liuzhou

Might be a different Ben Franklin. 😄 I don't see anything particularly unusual about the recipe, though. It's just a cheesecake. Nor is cayenne with chocolate unusual. Chilli and chocolate is a well known pairing.

Now I enter dangerous waters. I'm going down the pumpkin hole. There is a problem in that there is no standard definition of a pumpkin, other than it is a type of gourd. This means what I consider to be a pumpkin, you may not and the next guy will think of something different again. This applies in both English and Chinese. So, I'm going to show examples of what is known as 南瓜 (Mand: nán guā; Cant: naam4 gwaa1), which is literally 'south gourd' and usually translated as 'pumpkin'. However, again there are many types. The most common example is simply named 南瓜. These: They are around 18 inches/ 46 cm long; clearly too much for the average family in one sitting, so they are also sold in pieces. We also see these, which may more closely resemble what many of you think of as pumpkins. They are 圆南瓜/圓南瓜 (Mand: yuán nán guā; Cant: jyun 4*2 naam4 gwaa1) which means 'round pumpkin. Again, as can be seen, you can buy a whole one or just a piece. They also come in a green-skinned variety known as 青圆南瓜仔/青圓南瓜仔 (Mand: qīng yuán nán guā zǐ; Cant: cing1 jyun 4*2 naam4 gwaa1zai2), 'young green round pumpkin'. Then we have these small pumpkins known either as 小南瓜 (Mand: xiǎo nán guā; Cant: siu2 naam4 gwaa1), 'small pumpkin' or, in Mandarin only, 贝贝南瓜/ (bèi bèi nán guā), 'baby pumpkin'. Those in the photo below are around 6 to 7 inches/ 15 to 18cm long. At the opposite end to the babies are the 老南瓜 (Mand: lǎo nán guā; Cant: lou5 naam4 gwaa1), meaning "old pumpkins'. One very noticeable variety is this: These knobbly gourds are known as 丑南瓜/醜南瓜 (Mand: chǒu nán guā; Cant: cau2 naam4 gwaa1) which means 'ugly pumpkin. Don't look so ugly to me. All of these pumpkins are mainly used in soups and hot pots, although pumpkin cakes are also very popular. More popular than anything is the seeds. Chinese people love pumpkin (and sunflower seeds). I once took an 18-hour train journey and the family opposite me literally ate them for the whole journey. The seeds are also used to produce oil which is used as a condiment; not suitable for frying. This is available only a few specialist stores. The people here in Guangxi, especially in the countryside, eat the the pumpkin leaves as a green vegetable. But I have kept my favourite to last. 南瓜花 (Mand: nán guā huā; Cant: naam4 gwaa1 faa1). Pumpkin flowers are wonderful. Used mainly in light soups, but I've also had them stuffed with minced pork etc. They are also delicious battered and deep fried, tempura style.The flowering season is short, but a highlight of my year, There are other pumpkins, but the season is only beginning. I'll add any more I see, as and when they appear.

Clam and leaf mustard soup. Spicy pork kidney with white button mushrooms, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander leaf and chives. Rice.

Lagenaria siceraria Still at the altar of 瓜, we come across these. This is calabash, bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, New Guinea bean or Tasmania bean. In Chinese, 葫芦(瓜)/葫蘆(瓜) (Mand: hú lú (guā); Cant: wu4 lou4*2 (gwaa1)) or 葫子(瓜) (Mand: hú zi (guā); Cant: wu4 zi2 (gwaa1)). The gua character is sometimes dropped in this type. They come in many shapes, but this is the most common round here. Like most of the vegetable gua family, these are used in soups and hot pots, but also stir fried.

Here is one many people may consider more like a bathroom product than food! Momordica charantia is known as bitter melon; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear among others. 苦瓜 (Mand: kǔ guā; Cant: fu2 gwaa1), in Chinese. In the 14th century, this was introduced to China from India, where it remains very popular. It lives up to its English name, bitter melon, etc. It can be very bitter, but you can never be sure until you taste it. Just as some relatively mild chilli peppers can throw in a volcanic example just to keep you on your toes, bitter melon can vary from mildly bitter to totally astringent. Some online recipes advise that you soak or salt them to remove the bitterness. I don't get this at all. If you don't like bitter, why on earth did you buy something specifically identified as 'bitter'? Yes, bitterness is something appreciated as a taste by many Chinese, but can be difficult for some people. I like it a lot, but it was an acquired taste. Round here it is usually stir-fried with beef, but also goes well with pork. It has an affinity with black fermented beans. The melons are split lengthwise and the seeds removed. Then it is cut into crescent shapes. I do it that way often, but have also used it in soups. It also comes in another variety known as 珍珠苦瓜 (Mand: zhēn zhū kǔ guā - pearl bitter melon) with knobbly skin. Tastes the same. These come in two shapes. Slices of the melon are also dried and used to make bitter melon 'tea'. Dried Bitter Melon In Cantonese, various renditions of 'bitter melon face' is used to describe someone we might call a sourpuss.

