liuzhou

... open the fridge, take out the bag of spinach I bought earlier, remove the spinach from the bag, throw the bag on the counter and the spinach in the trash, go to answer a phone call, come back and think the trash needs taking out, take out trash, return to kitchen and start to prepare the ... the ... the bag?

Linguine alla Vongole (Chinese style) Only Chinese in that I didn't have any white wine other than Shaoxing. Some idiot must have drunk it all. Can't think who.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/deadly-plant-dead-mans-fingers-hemlock-water-dropworts-cornwall-beach-porthkidney-storm-emma-a8255416.html

The Party HQ is a gated complex with several buildings. Only those who work there or have legitimate business there may usually enter. Only those who work there can usually use the canteen and even if you were to get in, you couldn't buy anything without an electronic payment card issued only to employees. So my friend paid for lunch! It was her turn. I'm told I am the only foreigner ever to have eaten there. The meal cost about quarter of what it would elsewhere. And was higher quality. I've never been to the Isle of Man, but I'm told I was conceived there! Does that count?

No! Bokeh is something else altogether. It is "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light". Different from just blurring the background.

Ha! I've done that too! Maybe I should change my user name to Sieve Head.

Your iPhone will be fine unless you want to bleed cash on a DSLR. I have a DSLR which near bankrupted me, but still take most of the photos I post here with my phone. I don't know the iPhone, but I'd guess there is a setting for close-ups. You would have to make sure that what you want is clearly focussed, and that setting should automatically blur the background. It does on my phone but it isn't Apple. If not, just try every setting. Landscape won't work, but others just might. Your new picture is a great improvement on the first . Just always think about the light. And your cake looks tempting to this old not cake lover.

Although, she is deeply unfashionable these days, the British writer Delia Smith taught thousands of people to cook. She is seldom adventurous away from the mainstream, but all her advice and recipes are clear and , unlike many cookbooks, actually work. I and many millions still turn to her for the basics. That said, my biggest influence remains the inimitable Keith Floyd. Brilliant, enthusiastic, hilarious and usually drunk. Sadly missed.

After my foray into childhood nostalgia for last night's dinner (and this morning's breakfast), tonight I stayed in the present tense. Stir fried pork with black fermented beans. Stir fried flowering gailan (芥兰花 jiè lán huā) with garlic Not my favourite greenery, but I couldn't resist the pretty white flowers in the market this morning. Pity they don't survive the cooking. Served with rice (of course) and Chinese laughing water.

re Stovies. There are various theories. a) From the Scots word 'stove' meaning "to stew". b) From the French ' étuvée ' meaning 'braised'. c) From the English word 'stove'. This theory comes from its status as a dish to use up leftovers which could be found on the stovetop the next day. Take your pick.

I often have a 'hair of the dog' in the morning. Don't worry!

Stovies and poached duck egg.

What type of camera are you using?

I did look at Google before I set out and totally agree. And as for the idiots who suggest using canned corned beef....

Well thank you! My secret? Pure genius. As the the eighteenth-century English poet Thomas Gray almost said, "ignorance is bliss." I don't know. I just winged it as usual. I think the key is that too much fat is just enough. Traditionally the liquid would be beef stock, but I didn't have that so used some shiitake dried mushroom soaking water that I had frozen. In case you didn't know, 'shiitake' is Gaelic for mushroom, so I preserved the Scottish/Celtic tradition. My mother would turn in her grave if she happened to be dead. She isn't, so would have eaten it heartily and demanded more.

I hated that book, too. At one point I got so annoyed with him I threw the book across the room. Unfortunately, I forgot it was the Kindle version I was reading and had to buy a new one. He owes me!

After a delicious but unusual lunch (the venue, not the food), I was at a bit of loss as what to cook. Then a strange thought popped into my head from nowhere. My utterly favourite meal as a kid some 50 years ago was my mother's stovies. I haven't eaten them for about 40 years or thought about them for 35. What a fool! They are real evidence that leftovers can be transformed into something sublime. Even my culinary challenged French mother could make them delicious. I didn't have the appropriate leftovers, but any idiot can make leftovers! I had some minced beef in the fridge. I had a leek. I had carrots. I had potatoes. Robert is your father's brother (or in my case mother's brother). I did also have onions, the more traditional allium, but the leek was needing to be used. I was sorely tempted to Sinify the dish, but bravely resisted. Seconds were had and there are enough leftover leftovers for breakfast tomorrow with a poached egg!

Well, this is no good! We haven't had any poached egg porn since @Kerry Beal's 18 hours ago! What is this place coming to? Shameful! To remedy this sad situation here is my breakfast this morning. I intended having something quite different, but heroic sacrifices must be made to defend the honour of the site! That's better. Don't let it happen again!

For today's lunch, I disguised myself as a communist and ate in the city's Chinese Communist Party HQ staff canteen, as you do. I was there to meet my friend J, who works there. The gate to the HQ is well protected against nosy foreign gastronautical spies but she came out to escort me past the guards. Here is communist lunch. 皮蛋 pí dàn - Century eggs is a chilli sauce Congealed pig''s blood with chilli and soy sauce. Chicken and shiitake stew Stir fried water spinach Fish stew with chillies "Japanese" tofu Everything was excellent, way above the standard of most workplace canteens, cheap and heavily subsidised. And exclusive!

I agree with @blue_dolphin. The cut surface of the cake is in shadow, so can't be seen clearly. Turn the whole lot round and use the natural light to bring out the detail in the cake.

I'm going to respectfully disagree. My birthplace was St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland and the fishing villages along the south coast of Fife: Pittenweem, Anstruther, Crail etc. have the cheapest and best lobsters I've ever eaten. Of course, those in the know buy them directly from the boats as they land. Cut out the middle man.

A friend who I don't think is pregnant sent me this a few minutes ago. Made me laugh!

A few days back, @Tropicalseniormentioned she was making or had made Roujiamo, from a rough recipe I posted. This reminded me that I hadn't made any myself for a while so, tonight: I had a couple. Couple means three or four? Right?

Perhaps not the most stunning dish visually, but it was great on flavour. Stir fried fresh ramen noodles with pork slivers, garlic, ginger, chilli, and scallions, finished with soy sauce and freshly made Sichuan peppercorn oil. The Sichuan pepper and chilli meant it's not for the faint hearted. The numbing of the peppercorns literally rendered me speechless for a minute. In a nice way. 麻辣猪肉丝炒拉面 má là zhū ròu sī chǎo lā miàn

Definitely both. While I do very much like to attempt something new, there are few firm favourites I go back to again and again and sometimes I am just too lazy or tired so pull out an old standby. That said I very rarely cook from recipes as such. I read them, but to get the gist, put the book away, then wing everything, so you could say I never repeat the same dish precisely. There are one or two exceptions, though.