liuzhou

Beautiful country indeed. Great people, food, wine and brandy. It's been about 30 years since I was there, but it remains firmly embedded in my memory.

Yes. I know. It is some kind of boletus but a minor one. I just ate them as documented on the Dinner topic.

This is not Chinese fried rice. It was fried in China, but there the comparison endeth. This is liuzhou fried rice, and I don't mean the city. I mean me. Yesterday, as documented on the China Shopping topic, I picked up a couple of "some kind of mushroom*". I'm pretty sure some kind of Boletus, I'm now sure. Not boletus edulis, but a minor relation. Minced some pork and briefly marinated it in Shaoxing wine with garlic, ginger and red chilli. Chopped on mushroom into fine dice and stir fried with the pork and then the rice. Simultaneously sliced half the other mushroom and pan-fried the slices until lightly browned. Finished the fried rice with some scallions and served. *

That was my first thought, but if they are, I'd like to know which type. They aren't all edible.

This morning, I found these in my local supermarket. I have no idea what they are. The supermarket displayed its usual generosity of information by labelling them as 小黄瓜 {xiǎo huáng guā) which means baby cucumbers. Methinks not! Rather idiotically, I accosted the nearest staff member to enquire as to their identity. After she got over her shock at being confronted by some crazy old foreigner daring to address her in her own language, she altruistically mumbled "蘑菇" (mó gū) - i.e. mushrooms. I advised that she was clearly wrong as they were definitely baby cucumbers as indicated on the label. She then informed me that every time they don't know what something is, the use the baby cucumber labels. Anyway, I bought them out of sheer pity for this poor woman. I'll have them for breakfast in the morning. If I survive I'll let you know. P.S. Google image search identified them immediately. As Lincolnshire sausages.

Pork, Tomatoes, Basil, Rice.

Here he is pre-cooking - with tail.

Did ranch dressing take over the world? No. America maybe. I've lived over a large part of the world and have never seen or tried it. I don't even know what it is. Never heard of "American dressing" either.

A twist in the tail. Tonight I steamed a fish (I know what it's called in Chinese, but never found an acceptable translation. It's a white sea fish. That'll do. A bit like red drum, but maybe not.) It was dressed with garlic, ginger, red vinegar, a little sugar, white pepper and scallions. The tail fell off while I was plating it, totally ruining my artistic presentation. With stir fried Shanghai bok choy and Thai jasmine rice.

Seconded

Two of my favourite places I would suggest are must-visits are: Milroy's of Soho for a vast whisky collection and Gerry's Wines and Spirits for a huge selection of bottles from around the world. The two are within walking distance of each other.

Pan fried pork cutlets with buttery scallion mash and asparagus. A blob of Dijon mustard.

Pasta and pesto. Pesto pasta. Linguine with freshly home-made pesto (traditional style).

Yesterday, I sliced some pork and mixed it in the usual Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, black fermented beans, garlic and chilli and bunged it into the fridge to marinate for an hour. No sooner had I shut the fridge door than my phone rang. "We are in Bing Bong Bang Restaurant! Come and join us!" BBB is five minutes from my home, so off I trotted. This morning, I remembered that the pork was still in the fridge and thought "OK. It's been marinating longer than one normally marinates Chinese food, but no worries. I'll have it for lunch." 11:30, my phone rang again. "We have a very urgent translation needs doing. Would you be able to come and we can look at it, then have lunch." Mindful of the need to earn beer coupons, I complied. Unmemorable lunch; unmemorable translation. Finally, a full 24 hours after putting the pork in the fridge, I retrieved and cooked it. It was none the worse for its extended wait. Added scallions. Served with stir fried white cabbage dressed with oyster sauce. And rice.

Poached chicken, shiitake, rice noodles, garlic, chilli, Chinese chives in a chicken broth.

1-10-10 chicken with garlic and chilli baked shiitake and asparagus. With couscous.

They sound great, but going by @Anna N's found recipe, I'm wondering why they are seasonal? It seems to me all the ingredients have year-round availability. No?

Sorry, I can't help you with suggestions, but I've never seen anything other than waxy potatoes in SE Asia, more's the pity.

Spicy lemon pork with snow peas and rice. Pork marinated for six hours in lemon juice, olive oil, chilli, crushed coriander and fennel seeds, garlic, ginger and sea salt.

One type of mooncake I've seen on sale this year, but not before are these "Olive Mooncakes". Note: The "olives" in question are Chinese olives (Canarium album) and not in any way related to what you and I think of as olives.Those in the first image are regular size; i.e approx 4" in diameter. They also offer a larger size (7" dia.) or you can have a mixed box. Of course, you'll need something to wash the cakes down with and what goes better with olives than olives? Olive juice soft drink.

With mid-autumn looming (September 24th), all the stores here are rammed with mooncakes. And, of course, Starbucks gets in on the madness.

It is traditional to cook and eat squid with snow peas round these parts. Today, I did just that but pimped them up with some bacon. Additional ingredients chilli, scallion, garlic, Shaoxing wine. Simple.

I made some Rou Jia Mo bread for later use, but purloined one for breakfast bacon sandwich.

Both.

I'm guessing your uncle wasn't Chinese, but that is a very Chinese sentiment. All the serving dishes and bowls being empty would reduce the host to total loss of face. The dark side of that is the huge amount of food waste I see here, although, to be fair there is a big doggy bag culture in restaurants and at home. Recently with more city dwelling people having fridges, uneaten lunch will turn up at dinner etc. Out in the countryside, it is normal to cook slightly too much, especially when entertaining.The lack of refrigeration here in the countryside tropics rules out recycling, but the pigs have smiles on their faces (which we eat in winter).