liuzhou

This lot just arrived for me. I didn't order them, but they were clearly addressed to me. I can't think who could have sent them. 4 x 250g packs of candied macadamia nuts 2 x 250g packs of salted cashew nuts A mystery.

My brother had a small "greasy spoon" restaurant in a Spanish tourist town, catering to dumb English visitors who complain that the Spanish speak Spanish and eat Spanish food. He served them up dreadfull "English" food and made enough to open a fish and chip shop, too, which did well as the same tourists weren't about to be eating any of that foreign muck! Of course, meanwhile he was eating and drinking the joys of Spain - funded by the idiots. But he had two rules. 1) No salt or pepper or Heinz ketchup on the table. He was tired of the idiots salting and peppering their food without tasting it first, then complaining the food was too salty! 2) No! You can't have your steak well done. You don't need three stars to be sensible! Sadly, Covid has ended all that - at least for now.

...and dessert

Pre-brined pork cutlets with butter, garlic and chive mashed potatoes and some asparagus that was on its last legs, but tasted OK. And don't forget the whole grain Dijon mustard.

The trouble with smoking meat is that the cigarette papers get covered in blood and fall apart!

Round here it's garlic, ginger and chilli.

Very few Michelin restaurants put salt and pepper on the table. In fact, most restaurants world-wide don't.

I can't believe a year has passed since my trip home - and what a year! I would have been devastated if the trip had been planned for this year and rendered impossible. Anyway, I just wanted to tell all the people here who were so kind with their comments and wishes on this topic last year, that my mother still is well and will be celebrating her 91st birthday tomorrow in lockdown in Scotland.

Haven't done this for a while. Medium boiled duck egg in edible eggcups.

Hedgehogged mango

So, men are “gentlemen“ and women are “flora and fauna“.

Yes, I get that Walker's shortbread here in China, too. Strange.

Many libraries have collections of menus, including the British library which has a huge collection.

You mean 'sex tourism'.

I went to a local store to pick up some coconut milk. They were out of it. Where the coconut milk usually lives I spotted this and, on a whim, bought it - just because I'd never seen it before. 辣椒芝麻酱 - Chilli sesame seed sauce. Ingredients listed are sesame seeds, chilli, soy bean oil, salt, MSG and Sichuan peppercorn. I have no idea what to do with it. There is little information on Google or his Chinese equivalents. Experiment time.

Really? 32% are overweight and 9% obese according to WHO statistics. The fattest person I've ever seen was in Thailand and Thai.

Prawn curry - Thai red curry style. There was a side of pan roasted asparagus, too.

I have zero experience of refrigerating half eaten avos. No experience of half eaten avos at any temperature.

Welcome. I am one of currently more active members from the UK, but haven't lived there for about 30 years. Most of my family are still there, though. I visited last summer for the first time in many years. Hadn't changed much. As to your bread question, you'll definitely get more answers from our resident expert bakers on the bread thread than here.

I almost didn't post the suggestion as I thought you must know. We all have those moments!

I've been using it for decades. It seldom fails for me. That said, I rarely know what kind of avos I'm dealing with.

Put the ones you want to slow down into the fridge and the the ones you want now on the counter. That way you can easily stagger the ripening times.

The first of three. Juicily messy.

Hunan uses Sichuan peppercorns, too. As does far away Xinjiang. But admittely not as much as Sichuan does. That said, I've never has any bad experiences next day from Sichuan food. Or Hunan.

Not in Sichuan! Anyway, western Hunan is much spicier. The natives there consider the Sichuanese to be utter chilli wimps!