liuzhou

Pork stir fry with tiger matsutake mushrooms. Served with rice and wilted baby bok choy.

... and today in the market for the first time, fresh, wild 虎松茸 (hǔ sōng róng), tiger matsutake. Foraged in neighbouring Yunnan Province.

I bought these last autumn but never posted this picture here as I couldn't identify the ones on the left. Today I finally managed. They are 黑皮鸡枞菌 (hēi pí jī cōng jūn), 'black skin chicken fir mushroom', Oudemansiella raphanipes. Cultivated from Yunnan Province. They are pleasant enough but very mild in taste, compared to the morels.

82 Vintage Cookbooks, Free to Download, Offer a Fascinating Illustrated Look at Culinary and Cultural History

Lemony, garlicky, chilily, shrimply orzo.

I have made my own here - just once. They were good, but not perfect as I can't get the right seasonings in China. But I'm 100% with you on the energy and enthusiasm issue. PS. I hate most Chinese sausages.

It's about 25 years since I lived in England, but I can say that your "banger" looks wide of the mark. It does look to be an emulsified, industrial effort probably made from mechanically separated meat (MSM). A true English banner is seldom to be found in supermarkets (there are exceptions, though), but more in old fashioned butchers' shops, where they are hand made from real meat and appropriately spiced. My own preference was for Cumberland sausages made by my local butcher. Sadly he and his shop are long gone. When I was back in UK this summer I did have one excellent sausage from a pop-up food cart in London's Covent Garden. It was meaty and well-spiced.

Last night. 窝窝头 (wō wō tóu) buns stuffed with beef and Hunan pickled vegetables.

No. It's all over. Tea is often served lukewarm or just room temperature.The exception is in more serious tea tastings, where the tea is central to the event, and it is normally hotter, but never boiling hot.

You'll get no pooh-poohiing from this Scot. The last batch I made (and posted) for dinner reappeared next day for lunch and definitely tasted better (not that they were bad first time round).

Vegetarian? Good Lord! I can be accused of many things, but vegetarian? I do occasionally make vegetarian dishes - like some salads. Or a poached egg. But please be reassured, this was not in the least vegetarian. 晒兰 (shài lán) is ham, ham, ham! Any rumours to the contrary are fake news and lies.

Cauliflower stir fried with 晒兰 (shài lán), green and red chillies, garlic, ginger, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce. Served with rice and wilted spinach.

Looking forward to that !

紫苏杨梅姜 (zǐ sū yáng méi jiāng) means "purple perilla, bayberry, ginger" and that's what we have here. 紫苏 (zǐ sū), known in Japanese as "shiso", is Perilla frutescens. 杨梅 (yáng méi) is Myrica rubra and 姜 (jiāng) well, you know what ginger is. The yangmei are slightly, but pleasantly tart, the ginger is spicy and the perilla adds a herbal note. Fresh Yangmei

Post Thanksgiving. from the New Yorker. “That was fun. Let’s do it all again in three weeks.”

Bacon 'n Bun

Do you know what breed of duck these come from? I just checked my 8 duck eggs I bought earlier today and the heaviest is 78 grams.

Minimally. Those definitely weren't Dricoll's.

Looks lovely to me and I don't really like lasagna. Yes, pro food shots are actually usually of partially cooked food, chilled food or totally fake food.

Strawberry Season! Yippee!

Chinese stovies. Well, Scottish stovies really, but made in China and with a Chinese twist. It's cold and I've been busy, so I wanted to do a simple one pot meal. I had a sort of a thick pork chop, so I cut off the large amount of fat and rendered that, then chopped the meat roughly and fried it in the fat with onions, red chilli and carrots. While that was going on I peeled and thickly sliced some spuds, added them then braised in water with a bit of Shaoxing wine and Shanghai Worcestershire sauce*. Finished with some scallions. Plenty more left for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. * Yes. Shanghai Worcestershire Sauce is a thing, although the Chinese are no better at pronouncing Worcestershire than the Americans! 🤣

This arrived at my door about 30 minutes ago. From a friend. It is a form of cured pork known as 晒兰 (shài lán) only made in one small, remote town in Western Hunan province. I described it in more detail here. 3 kg of the stuff to play with!

Story here.