾仁炒饭 (pào jiāo niú ròu xiā rén chǎo fàn), pickled green and chillies, beef, shrimp fried rice. The pickles are HOT. Although pickles in general and particularly, pickled chillies are widespread, Guangxi and so Liuzhou loves its pickled chillies. And so do I. I also threw in egg, garlic chives, peas and carrots.

Is this a snack? An amuse bouche? A course on a tasting menu? I'll decide later. McVitie's Mini Digestive with Cheddar Cheese and my World Famous Mango Chutney. Got to be worth $100 of anyone's money. 16.000

Damn! I was distracted and made a mistale. Ordered some of my favourite McVitie's Digestive Biscuits. Or thought I did. I accidentally ordered these Mini Biscuits! 😭😭😭 About 4cm / 1½ inches in diameter! Sadly, I ordered 60 packs. 720 individuals! I didn't realise because the listing on the pack was by weight. not quantity. Looks like my digestion is going to be good for a while!

Thanks. Bookmarked

Visually, it resembles a traditional Cumberland sausage but the description you give sounds nowhere close. How disappointing. On the yellow peril, I shall remain silent.

I know you're in China. You told me. Where is fish sauce made in China today? Very few places. And not at home. Soy sauce replaced fish sauce centuries ago. Fish sauce today is mainly restricted to S.E. Asia where it is is available in every supermarket, corner shop and even on the streets. That is not the case in China. Even Chaoshan is not easy to find in Guangdong, although that situation is very slowly improving. People don't make it for good reason. They don't want it or even know what it is. (And of course it doesn't require refrigeration. Of course, the ancient Greeks and Romans didn't have refrigerators. But there is no evidence that they made it at home, either.)

I am very suspicious of that story in the link. No one is sure exactly what garum was. And it wasn't the Romans who invented or named it but the Greeks as explained above. Garum is the Romanisation of the Greek γάρον. I certainly wouldn't want that hanging around in my fridge for months contaminating everything else.

Having smelled fish sauce being made in both Vietnam and Thailand, I can tell you few people would want to do it at home, especially in an apartment building or near any other peoples' homes. Those vats are more typically used for soy sauce.

It suddenly struck me that I never mentioned my second strongest dislike. I never drink the mammary secretions of mammals (or any of their plant substitutes), although I love cheese and plain yoghurt, especially Greek style. I regularly make my own. I was reminded of this when I received this as a 'gift' when I bought a six-pack of beer - a proper drink, yesterday. Labelled 早餐奶 (zǎo cān nǎi), meaning 'breakfast milk', the ingredients, as translated by my cell phone* are I'd need to look back at what 'bunsen' and 'carafe' really should be, but I very sensibly binned the stuff before noticing. * I was too lazy to do the long list myself.

We've discussed this before but I'd say it depends on the dish and how highly flavoured the overall dish is. Generally, I do detect a difference between red and white, the only two I have access to.

窝窝头 (wō wo tóu), steamed nest buns stuffed with stir fried egg, mustard greens and chilli.

Ah! Another member of the Stupid Company Name Club. I see they've fallen for the Himalayan pink salt scam. too! Still bad writing though. Should the menu have read Sourdough and Ampers&nd Butter it may have been less confusing. Even just capitalising Ampersand might have helped. Thanks for the clarification.

A couple of days ago, I read something online about a London pub which was my local in the 1970s. It appeared from what I read that it is now a 'gastropub'. Back in the day, it was a fine pub but the only food you may have found would be a bag of salted peanuts. So, I look them up and their rather basic website had a link to a sample menu. I clicked and was told the link was invalid. But I could see that it wasn't really to a normal sample menu but to an old Christmas dinner menu. Further intrigued, I did something I rarely do. I emailed them to ask if they were aware of their broken link. They replied thanking me for pointing it out and explained They also asked me if I would like them to send me a sample message by email. It arrived yesterday evening. First item on said menu is I have emailed them to ask how to make ampersand butter. I have attached the menu they sent. There are other errors. I have redacted the name of the establishment to not shame them, too much. They still haven't corrected the link. Saturday lunch 1.3.25.docx

Well-travelled indeed but not the most well-travelled in my arsenal. Many years ago I was given a bottle of Gleneagles mineral water on a British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London. It is a Scottish brand. It amused me that it had already travelled half way round the world and was about to travel back. I didn’t drink it but took it with me. Then travelled back, first to HK again, then into mainland China. For no good reason, I have carried that bottle of water with me everywhere I have travelled for the last 30 years. It has been to the UK and back at least 7 times. It has been to Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain. It has been to almost every SE Asian country (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and to Vietnam, etc). It has been to Japan twice and has travelled the length and breadth of China. I cant think why, but it amuses me. I’m not in the least superstitious so, it’s not for ‘luck’ as most people I’ve told assume. Nor is it ‘emotional support’. I take my pet ostrich for that! The bottle is looking a bit bashed now, but still intact.

I thought this was fun. Found today. Spanish Chorizo. Made in Spain. Imported to England. Exported to China. Label information in English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. No Chinese.

Wah! I haven't had areyes in decades. I'd completely forgotten they exist! I can get pita bread here, but the spices are more difficult. If I do make them, I'll be taking a lot more liberties. Beautiful looking plate of food.

Oh! Happy Day! I just took possession of 526 grams of the 诺邓火腿 (nuò dèng huǒ tuǐ) as described two posts back! Vacuum packed and sitting in my fridge waiting to see what I do with it!

It is more than a whole chicken, but I I wouldn't say the difference is huge. Whole 土鸡 (tǔ jī) organic chickens are roughly about $12-$20 USD per bird. China most certainly has 放山鸡 (fàng shān jī) free-range chickens. In a similar price range as the organic depending on the breed. I listed some of the more prized breeds up-thread starting here. Many Chinese shoppers are incredibly fussy about their poultry, often buying chicken or ducks live in farmer's markets rather than supermarkets - especially at holidays or wedding celebrations etc. However, we can also get the cheap supermarket mutants sold as chicken, usually as butchered parts.

The ones in this topic.

I have been asked by PM about English language cookbooks that I would recommend. I prefer to answer openly as other people may also want to know. However my answer won't be particularly illuminating. 99% of my Chinese cookbooks are in Chinese! I only have about five in English - all by Gullet embers as it happens, albeit inactive members. First, Fuchsia Dunlop The Food of Sichuan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and Land of Fish and Rice (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). That latter covers eastern Chinese cuisine. These two are particularly good, but all her books are sound. Beware! Her Land of Plenty and Sichuan Cookery are earlier editions of the same book. The one I link to is the latest update. Hopefully, the last. Second, Carolyn Phillips All Under Heaven (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is a good introduction to regional Chinese food, although no one book could cover all. That would require a library! She also has a short book on Dim Sum, but I can't find my copy. I very rarely eat dim sum anyway. Beyond the Great Wall (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) - Naiomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford covers only a few regions but IS a good read. I no longer have a copy. I wonder what happened to it. Generally (and I know there must be exceptions), I find English language books and websites tend at best to concentrate on western renditions of Cantonese food, rather than food you would find in most of China - if anywhere in China. I'm really not the best person to answer the question.