liuzhou

What are the dark sausages? Some kind of blood sausage?

Yes. The wok referred to in the PF Chang video linked to in @jemartin 's first post is a Beijing wok as shown in the video. It reads: Beijing Wok 36cm 10 pieces. The company is Summit Kogyo, 123-1 Matsuhashi Tsubame-shi, Niigata, Japan Website: http://www.tetsunaberyu.jp They do not appear to have a retail outlet and some of their woks have minimum purchase amounts of 10 and upwards. They do so sell a few individual woks through Chinese website Alibaba here, but not the model in the video. Amazon would be a lot easier and safer. _______________________________ I can point out something that has changed in the last few years and it isn't woks. That rather hysterical Washington Times article linked to (twice) in the original post is seven years old. Things have much improved, and anyway there has never been a case reported of a Chinese wok being contaminated with lead or anything else. On an aside, I have never seen anyone use a wok burner domestically in over 20 years in China. I wouldn't know where to buy one.

So? I have two woks, which are used every day. One is 18 years old and the other about a year younger. I would still recommend them. Wok design hasn't changed for millennia.

There are already several threads discussing this, such as this one. If you search for 'wok' using the search feature at the top of the page, you will find many more.

And you are welcome to it!

I bought some yellowtail fish , gutted them and turned them into this. Fried fish with potato salad (home made mayo) and a simple watercress salad. Served with one of the rarest wines on the planet. A good Chinese dry white.

Perhaps, but I loathe corn; Chinese potatoes aren't great and there is a surprising shortage of Andouille sausage. 😄

@gfweb You ate Henry?

Crayfish Chaos. Boiled crayfish with chilli. Lots of chilli. Two of us got through this lot designed for an entire extended family! Beer was also consumed. We are sensible!

I have to preface this by saying I hate football (although I hate the word 'soccer' even more. It is only ever used by countries which can only play the game extremely badly!) I haven't watched a single match and have no intention of doing so. I have however noticed that China is going crazy in a way only a country totally unable to play the game could. Every bar supermarket and bus stop is streaming continuous live action or repeated highlights. The flags of the competing countries are flying everywhere (being China they throw theirs in too) The supermarkets are also selling FIFA branded snacks. Saw these today and did laugh. What you probably call 'potato chips', but which sensible people call 'potato 'CRISPS', 'chips' being something altogether different. Various participating teams are depicted by dogs in an echo of the company's name "Single Dog". The dogs and the countries seem to have been matched at random. For some reason Argentina, a likely winner is depicted as a rather porcine canine in dark glasses. Defending champions and early losers are depicted as that famous German detective Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street, London being somewhere in the Black Forest. Meanwhile, England is shown as a canine Andy Warhol. No, I didn't buy any. They were three times the price of the regular CRISPS. I am however pleased that, unusually, they got one thing right. For years they have been flying the flag for the England team - or think they have. Instead they have been flying the UK flag. Contrary to popular belief, the World Cup is not a competition between nations, but between football associations. That is what FIFA means! Federation of International Football Associations. The four constituents parts of the United Kingdom each have their own football associations. This year the English Football Association is in the finals, not the others. So, the correct flag is the England flag. And that is what has been flying this year for the first time... ...and is also used on the CRISP packet wrapper.

I was in my local supermarket this morning, remembered this thread and swung past the cooked pig ear section. They had Stewed Pig Ears Ears braised in soy sauce Although I had no real plan to do so, I ended up buying some sliced stewed ear, which later I will fry to render and crisp up the fattier parts. With some chilli, I guess. They are now having a rest in the freezer, but will turn up in the Snacking while eGulleting topic sometime very soon.

I have, in the past, made huge batches of these for social gatherings. I did half with and half without chilli. I have to say, though, the chilli ones always go first!

Yeah. A dear friend just returned from a business trip to Italy and brought some back for me. One of the few locals who know what a good cheese is.

Fusilli with a pork ragu made using a fresh tomato sauce with onion and chilli. Finished with basil and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

牙签牛肉 yá qiān niú ròu is a popular snack or beer food round here. Some supermarkets sell it, but I usually make by myself, as do most people. The Chinese means "toothpick beef". Lean beef is sliced thinly and cut into small pieces. These are marinaded in Shaoxing wine and soy sauce, with garlic salt, and usually, chilli flakes. After between 30 minutes to an hour, they are threaded onto toothpicks, sprinkled with white sesame seeds and very briefly deep fried. I love 'em.

Pig ears are very popular in Chinese cuisine, as snacks, appetizers or full dishes. Her are some crisp fried pig ears sold as a snack in many of my local food stores. My nearest supermarket also has 5-spice braised ears from time to time. But probably the best pig ear dish I have eaten was this one in Hunan. I don't know how long they cooked it, but it was soft, spicy and delicious. Finally here is an excellent article and recipe from member and cookbook author @C J Phillips' blog. I haven't cooked the recipe but have eaten it.

Thai-style beef with mango. The beef was marinated in nam plah (fish sauce), garlic and chilli. Fried with shallots, then mango and scallions were added. A drizzle of water to prevent it drying out too much. Served with steamed asparagus and rice. The sweetness of the mango contrasts with the sour of the nam plah. Sweet and sour beef, I suppose Happy mouth.

Probably an alternative pronunciation of "chuck", meaning chicken, in use long before Australia was colonised in the late 18th century.

Not quite. Pork is usually referred to simply as 肉 (ròu). It can be specified as 猪肉 (zhū ròu) if absolutely necessary, but that it is relatively rare. Most other meats contain the animal and meat characters. Beef - 牛肉 (niú ròu; cattle meat) Mutton - 羊 肉 (yáng ròu; sheep meat) Chicken - 鸡肉 (jī ròu; chicken meat) Fish meat 鱼肉 (yú ròu) is used, but is less common. I have several Chinese cookbooks that call for 鱼肉 in recipes.

"Cow" (Plural: kine) is an ancient word with various spellings derived from Indo-European and has long been used to refer to cattle of either gender. The exclusively female use is relatively recent. "Bull" is more recent, first appearing in English around 1200 AD. "Beef", as has been said, is from middle French and first appears in written English in c1300 AD. Similarly, "sheep" is Old English while "mutton" entered middle English from Old French around 1300. The same story applies to pig and pork; deer and venison. Although 'pig' originally only referred to the young animal under one year old; regular pigs were swine. "hogs" were also under one year old. The probable reason for the two existing side by side is that after the Norman Conquest, the land owning, ruling, educated classes spoke French while the uneducated peasants spoke English. Under the feudal system, the peasants would raise the animals and so use their language to describe them. The upper classes ate the beef, mutton and venison, so used their language, French. By around 1300 AD the two languages had merged (as can be seen in Chaucer) into Middle English. Some English and French words were lost or relegated to dialect use, but in the case of this animal/meat referencing, both were retained. Also, "meat" (also from Old English) originally just meant "food". The modern use to mean the flesh of animals is relatively recent (and 'meat' is still used in the old sense). They aren't. Never heard of "coq au vin"?

Ridiculous. It's obviously "Africa". Not sure about 5D, though

Asparagus Soup and Bacon and Avocado Baguette.

Boiled (duck) egg baguette. One of two.

A thought-provoking article from The Eater on the same subject.