Luffa acutangula Luffa, Loofah, angled luffa, Chinese okra, dish cloth gourd, ridged gourd, sponge gourd, towel gourd, vegetable gourd, strainer vine, ribbed loofah, silky gourd, ridged gourd, silk gourd. Whatever name you prefer, these vine gourds are related to the cucumber. 丝瓜/絲瓜 (Mand: sī guā; Cant: si1 gwaa1) in Chinese. If the luffa name is familiar to you, it may be because of the bath tub exfoliant, which is the dried pith of mature plants, usually from the closely related Luffa aegyptiaca, known as the smooth luffa. sponge gourd, Egyptian cucumber, or Vietnamese luffa. This one we also get but the first is much more common. Both varieties are edible, but it is only the young fruits which we eat. Usually sliced and stir fried, they have a delicate flavour. My favourite way to have them I first tasted in a restaurant near my countryside home and have replicated many times. The halved gourds are sprinkled with finely chopped garlic and oil then steamed. This image is of the restaurant's version. It is not recommended that you eat all your bathroom products.

Ever heard of ice? And anyway, it's the mud temperature that matters not the water..

Well, if you are eating canned peas from the 19th century, you deserve what you get!

Canned vegetables always suck*. If you can't get fresh, do without, is my motto. It is very noticeable in supermarkets in China that there is no canned goods section. The very idea of canned vegetables would be ridiculous to a Chinese shopper. We have jicama here, too. I'll get to that in time. I agree it can be a substitute in texture terms; less sure about in taste. *Only honourable exception - French petits pois.

For the next few posts, we are going to be worshipping at the temple of the great god guā 瓜 guā (Mand: guā; Cant: gwaa1) is a multi-purpose Chinese word covering all gourds, squashes and melons. It does not differentiate between what we think of as fruits or vegetables. All types of melon are 瓜, as are pumpkins etc. (Yes, I know. Technically, they are all fruits.) First up, I'm going to start with one of the easiest. 黄瓜 (Mand: huáng guā; Cant: wong4 gwaa1) literally means 'yellow gua'. It is Cucumis sativus, the plain old cucumber. What makes them yellow, I have no idea. These are widely used in Chinese cuisine, but seldom raw. They are usually cooked, if even for only a few seconds. There are a number of Chinese "salads" using cucumber, but even in most of those the cuke is heated through at the very least. One exception is the Sichuan classic, smacked cucumbers. Recipes galore online. Smacked cucumber In this salad from a supermarket salad bar, though, the cucumber has been briefly cooked. We also get these. Usually described as 白黄瓜 (Mand: bái huáng guā; Cant: baak6 wong4 gwaa1), literally white cucumber. I have also seen them as 果黄瓜 (Mand: guǒ huáng guā; Cant: gwo2 wong4 gwaa1), fruit cucumber, but less frequently. The more bulbous ones at the top of the picture. The thinner ones are something else I'll get to later. They do have a whiter flesh and taste a little sweeter. Otherwise, the same. Pickled cucumber is also widely available as are miniature cucumbers for either eating or pickling yourself.

This is from the dreaded Wikipedia, but the sources cited seem reliable. Also, the flowers I posted are from commercially cultivated plants.

Nelumbo nucifera Trust the Chinese to invent a vegetable custom designed to be eaten with chopsticks. Well, part of it anyway. The whole plant is edible and it has one of the most beautiful flowers. This baby is just outside my countryside home. We are talking about the lotus plant, 莲 (Mand: lián; Cant: lin4). Everything you can see is edible and so is everything you can't. The most used part is what is commonly referred to as 'lotus root', but is actually the rhizome of the plant. These are found in the sticky mud at the bottom of the pond. Extracting them is difficult, filthy manual labour. In Chinese, they are 莲藕 (Mand: lián ǒu; Cant: lin4 ngau5), although often only the final character is used, especially on menus. These are usually sliced and fried (stir or deep fry) , steamed or boiled in soups and hot pots. They are also boiled with sugar syrup to make desserts. They are used in Chinese style "salads". Although they are edible raw, it is not advised to eat them that way as they are prone to infection by parasites which are killed even with light cooking. Anyway, the Chinese eat very little raw. The holes make picking up cooked slices with chopsticks easy. Spicy Lotus Root "Salad" A more refined dish is to cut chunks, stuff the holes with meat etc. and deep fry them. The starchy rhizomes are also dried and ground to make a flour used as a thickening agent for sauces etc. When in season, the seed pods, 莲蓬 (Mand: lián péng; Cant: lin4 fung4) are sold on the streets for you to extract and eat the seeds, 莲子 (Mand: lián zi; Cant: lin4 zi2). I posted about them back in 2012. See here. Finally, although the leaves and flowers are edible and used in Japan and Korea, I've never seen them used here in China, although the flower stamens are used to make 'lotus flower tea', 莲花茶 (Mand: lián huā chá; Cant: lin4 faa1 caa4). Exit singing that old Gershwin hit: I've got rhizome; I've got lotus....

