liuzhou

More soupy noodles. This time red-cooked tofu (红烧豆腐 hóng shāo dòu fǔ), fresh shiitake mushrooms and spinach in a chicken stock with fresh ramen noodles. Chilli and white pepper for kick. Red-cooked Tofu Noodles without broth Noodles with broth

Stores where?

Well my friend enjoyed. I'm a long way from Copenhagen and chocolate-less. Easter-less too

A friend sent me these pictures. Chocolates served on an Easter flight from London to Copenhagen on SAS Scandinavian Airlines. He described them as "rather nice".

Oh! I thought it was deliberate! Can't have too much liver and onions.

I know I've made and posted this before, but it is a favourite, so no apologies. Lean pork marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with garlic, crushed coriander seeds and chilli. Stir fried and served with rice and a simple red onion and tomato salad dressed with olive oil and rice wine vinegar vinaigrette and sprinkled with sea salt.

"So good they named it twice!"

Had rice left over from last night so decided to make fried rice. Wanted to add some protein in addition to egg and went shopping to see what was available. Finally settled on 螺蛳肉 luó sī ròu. This is the meat extracted from a type of local river snail and the city's signature ingredient, especially in 螺蛳粉 luó sī fěn, or snail noodles. I can buy the live snails, or cooked snails in chilli or just this extracted meat. Being lazy, I went for the latter. Chopped some garlic, ginger and chilli and soaked some dried shrimp and dried scallops. Cracked a duck egg and scrambled it lightly in the wok, then set it aside. Stir fried the garlic, shrimp etc. Added the snail meat, then after a bit, the rice. When nearly ready I added back the egg along with some scallions. Served with mat kimchi (막김치) I've never heard of the snails being used this way, but I was very pleased with the results. It'll be appearing at your local Chinese delivery place any time soon!

Odd, it's working for me now, too.

Thanks. Your link is broken, but I was able to find this by searching for 'yakkas'. Bait fish? They've sure got me hooked.

Yes, but much smaller and without that mackerel smell.

I've lived in other cultures than my own for about half my life and very quickly realised that, if you are going to be happy and accepted, you have to accept the differences. I see myself as a guest and it is only polite. Here in China, I tolerate manners and customs that would be downright offensive in my culture and I may have accidentally offended people here in the earlier days through my ignorance. Rudeness is often not an absolute. In fact, I worry about ever going home. My mother won't be pleased if I spit out my chicken or fish bones onto the table or the floor. From the story, this guy seems not to be ignorant, but arrogant. Unfortunately, I've met more than a few like that here. Of many nationalities.

These are the ones I and most people use. I don't know what they may be called outside China, if this cultivar even exists. They are between 6 and 8 inches in length and are what I would call mildly hot (although occasionally you get a relatively vicious one) . That's why I also include the small red chillies which are hot.

Very normal dinner tonight. Normal here, that is. Every mom and pop restaurant or canteen will do you this. Simple but one of my favourites. 青椒肉片 (qīng jiāo ròu piàn); pork with green chilli peppers*. One of the simplest stir fries. Pork slices marinated in Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, red and large green chillies and scallions. A splashette of soy sauce. It isn't traditional but I also added some black salt-fermented beans (豆豉 dòu chǐ). With wok-wilted spinach and rice. * Not bell peppers; they are vile traitors to the species. I wouldn't even have them on my compost heap!

Picked up four of these this morning. I call them yellowtail. The person on the supermarket fish counter, had no idea. As usual. The price sticker read 金丝鱼 (jīn sī yú - literally 'gold thread fish') but a search under the Chinese name with the aid of Mr Google and his Chinese friends point me to very different tiny fish about two inches long, bred for decorative purposes in tropical fish tanks. These are about 8 inches/20cm head to tail. Anyway, I like 'em. Gutted and de-gilled, then rubbed with salt and black pepper and deep fried for just a minute or two. Served with lemon and un-photographed crusty baguette and butter.

via Twitter

What a disaster of a day. First, at noon, I made some rice - or tried to. Half way through cooking the rice cooker died. I've had it about fifteen years and it was a gift from a client, so no cash really lost, although I still had to buy a new one. I mean when you eat rice every day, you need one. Then dinner. This was an experiment. Which failed. It tasted great. but looked like something the cat sicked up. It was meant to be fish pieces in a laver and beer batter. I think I know what went wrong. The batter was too dry and perhaps the oil temperature could have been higher. Never mind, that is what experiments are for - finding out what not to do. I'll try again, but maybe not soon. To cheer myself up, I bought a new t-shirt.

I had to pull my fridge away from the wall today for technical reasons and found this fellow down the back. No idea how it got there. I don't keep onions anywhere near the fridge. I'm guessing he can't have been there too long. He was in a plastic bag so the shoots couldn't grow straight. The bulb is obviously a bit shrivelled, but the roots and shoots look healthy. I've potted it on my balcony just to see what happens.

I hated Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything", as I've mentioned more than once, but this article by Bittman and David L. Katz seems to be full of sense and a good read. The Last Conversation You’ll Ever Need to Have About Eating Right

Duck curry (leg, breast meat and livers), chilli, Indian curry paste, coconut milk, coriander leaf, Chinese chives. Served with rice and stir fried baby bok choy. Seconds were had.

Yes, I'm told the head is highly valued, but I guess they ascribe some traditional medicinal properties to it. I've only eaten the tail meat.

Here a couple of pictures from my local supermarket. They don't always have it, but when they do I always pick some up. Fine meat. Especially the tail.

More fridge clearance lunch. Soupy fresh ramen noodles in chicken stock with pork slivers, shiitake mushrooms, baby bok choy, coriander leaf, chilli, Chinese chives, white pepper, Vietnamese fish sauce and a boiled duck egg.

It says on the packet that it's from Vietnam.

Wonton wrappers tend to be thinner and square, whereas jiaozi wrappers are slightly thicker and circular.