liuzhou

There is also a pun in the Chinese there. 猫抓老鼠 means "The cat catches the mouse." However they have substituted the last character 鼠 with 薯, both of which are pronounced identically - shǔ. With the substitution it ends up reading 猫抓老薯 which means "The cat catches the potato." Both are pronounced māo zhuā lǎo shǔ. Very typical Chinese humour.

Most rice cookers do not work on timers, but on a thermostat basis. When all the water is absorbed, the temperature rises above boiling point, switching the machine to 'keep warm' mode. So, it can cook any type of rice. It doesn't care what is in the pot. With brown rice, it takes longer for the water to be absorbed, so it is cooked longer. By the way, I have this one. It has three inserts of different sizes ranging from 1 cup to 2-3 cups. All three bowls can be stacked in the machine at the same time, so you can cook something different in each at the same time. It is 240 mm 9¼inches tall, and cost the equivalent of $8.50 USD

It is only bitter when raw; not when cooked properly.

There is only waste if you waste it. Pomelo skin is edible and done right is delicious. I have often had it braised with pork. Several years ago I was in a small town near the border of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces and was taken to a museum which claimed to be the former home of a famous concubine to the Emperor. I was told that she later killed herself in some romantic tragedy. I forget the details. Later the same day, I was at a banquet and was served, among many other dishes, braised pomelo and pork. We were told that this had been the concubine's favourite dish. "No wonder she committed suicide!" quipped one wag. His judgement was way off. It was probably the best dish of the night. That was the first time I ate it, but certainly not the last. I've never cooked it myself, but have eaten it people's homes much more than in restaurants. In 2008, Liuzhou held a pomelo festival where almost every dish contained pomelo in some form or other. Fruit, pith and skin. Sadly, I appear not to have any pictures.

Anticipating a large dinner tonight, I kept lunch simple. The chips were not good - the potato had a strange texture. Not sure why. Omelette was fine. Plain 2-egg omelette and chips.

Keeping it simple tonight. Marinated chicken in the usual Shaoxing, garlic, ginger and chilli with a little potato starch. Stir fried with shiitake, asparagus and Chinese chives. Rice.

I wish my local stores promoted International stuff. They almost never do. The only examples I can think of from recent leaflets are Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Blue Ribbon "beer". I don't like chocolates and I don't consider that wet stuff to be in any way related to "beer".

I think our many gifted bread makers might be interested in this. 14,000-Year-Old Piece Of Bread Rewrites The History Of Baking And Farming

Yes, lurking rice. There is more in the rice cooker pan, which is now in the fridge. What you see is about a third of what I cooked. I know what you mean. Living alone, I did have the same problem. However, I do have a smaller rice cooker which does maybe two rice bowls worth (cooked). Today, I used the larger one as I am thinking of some fried rice for lunch tomorrow. If that doesn't transpire, I'll just freeze it for another day.

I've made and posted this before, but, as I probably said last time, it is a favourite and anyway, it's never the same twice. Lemon coriander pork. With a tomato, red onion and basil salad. I'm working my way through a record basil glut on my balcony. Rice. For dessert I ate the rest of the salad. It is simply dressed with white rice vinegar and salt. No oil. The pork is liberally marinated in olive oil in which it is then cooked.

Bought me a fish. I was thinking I'd steam it Chinese style, but then thought "I can eat that any time. Do something different." In the end I did it the same and different. I prepared it for steaming as if it was going to be a Chinese dish. You have to creep up on these critters. Gutted and de-scaled it then washed it in Shaoxing wine and stuffed it with garlic and ginger. Decorated the top with ginger "scales", chilli and carrot. Just to confuse it, I used two scallions to act as an honour guard on either side. Then I steamed the baby for 12 minutes. before After 12 minutes steaming in the wok, I removed it, after let it cool a bit then removed the top fillet. That confused it. It's usually served whole, Chinese style. Plated the one fillet with orzo and asparagus. In case it felt like a fish out of water, I added the two now steamed scallions to give it a feeling of security in this bizarre foreign environment. Then I ate it. Then went back for the lower fillet., more orzo and more asparagus. The fish was nicely spicy from the ginger and chilli and I think it went well with orzo. I'm likely to revisit this.

...never again set my cell phone timer for 8 hours instead of 8 minutes to cook my pasta. I usually use my kitchen timer, but it was busy with a prior appointment. The kitchen timer only has minutes and seconds. Didn't notice that the cell phone went up to hours. I was thinking "that seems like a long 8 minutes" after about 20, but I was distracted on some food internet forum or other. I think its name began with an 'e" and ended with something sounding like it may be a baby sea bird. Pasta was perfectly cooked into mush. Start again!

I heard it's OK if you don't inhale.

It's a locally produced mozzarella which is made into a rectangular block rather than the traditional ball shape in Italy. It is made from buffalo milk and tastes just the same as the Italian original. Certainly nothing like brie or provolone in either taste or texture.

More con-fusion food. After an OK insalata caprese for last night's dinner, I fancied another with lunch. (Mozzarella doesn't last long, after all.) When I had it ready, I had a notion to add some drops of balsamic vinegar, but when I opened the vinegar cupboard door a bottle of Zhenjiang Vinegar ended up in my hand. (镇江醋 zhèn jiāng cù - what you may call Chinkiang, which is meaningless to most Chinese.) I wouldn't say that one is a direct substitute for the other, but they have similarities, mainly colour, acidity and depth of flavour (albeit somewhat different). Anyway, it worked for me.

I seem to have got my cultures mixed up. Starter: Insalata Caprese from the beautiful Italian island of Capri Main: 牛肉孜然夹馍 (niú ròu zī rán jiá mò) Cumin Beef Rou Jia Mo from the great Chinese city, Xi'an. Three were eaten.

Boiled egg baguette.

This morning, just a bacon sandwich and an industrial strength black coffee.

แกงกะหรี่ Thai yellow curry with fish*, potato, Chinese chives and asparagus. Rice. *I used sole, but any white fish would do well, I think.

Except he didn't. Noodles were known in Italy long before Marco Polo.

I don't understand. Why break spaghetti? There is a big taboo here in China against breaking or cutting lengthy pasta. The long strands are thought to represent long life and cutting or breaking them is an omen of lack of longevity.

The ones shown were home made. People generally make them at home, although they may sometimes use wrappers bought in the local market. Assembling the jiaozi becomes a sort of group activity with everyone joining in. Even the youngest kids can form a neat jiaozi. The stuffing can be pretty much anything from a simple pork and cabbage to a more complicated mix like the one below. I tend to do pork, shrimp and mushroom stuffings - a classic mix.

Lunch chez a friend's house. Hand-Shredded Beef, Braised Wasp Fish, Jiaozi Dumplings, Stir-Fried Duck with Ginger, Steamed Oyster with Garlic, Pan-Fried Steak, Minced Pork with Tomato Sauce Noodles, Fried Pork, Fried Sweet Potato Greens, Fruit.

ผัดกระเพราไก่ Holy Basil Chicken Got to be better than unholy basil, I reckon. With asparagus and oyster mushrooms. With rice.