I'm told the white ones are starchy and the yellow on the sweet side, but perhaps not as sweet as the ones you describe as " almost too sweet ".

Eagle eyes!

Squid, sugar snap peas, garlic, ginger, chilli, Shaoxing wine, scallions with cuttlefish ink pasta. No corn!

What is it with you guys? I've always been nice to you! Why are you doing this to me? Popcorn? I'd rather eat deep fried bees! Oh! I have done! Available at a cinema not very near you!

Corn pretending not to be corn! Shouldn't be allowed.

Here people just chuck the husks on the floor. Yes, we also get the plastic wrapped stuff. When I say we, I mean them!

This is going to be traumatic, but I guess I have to do it. Zea mays You can call it corn or maize or anything else you like. I don't care. I call it 'revolting'. It never darkens my door or abuses my palate. Wretched stuff. But for the sake of completeness... In Chinese, 玉米 (Mand: yù mǐ; Cant: juk6/6*1 mai5) or, less often, 粟米 (Mand: sù mǐ; Cant: suk1 mai5). Two main varieties are sold. The regular yellow stuff as pictured above but also a white variety called 糯玉米 (Mand: nuò yù mǐ; Cant: no6 juk6/6*1 mai5), which means 'glutinous corn'. This foul abomination does come in various colours, but the most prized, I'm told, is black. See! I told you! The work of the devil. If you are too lazy to strip the ears from the cobs, worry not. You can also buy pre-stripped ears. One problem the troubled people who actually buy this stuff have is that in supermarkets and markets it is usually shelved un-husked, so they have to stand there and strip it to see exactly which type of hell they are facing. For the terminally lazy who can't be bothered to cook, evil street vendors littering every corner serve up cobs of vileness steamed over mobile stoves. This pestilence turns up everywhere. Corn in stir-fries, soups, hot pots. Corn randomly appearing on your plate on internal and international flights.. Corn ice cream! I kid you not. But most aggravatingly disgusting is that they throw corn kernels into all their pizzas. Even the friggin' wretched durian pizzas come with corn! Perhaps the only sensible use they make of it is corn oil, a very suitable emollient with which to lubricate the chain of your bicycle etc, but apparently they cook with it! I need a lie down and some major therapy now. Back soon with something edible.

Colocasia esculenta Despite the indifference to the potato in China, there is one root vegetable they have taken to in a big way. Taro. In Chinese, 芋头/芋頭 (Mand: yù tóu; Cant: wu6 tau4*2). This is boiled, steamed (sometimes with sugar), braised or fried. It also appears in hot pots and soups. There are also a number of desserts which feature taro in the form of cakes and pies, often served as dim sum. McDonald's China also sell taro pies. A favourite local use is in a dish called 扣肉 (Mand: kòu ròu; Cant: kau3 juk6), literally 'upside down bowl meat), in which slices of taro are interleaved with slices of fatty pork belly, placed in a bowl and steamed. The bowl is then inverted onto a serving plate. The full process is explained in great detail over here. Baby taro is also available. These are a bit bigger than we usually get. Wrong time of year.

Tonight. 青椒肉片 (qīng jiāo ròu piàn) - Pork with green chillies. I threw in a small red one too as the green ones are a bit tame for my asbestos mouth. Pork slices marinated in the usual: Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, red chilli and potato starch. Stir fried with the green chillies. Finished with a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Served with rice and wilted spinach. I don't know what these large green chillies might equate to in American (or any other) terms, if anything. I only know the Chinese name which helpfully means 'green chillies'. They are fairly mild until one day one of them sneaks up and sends your head and mouth cutting around the cosmic.

I did ask around when I was in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) back in May, but got nowhere.. Sorry, I forgot to tell you at the time. But, don't give up!

For the first 15 years I lived in China, I never saw asparagus once. Then about 5 or 6 years ago it began to appear sporadically. Now it is everywhere and China has become, by far, the world's largest producer. Other names in English include sparrowgrass and sprue, although the latter is usually only used for inferior straggly stalks. My son, as a child, called it 'sparrow juice', which remains a family tradition. In Chinese, it's 芦笋 (Mand: lú sǔn; Cant: lou4 seon2), literally 'reed' bamboo'. This causes all sorts of confusion. Most Chinese friends are convinced it's a type of bamboo, despite it being totally unrelated. I've only ever seen it being stir fried in Chinese cuisine. Being from the UK, I know that the best asparagus (and my 100% favourite vegetable) is English asparagus, only available from April 23rd until mid-summer's day. End of argument.

Busy day. Needed a quick lunch. Microwave baked potato with canned baked beans. 10 minutes. Sorted.

Wild shrimp in a fish stock with garlic, ginger, white pepper, fresh ramen noodles and spinach. I plated the solids separately first to let you see them, then added the broth.