liuzhou

"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.

Yes, I know I've been here before, but sometimes nothing else will do. Fish and chips. Beer batter with shichimi togarishi. And, as ever, a second round was required.

Sino-Italian. Clams with linguine. I fry some chopped garlic and chilli in rice bran oil, then add the clams and a glass of white wine (today, Italian). Each clam is picked out and set aside as soon as it opens. When are all open, I reduce the wine, clam liquor, garlic and chilli then return the clams along with a slug of oyster sauce and chopped scallions. Heat through and serve with the linguine.

Amazing. You have a 96 year old! How old you must be! 😄

I'm sure it tastes just fine, but have to say it looks radioactive!

Minced pork with chilli flakes and Sichuan peppercorns, stir-fried and finished with scallions and sesame oil. 丝瓜 (sī guā) or towel gourd or loofah steamed with garlic and finished with black pepper. Baked mushrooms with rice bran oil and scallions. Rice.

I've stabbed myself with chopstick in the past. These ones, although I don't know which one hurt most. I've also read more than one report in the local press about arthritis being caused or, at least, exacerbated by chopstick use.

Not the greatest quality video, but top quality funny.

I bought a bunch of lychees a few days ago. Just finished them when my dearest friend J called to say she was coming to see me to give me something. Always happy to see her. She arrived with a kilo of lychees. It turns out the local harvest has been phenomenal - in fact too much so. There is a glut of the things and price has dropped to virtually zero leaving the farmers with problems. To offer assistance to the farmers, the local government has stepped in and bought up tons of them and distributed them to their staff. J works for the local government in the department that promotes local foods, so she has first call! She and her husband and son are working their way through them and she decided to unload some on me. Tonight, she brought her son with her. I offered him one and he looked sick and declined! I think he's been eating them non-stop for days! Over the years I've seen the government do the same over gluts of bananas and oranges.

Boiled duck egg with home made flatbread.

This morning, I bought a bunch of squash flowers (and stems and leaves). I had a load of asparagus trimmings and woodier stems, so used them to make a stock for flower soup. Also acquired some okra so made a spicy chicken and okra stew, served with couscous. Followed by a load of fresh lychees.

Pork and shiitake stuffed steamed bun. Chilli sauce dip. Two buns were consumed.

From The Eater

Tomato and basil on seaweed crackers. Sea salt and black pepper.

Fried fresh ramen noodles with pork, pumpkin leaves and flower stems, garlic, scallion, Sichuan peppercorn, chilli. Pork marinated it Shaoxing wine.

Yes, they were relatively flat. It's difficult to see in the BBC picture how flat they are, though. Maybe ¾ of an inch thick. I'm pretty sure there was yeast in them. But it is half a century since I ate or even saw one, so I can't be 100% sure. Next time I talk to my mother I'll ask her.

Just how I (wistfully) remember them.

No. I dry them, then stick 'em between two bits of kitchen paper and nuke them for a minute.

For last night's dinner, I skinned a couple of chicken thighs. I intended to use the skin this morning with breakfast, but an early (6 am) call changed all my plans. I finally managed to crisp them up in the late afternoon for a between lunch and dinner snackette while e-Gulleting.

Although there are potato farls, they are not the same as potato scones. And there are many types of farls. Anyway, nothing to do with butteries.