liuzhou

The BBC's Food Programme has just issued its latest podcast on the best of 2018 in cookbooks. I've just downloaded it and haven't listened yet, but the programme is usually reliable and interesting.

That's easy. We never get limes! They are always lemons. Well, almost. I found limes twice in twenty years. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Chinese for green lemons is 青柠檬 (qīng níng méng), where as the Chinese for limes is 青柠檬 (qīng níng méng). Yup! The same. There is another way to say limes - 莱姆 (lái mǔ) in most dictionaries, but I've never seen or heard it used in real life. It is a phonetic rendition of the English using meaningless characters. I stock up on limes when I visit Vietnam, which is nearby.

We get green oranges all the time here in China. They are very sweet. They are the smaller tangerine or satsuma type. We also get green lemons. Lemons

Turmeric chicken with garlic, ginger, green and red chillies, Chinese chives and black olives. Rice. There was a side of green beans with bacon which I did remember to photograph. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to focus the shot. Hey, Give me a break! I was hungry!

乌龙茶南瓜子 (wū lóng chá nán guā zi) Oolong tea flavoured (and coloured) pumpkin seeds for the nibbling of.

Ditto

This thingy.

@Anna N Coincidentally, I was eyeing up a black thingy like that today, "thingy" being the official Chinese term. There may be a more colloquial expression.

Wasn't that hungry tonight. I don't know why. Took a duck breast and skinned and sliced thinly (reserving said skin). Marinated in Shaoxing wine with garlic, ginger, chilli and dried tangerine peel. Stir fried with shiitake and fresh ramen noodles. Finished with Chinese chives and coriander leaf/cilantro.

窝窝头 (wō wō tóu) steamed buns with spicy wild shrimp.

That one was from Chile, but we also get them from Peru. This is a relatively new thing. Ten years ago, no one knew what they were and even today, most people don't know what they are.

Blodplättar. I've eaten that, but in Norway. No forest fires there, either. It's all beginning to make sense!

Avocado with flying fish roe (Chinese: 飞鱼籽 (fēi yú zǐ); Japanese: tobiko ( とびこ )); olive oil and rice wine vinaigrette; Vietnamese sea salt and black pepper. Toast on the side.

I have seen them being used on street food stalls in northern China to spread pancake batter evenly. I'd call it a pancake spreader, but the notable lack of forest fires in northern China proves it's efficacy as a rake. Pancake experts, being able to pour evenly, don't need to use rakes, but then government regulations make sure they never operate in forest areas. Does Finland have pancakes? I'm sure they must.

Yes. It's sold as a "pancake rake" and as far as I'm concerned crêpes are pancakes - or vice-versa! Here it is "assembled".

Please tell me that the white isn't Kewpie!

from the menu of The White Moose Café, Dublin, Ireland

Pork cutlets, blood sausage, buttery baked potato and spinach. Simple.

I recommend the cheese flavoured ones!

These might be as common as muck, but it's new to me. The handle (actually a bamboo chopstick) is 24 cm/9½ inches long and the blade is 13x3.5 cm/5¼x1¾, also bamboo. Obviously, it could be used for many purposes, but was sold with a specific one in the description.

Chinese restaurants are loud, sometimes cacophonous. This is seen as a good thing. There is even a term for it, which restaurants will use on their advertising. 热闹 (rè nào) literally means 'hot noisy', colloquially meaning lively; bustling with noise and excitement; have a joyful time; a scene of bustle and excitement; thrilling. "Morning tea' or 'yum cha' is particularly noisy. Retired people get together to drink tea, eat dim sum and have a good shout at each other.

Linguine with clams steamed in Shaoxing wine, with garlic, ginger and two types of chilli. I intended to include fermented black beans but when I got there, the cupboard was bare and I was too lazy to go out to buy some. I will remedy that tomorrow. I have never run out of salt fermented black beans before in all my 23 years in China. Always a first for everything.

from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

I'm going to agree with your local critic. Some, but certainly not all restaurants will give you a glass of tea (or hot water) on arrival, but it is almost never served with food. I often eat in Chinese family homes. They never offer tea with meals. Other times, yes. I've eaten in five restaurants in China in the last 24 hours and none offered tea, although to be fair, we didn't ask for any. It wouldn't occur to us to want it. Yes, dim sum is different. Dim sum refers only the side dishes that are served at morning tea, and the tea comes first. The event is called 饮茶/飲茶 (Mand: yǐn chá; Cant: yam2 cha4) meaning 'drink tea' . No one ever says "Let's go for dim sum." They go for 'yum cha'. But dim sum or yum cha is mainly a Cantonese thing. Not Sichuan cuisine. Tea houses are very popular there, but are different from restaurants. More like temples to the divinity of tea. Serious stuff. As your critic also says, Sichuan cuisine would overpower any tea. Sacrilege! However the relatively bland tastes of Cantonese food works well with tea, but as a complement to the tea, rather than the other way round.