liuzhou

I have no idea what this signifies, but I was in my local bookshop, the state-run Xinhua, this morning and discovered that the first three issues of Lucky Peach have been translated to Chinese. They sport a 2017 copyright date. Here is issue 2. and a random double page spread

I was a happy chappie when I hit the market this morning. For days now, I've lived in hope and today it all came together. They have spinach, again! My favourite vegetable. I am never sure whether or not I like that most produce here in China is very seasonal. It's good that they are not flying stuff in from distant lands, but some things I just plain miss in the off season. I will probably bore you death over the next month or two with spinach. Just call me Popeye. So, tonight I had, guess what. Spinach. Cooked my favourite way. Simply wilted with some sea salt. Along with some stir fried pig's kidney, shallots, chilli, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and jade gill mushrooms. I would normally finish this with some scallions or Chinese chives, but when I got there the cupboard was bare. Tasted fine without them. Still have half the spinach I bought. Breakfast!

At the end of last month the 2017 Shanxi World Wine Culture Expo took place in central China. I was unable to attend, although I did help with the preliminary work and preparations, mainly by translating stuff and also by recording a short video of myself talking nonsense. Despite its title, the Expo is 99.9% about 白酒 (bái jiǔ), China's tipple of choice. Often translated as "wine" it is in fact a strong distilled spirit. The Expo was held in Fenyang in Shanxi province, specifically in the village 杏花 (xìng huā) which is considered to be the birthplace of Chinese spirits. The local product is 界酒 (fén jiǔ), allegedly China's oldest spirit. It is a more mellow and subtler tasting drink than most baijiu and is highly valued. At the expo a 1987 vintage, 10 litre bottle was sold for 3.2million yuan ($481,740 USD). Anyway, this is all a prelude to what happened today. I was sitting at home minding my own business when my cellphone rang. It was an express delivery service guy telling me that he had a parcel for me and was waiting at the entrance to my apartment block. I went down and he handed me the parcel. Back upstairs I opened it and found this. A special edition, expo souvenir, 1.8 litre bottle of fenjiu, which the organisers have kindly sent me. I can live with that!

Yes I have all her books, too, but the Mushroom Feast is my favourite.

Dinner in black and white. Cod and mushrooms in a seaweed sauce with squid ink noodles. (Couldn't decide which picture to post, so you get two.)

I'm glad they worked out and were popular. I've never encountered anyone who disliked Rou Jia Mo, apart from a couple of vegetarians but what do they know about food! Eating them yesterday prompted me to do a bunch of the buns this morning for the freezer. They do freeze well. And I use them for all sorts of things.

Funnily enough, my situation is the opposite. I never see creminis or portbellos. This morning I was in the supermarket and they had: L-R: enoki, shimeji, & jade gill mushrooms. Jade gill mushrooms are a variant on shimeji. Ignore the invading greenery! White button mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms and king oysters. Shiitake and oyster mushrooms. That is a normal selection for most supermarkets. It doesn't include the several dried varieties. Even my local corner shop has at least two or three. The rarest are the white button mushrooms. Here they are very seasonal.

There doesn't seem to be a dedicated mushroom topic, surely a grave oversight. I did start one a while back about mushrooms in China, but that is a niche interest. So how about a mushroom emporium of favourite recipes, favourite mushrooms, favourite mushroom cookery bookeries, mushroom tales, mushroom tips and trivia? I'll start with this link to a selection of Ottelenghi's mushroom recipes. And a link to my favourite mushroom cookbook. Jane Grigson's Mushroom Feast.

A young friend I know from elsewhere was visiting the city today and, purely by chance, I met her. She was lost. I was able to take her where she wanted to go (well-known park in the city and then to a Buddhist temple she had heard of) and then we went for an early meal before she had to catch her train home. I asked her what she wanted to eat and she requested "something I've never eaten before". She is very open in her thinking and attitude for a Chinese girl from the countryside. She likes all sorts of music that 99.99% of Chinese people have never heard, for example. Her favourite movie is Pulp Fiction. I've never met anyone else who even knows it. Anyway, I took her for something she had never eaten. In a Chinese restaurant. As I've mentioned here on eG before, Chinese cuisine is incredibly regional so she had never eaten food from Shaanxi province far to the north of here. The capital is Xi'an, home to the Terracotta Warriors and it has one of my favourite Chinese cuisines. Luckily, there are a couple of Xi'an restaurants in town, so that is where she found herself. She looked at the menu, didn't recognise anything and left the ordering to me. I always find that amusing. Chinese people asking this foreigner from the other side of the planet to help them with their food! Anyway, I ordered some of my old favourites. 手工凉皮 (shǒu gōng liáng pí - literally 'hand made cold skin') are rice noodles served cold in a sauce. More on them here. 肉夹馍 (ròu jiá mò - Chinese Hamburger). There is an eG topic here. The picture above shows two; one on top of the other. 老虎菜 (lǎo hǔ cài - literally "tiger vegetables) is one of China's rare salads. My friend enjoyed the noodles and "hamburger" but claimed to be less sure about the salad. Many (most) Chinese people are wary of anything uncooked. That said, I noticed she kept eating more and more of it after declaring her disinterest. Being a bit of a rebel, she asked for a beer to wash it all down. Few Chinese women drink beer. Of course, I was happy to join her. A pleasant, unexpected afternoon/early evening. But now it's 8pm and I'm hungry again.

