liuzhou

I have all the ingredients for that. It looks and sounds lovely. Maybe tomorrow.

@JoNorvelleWalker Later in the day today, I met, independently, two young (around 20 year old) Chinese women of my acquaintance and mentioned your original post to them. These are not particularly traditional women - in fact, like most of their contemporaries, their main concern in life is making sure they have the latest cell phone and are unable to walk more than three yards without checking their messages. Both are otherwise intelligent university students - one majoring in English and the other in mathematics. Both were astonished and outraged by your experience, saying that such behaviour would be totally unthinkable in their culture. As I thought. Both also independently mentioned a well-known children's story on this theme. Apparently every child learns it. Rather than letting grandmother starve to death, the story relates the tale of a very poor couple who are living through a deadly famine (something still in living memory in China) and are extremely short of food. Things reach a stage where they are burdened with one mouth more than they can possibly feed and feel they have to let someone go. This choice is between their young son or his grandmather. (Neither of the couple seem to be volunteering, although that is glossed over.) The husband determines, somewhat logically, that they can always have another son (pre-one-child-policy obviously), whereas it is impossible to 'have' a new grandmother, so the son is to be sacrificed. Some versions of the story end there. Others relate how the couple are digging a pit in which to bury the boy (alive, of course), when they miraculously come across a hoard of gold (or a golden alter) which they naturally dig up. In their new found wealth, they are now able to buy as much food as they need and both boy and granny are saved. The couple are forever to be lauded for their filial piety in putting granny first. If your grandaughter or anyone else is interested, the story is here (in Chinese). There is another version, told in China, but set in Japan, which is the opposite. In that story, outside each Japanese town there is a mountain known as "Old Woman Mountain". In times of hunger, it is a son's unquestionable duty to drag poor granny off to the mountain and leave her there to starve, therefore proving what devils the Japanese are. It is a nasty story, but the Chinese loathe the Japanese to this day and seldom miss a chance to denigrate them. I was once accidentally caught up in an anti-Japanese demonstration here in China where all these young people chanted anti-Japanese slogans, took photos with their Canon and Nikon cameras, then set off to play on their Sony playstations* or sing karaoke. Bizarrely, their protest took them past KFC where they stopped to hurl insults, no doubt thinking it stands for Kyoto Fried Chicken. *whatever they are.

I did.

You thought right. I've never heard of anything like this happening in China. Quite the reverse. I regularly eat with a number of Chinese families of three or four generations. Everyone, including or especially the youngest and the teenagers, makes sure that the more senior family member or guest is adequately fed and watered. In fact, they are more likely to be overstuffed rather than underfed. One family I am particularly close to includes an aged grandfather (late 90s) who has practically lost all mobility. I'm sure he ends up eating more than anyone as the youngsters 9-40 yrs old) make sure his bowl is full, usually of the choicest morsels. He still usually manages to finish first and sits back contentedly with a "慢吃！" (literally 'eat slowly' = 'take your time') while we all battle on. Another family includes an woman of indeterminate age. Same story, although she is a notoriously slow eater. No one rushes her.

What can I do to make asparagus soup LOOK good? (rhetorical question)

Wow! Very creative. I'm not sure I am brave enough to follow you, though.

Made myself a batch of the world's favourite snack - a bowl of chips*. Then I made another lot. *to use their proper name

You certainly are not. @ninagluck Add me to the queue of curious.

I bought one of these here in China a while back. Cost me $1 USD. I bought more for amusement value, but, to my surprise, I use it all the time. Cooking for one most of the time, I find it ideal for chopping herbs, or onions etc.

Yes, you are almost certainly correct. However, he has still got it wrong. I am not FROM China. I'm British as my profile states.. And there is no need for prediction. It says beside my name that I am in China. The rest of the post remains confusing - I realise that it it is a language problem. Mangosteen extinct? Who on earth wrote that.? (lthough it soon might be if I keep eating so many.)

Bought myself some mangosteens. One of my favourite fruits. The price of durians has slipped so low that they are almost giving them away. However, to get the good deal you have to buy a whole one which I'm never going to get through. Need to round up some friends, but a lot of them hate durian!

Yes, I filled a whisky glass with water and popped the sprigs in. Sometimes they take; not always. I can't find "rooting powder" here. No doubt that would help. When they do work, it takes about three days to have roots, but I guess that is weather dependent. A sprig this size, grew to this in about ten days. And here is a cutting from the above after five days. Some has been eaten from both plants.

