liuzhou

I offer this without comment as I haven't seen the movie, but will be looking out for it.

I had one burger patty left over from last night's dinner and planned to have it for breakfast, but an early morning call scuppered that plan, so it became lunch. Nicely pink inside but also nicely charred on the outside.

Started out to make meat balls. Chopped/minced beef and pork (roughly 50:50 mix) with cumin and chilli flakes, then changed my mind and burgerized it instead. With chips. Ate and made another. Enough left for a breakfast burger, too.

I'm sorry. I don't know how they prepare it. I only know how I buy it. With skin, but without wool. And not only in China. I've seen/bought the same in the middle east and Mongolia.

Went past a local McDonald's today and spotted this. I'm no expert on their 'products', but I guess this isn't served globally. These are their breakfast offerings. Left to right: Pickled vegetable, bamboo shoot and chicken congee. (酸菜脆笋鸡肉粥), Century egg and chicken congee. (皮蛋鸡肉粥) and Salted egg yolk and chicken congee.(咸蛋黄鸡丝粥). I have no idea who the three "chefs" in the picture are, but I'd bet heavy money that they don't work for McDonald's.

Only if you are a melon.

I've come over all Sino-Hibernian tonight. Sino - Chinese style liver and onions. Pork liver marinated in Shaoxing wine and its own blood and a bit of potato starch. Red onion and green chilli. Stir fried the onion till caramelised, then added the chillies. Then the liver to flash fry it. Finished with a drop of soy sauce and sesame oil. Hibernian - Ulster style champ. Mashed potatoes, butter and scallions. No cheese!

Found this on my Twitter feed a moment ago.

Maybe where you are. The lamb/mutton I buy comes complete with skin.

Chicken stock with shallots, chilli, ground white pepper. Leftover beef. Quail eggs. Baby Bok Choy. Rice Noodles.

Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Fear not. I have no intentions of doing so. I just have to pass the place almost every day and see these strange alternatives to food.

The Guardian

Next door to the Pizza Hut I mentioned in the first post is a KFC place (This happens a lot. It's the same company, after all) and today they were pushing this. It's chicken and crayfish/crawfish burger or roll. ¥23 a hit ( approx $3.60 US). The first two characters at the top, 吮指 shǔn zhǐ, is the Chinese for 'Finger-lickin' and then it says '13 delicacy crayfish burger/roll'. The smaller print below mentions the chicken. I don't know if this is local only or a staple KFC, internationally. I've never eaten KFC in my life.

I've eaten this before, but tonight was my first time to cook it. It tasted great, but I think I need to work on the presentation! Where is my dinner?!?! Under this saltberg. Oh! An archaeologist has found it! Salt baked sea bass. Served with couscous and tomatoes. There was also a side of snow peas which couldn't fit on the plate. I'll be trying this again, but hopefully manage to present each fillet whole.

No. I break the "rules" on a daily basis. Not only in the kitchen! I am European (English father and French mother) and that influences me a lot, but I've lived abroad in various countries for over 30 years, including the last 21 in China, so I mix everything together. (Although sometimes, I'll stick to one cuisine, but still break the "rules".)

This is why, in most territories, fish for sashimi in restaurants must, by law, be frozen for a certain number of hours, before being defrosted and served. And such parasites are not confined to salmon. All fish should be flash frozen before being served raw.

A bit of both, I suppose. I am not a big melon seed eater, but many of my friends are so it will probably be useful. I can also see some alternative kitchen uses which the manufacturer possibly never imagined. And if all else fails, I may use it as a bed pan in my looming dotage.

No need for sorry. The bed pan idea also crossed my mind. The actual use is not strange at all here in China. Well, it is slightly strange. People eat melon and sunflower seeds etc all the time. There are shelves of the things in every store. But they usually just drop the shells on the floor. Here we have a dispenser and receptacle for waste. And it props your cell phone. What more could you need? About 20 years ago I was on a train somewhere in China and opposite me was a family which ate non-stop for about 16 hours. Seeds, fruit, snack foods etc. They very carefully put all the shells, paper, garbage etc into plastic bags. I was impressed. Most unusual. Then when the garbage bag was full, they tipped it out onto the floor and proceeded to eat enough to refill it, while the carriage attendant swept up their debris and tossed it out the train window! I am happy to say that standards have improved since then.

I think I've met her!

@BonVivant $5! I paid the equivalent of $1.23. I guess I'm in the wrong line of business!

You can if you insist. I wouldn't recommend it, though!

"Fried" noodles with pork and vegetables on a domestic flight from Shanghai to Nanning, yesterday. Not bad at all, although I didn't really need a meal on a two hour flight.

Here's one for you, which I bought today. It is designed for a very specific gastronomic (dual) function, but on the table rather than in the kitchen. It's approximately 8 inches in diameter and 4½ in height.

Dinner with 4 friend/colleagues in Laibin, Guangxi, China. Cantonese Style White Cut Chicken Steamed Fish Spicy Beef with Garlic Scapes Scrambled Egg with Scallions Stir Fried Lotus Root Greenery Of course, with rice.