Martigues isn't near the Spanish border. I was in Canet-en-Roussillon. It was wonderful. I ended up buying a house there. Sadly, long since sold.

If inserted into cuts in the flesh they do flavour the fish, but subtly. There is also garlic and ginger in the cavity.

Here is the baby steamed. More info on the Dinner topic.

Steamed red drum (白龙鱼 bái lóng yú; literally 'white dragon fish). Steamed with Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, chilli, scallions, shiitake mushrooms and loofah. With rice. A tasty fish, but I easily ate the whole thing myself. Would need one per person if entertaining. (With thanks to the people over on the Fish Identification topic.)

Wonderful, thank you. That description more closely matches what I have than any other red drum info I found. Apologies to @Thanks for the Crepes and @catdaddy. The wiki information is up to its usual standard. Misleading. I'm eating the fellow now and will post my dish later in the Dinner topic.

Can you tell me why the ones here are about a 10th of the size of the ones in every description I can find, aren't red and are on the wrong side of the planet?

Mine is a lot smaller and lighter than a red drum and er, not red.

And another. These are very common here in China; every supermarket has them, but I've never been able to give them an English name. This chap is 13" (133mm) nose to tail, and weighs 111 grams. In Chinese, at least locally, they are 白龙鱼 (bái lóng yú) which literally translated means 'white dragon fish'. Mr. Google and his Chinese counterparts are not helping. I'm hoping the black spot by the tail may be a help to anyone who is better at fish recognition than me (which is pretty much the population of the planet).

Quick and simple tonight. Tired. Fried pork tenderloin, Shanghai bok choy, boiled potatoes and my favourite Thai ginger sauce (bottled).

Chicken leg meat marinated in Shaoxing wine with potato starch. Stir fried with garlic, ginger and chilli, white mushrooms, sugar snap peas and Chinese chives. Finished with soy sauce and sesame oil. Served with rice.

Yes, I'm not surprised they turn up in North America, but was surprised to see them here in China.

Is it legal there to have no hand wash facilities in a food preparation situation? It would certainly have the place instantly shut down and the owners fined, or in extreme cases imprisoned, in the UK.

Today, I found the first passion fruit of the year (apart from ones which had obviously been in storage since last year), For reasons which escape me they are known in Chinese as 鸡蛋果 (jī dàn guǒ) which literally translates as hen's egg fruit. Also, alongside the usual pomelos, there was a variety I haven't noticed before: Honey pomelos. Regular pomelos Honey pomelos If they are following usual Chinese usage, that probably means that they are a sweeter than normal variety. I didn't buy one. I prefer the acidic citrus taste.

I don't know any restaurants here that have a web presence. Restaurants in China are very secretive about their menus. They don't even post them outside the premises in the UK, most are required to by law) and are very careful that no one steals one. They seem to believe that some competitor will pinch their ideas (despite most menus being very similar, anyway). I agree with you that online menus without prices are very irritating.

One thing that drives me crazy in restaurants here in China is that wait staff pounce on you the minute you sit down, hand you huge menus (or multiple menus) then hover centimetres from your face with pen poised to write down your choice. I tell them to go away and give me time to read the damned thing, but that option has been removed from their DNA. When they get bored of waiting, which takes about 20 seconds, they start making suggestions, pointing at random items on the menu. I'm certain they don't even know what they are pointing at. In fact, I know they don't. One young woman did that, I snapped the menu closed and asked her what she had recommended. She had no idea. I find it highly intimidating, but just part of the culture. Chinese friends don't even notice, or even expect it. Many consider it rude to hand you the menu then go away until you have read it.

Well, I'll confess my total ignorance of Canadian law, but stand by my insanity comment. I know that in the UK all premises licensed to sell alcohol are required by law to provide water on request as are workplaces and schools. Restaurants must supply free water, although they may charge for service including the use of a glass. Few do charge. BBC Link