A largely liquid farewell lunch today, saying goodbye to a friend who is leaving China to return to his native Australia. Nothing better to accompany a beer or seven than a nice plate of spicy, stewed river snails - a local speciality. The snails are stewed with chilli, garlic, ginger, pickled bamboo shoot (another local delicacy) and various mystery roots and herbs. Good stuff.

Tonight. Mango beef with asparagus and rice. The beef is marinated in rice vinegar and osmanthus flavoured rice wine with garlic, minced ginger (lots) and chili flakes, then slow-cooked until tender. Mango is hedgehog cubed, added to the beef and allowed to warm through. Served in a half 'shell' of mango skin.The asparagus was grilled/broiled.

I buy sprigs of mint at the local market then, when I have one I like, let it sprout roots and plant it. I have no idea what variety. As @gfwebsays, it grows like mad. The one I have now has that room filling aroma and certainly doesn't taste like lettuce. It's dark now or I'd post a picture of a ten day old sprig which is now a hedge!

Your prediction would be wrong, then. As @Allen89 points out the picture is taken at his father's home town in Malaysia. I have no idea what you mean by "the specific fruit in china". Specific is the wrong word. But although strawberries are available in China (sometimes), I doubt there is another person on the planet who, when thinking about fruit and China, comes up with strawberries. Lychee maybe would be number 1. I have posted many pictures here of what fruit I get in China. How you can assume that life in China is wonderful because of strawberries is an utter mystery.

Lemon and coriander pork. Cubed pork marinated overnight in olive oil, lemon juice and zest, crushed coriander seeds, garlic, red chilli pepper, S+P. Pan fried. Grilled/broiled vegetables. Mushrooms, shallots, garlic, yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes. All with olive oil. Rice.

I forgot to mention what is probably the most common use here. Dips. Almost every meal is served with a dip of some sort and they nearly always contain Chinese chives. Here is a simple dip served with jiaozi dumplings. It's just soy sauce and chopped chives. More common is this. It is served with all meals. Chinese chives, coriander leaf (cilantro) and hot red peppers are chopped finely and mixed with soy sauce and/or vinegar. So common is this that my nearest supermarket only sells the coriander tied in a bunch with chives. Chive and Coriander Bunch as sold in most markets and supermarkets for making dips.

I thoroughly recommend the yellow variety if you can find them. They are the same plant, but grown without access to direct light so remain yellow. This seems to intensify the garlic flavour and, in particular, thescent. Wonderful things. Use as above, especially in stir fries, but also in dumplings.

They are very versatile. I am never without them. As has been said, they enhance any stir fry and are great with eggs - try in an omelette. Add to soups at the last minute. Anywhere you could use.garlic really. Salads. On (or in) steamed fish. I also sometimes just stir fry them with a little dried shrimp or ham (or both) and serve as a vegetable side.

The dreaded Chizzas have turned up in China.

I never did any such thing. My breakfast today is in complete accord with anything I have previously said. I previously mentioned unbalanced, inappropriate additions to fried rice. I selected my ingredients carefully. I had other leftovers I could have "dumped" therein but then I am not a complete philistine. Northern China has many more, but yes, Russian stuff wends its way down here. Areas of Beijing are very Russian. When I first arrived in China, I spent a lot of time there. I could understand people! I had no Chinese then. That said, we often get "Russian" stuff, too. Nothing wrong with it. It just means that it is Russian style rather than actually made in Russia. But still often made by Russians. The Chinese labelling is unambiguous. The sausage this morning was imported from Russia (about ten minutes from the border) but we often get "Harbin Red Sausage", which is Russian in all but name. Russian vodka is very cheap here compared with the UK.

Fried rice with duck egg, asparagus, scallion, yellow bell pepper, Russian sausage, red chilli pepper. Fridge clearance, really. Isn't it odd how clearing the trash from the fridge can provide the best breakfast of the past week or so?

Forget that! I just looked for one on Taobao, China's (the world's) biggest online shopping portal. They are offering one for ¥308. The same one costs around $5 to $7 in Walmart in the USA. ¥308 is equal to $45. Someone is extracting the urine!

I was trying to cook a chicken breast by the 1-10-10 method after brining it for 24 hours, but I'm not used to my new cooker yet. It's much hotter than I had before. A real Chinese heat blaster and difficult to control. So I over-seared the bird in that first minute. However, I compensated and the meat ended up tasting perfectly fine - juicy and not over-cooked. Just a bit messed up cosmetically. With rice and enoki mushrooms in a mushroom Zhajiang type sauce. There was some water spinach, too. I need to buy a heat diffuser. Never seen one here, though. But then, I've never looked, either.