liuzhou

Very seldom but a) When it wasn't what I ordered. b) When it contained corn despite me telling the waiter twice that I didn't want corn on my pizza! c) In a new Indian restaurant in London, when my starter turned up ice cold and burnt d) In the same restaurant in London (same visit- I never went back) when the chicken curry was lamb (or vice versa - it was a long time ago.) e) Guess where! When the advertised basmati turned up and was obviously sticky short grain rice! Finally, the owner of the Indian place apologised and said I need only pay for what I liked. I paid for the three gin and tonics I'd consumed while waiting over an hour for a total farce! He did not demur.

As part of a fridge/freezer clearing drive, for lunch today I boiled up some frozen, but home made, wontons and ate them with yellow Sriracha sauce and ground black pepper.

Thai style mango beef with asparagus and rice.

Agree. A few weeks ago, I went to my local supermarket and selected some lovely on-vine tomatoes. The new person on the weigh station pulled them all off the stems and threw the stems away. No doubt she thought she was doing me a favour, but I almost wept. Another advantage of keeping them on the vine is they last longer in storage (NEVER THE FRIDGE!).

Round here we consider ourselves fortunate if the bathroom has a door!

I finally managed to track this down and watched it tonight. What a wonderful movie! Rammed with food and with a twisting and turning plot. Also a real tear-jerker in places. Thank you for the heads up!.

I don't know @Bernie's rationale, but I often leave tomatoes on the vine in cooking. The vines have a lot of flavour which can be imparted to sauces etc. I usually remove them before serving. I also pan roast on-vine cherry tomatoes for the same reason. More flavour.

Must be catching. My dinner tonight was a disaster. Barely edible and certainly not photograph worthy. Yet it, too, was something I've made a zillion times with no problems.

Right now nothing. Not only is my mother on the other side of the planet, but Mother's Day was back in March! The May Mother's Day is American, but China also follows that model. All day I've had people asking if I have called my mother. It took me a while to work out why. Never mind. She turns 90 in June, so I'm planning a trip home - haven't seen her for 12 years!

Am I the only person who can definitely taste peanut oil? I don't find it neutral at all, although I read this all the time. Anyway, for what it's worth, I use panko a lot and never have the issue @eugenep describes. I'm going with the not enough oil and too low temp theory.

Yes, they are easily available. Both wheat and rice noodles. They are usually used the same day, but a night in the fridge does no harm. Some supermarkets also have vacuum packed ramen and udon style noodles which last weeks in the fridge.

Busy day working at home, but found time to rustle up some quick fried noodles. Fresh ramen, pork and cordyceps militaris, with garlic, ginger, chilli, scallions, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.

For some reason, my subtitles are coming up in German, a language I don't speak! Anyway, two vocals plus music and incomprehensible subtitles all at once isn't exactly rocking my boat! Pity, because I would love it otherwise.

Why? Don't you like asparagus?

Massaman Chicken Curry

Indeed, it is used in many savory snacks. I don't know about the US, but in Europe it is often declared on packaging as E-621, using the EU's food additive coding system. It is astonishing how many people claim to be intolerant of, or allergic to MSG but are fine with E-621!

I've watched a few of these now, and excellent as they are, one thing irritates the hell out of me. I was quite interested in the Korea episode, but they keep having two people talking at the same time (original speaker and interpretor) while simultaneously playing music in the background! Never let the sound engineer do the editing! Nothing is clear to my old but still slightly functional ears!

Clam and mustard greens soup - a standard in every home and restaurant round here. Pork with fermented black beans. No jars were involved in the preparation of this dish. Another basic home or restaurant dish.

Nice piece in the Guardian today about Madhur Jaffrey. Also her new book is to be on cooking Indian in the Instant Pot.

Chinese people are generally averse to eating anything raw. The few exceptions are cucumber and yes, very occasionally water chestnuts. But I wouldn't say it's particularly common.

Bolt!

Fat fish; skinny chips. Fish in a Guinness batter.

@Dave the Cook Adding my thanks for the restoration.

Scotch eggs (quail egg) with sour plum sauce.

Coriander (cilantro) chicken with olives, garlic, shallots, chilli, wine. Rice.