liuzhou

I bought a bunch of lychees a few days ago. Just finished them when my dearest friend J called to say she was coming to see me to give me something. Always happy to see her. She arrived with a kilo of lychees. It turns out the local harvest has been phenomenal - in fact too much so. There is a glut of the things and price has dropped to virtually zero leaving the farmers with problems. To offer assistance to the farmers, the local government has stepped in and bought up tons of them and distributed them to their staff. J works for the local government in the department that promotes local foods, so she has first call! She and her husband and son are working their way through them and she decided to unload some on me. Tonight, she brought her son with her. I offered him one and he looked sick and declined! I think he's been eating them non-stop for days! Over the years I've seen the government do the same over gluts of bananas and oranges.

Boiled duck egg with home made flatbread.

This morning, I bought a bunch of squash flowers (and stems and leaves). I had a load of asparagus trimmings and woodier stems, so used them to make a stock for flower soup. Also acquired some okra so made a spicy chicken and okra stew, served with couscous. Followed by a load of fresh lychees.

Pork and shiitake stuffed steamed bun. Chilli sauce dip. Two buns were consumed.

From The Eater

Tomato and basil on seaweed crackers. Sea salt and black pepper.

Fried fresh ramen noodles with pork, pumpkin leaves and flower stems, garlic, scallion, Sichuan peppercorn, chilli. Pork marinated it Shaoxing wine.

Yes, they were relatively flat. It's difficult to see in the BBC picture how flat they are, though. Maybe ¾ of an inch thick. I'm pretty sure there was yeast in them. But it is half a century since I ate or even saw one, so I can't be 100% sure. Next time I talk to my mother I'll ask her.

Just how I (wistfully) remember them.

No. I dry them, then stick 'em between two bits of kitchen paper and nuke them for a minute.

For last night's dinner, I skinned a couple of chicken thighs. I intended to use the skin this morning with breakfast, but an early (6 am) call changed all my plans. I finally managed to crisp them up in the late afternoon for a between lunch and dinner snackette while e-Gulleting.

Although there are potato farls, they are not the same as potato scones. And there are many types of farls. Anyway, nothing to do with butteries.

I'm Scottish. but always thought they were Irish.

Scaled, gutted and filleted a sea bass. Pan fried the first fillet. Served with couscous, asparagus, tomato, scallion and lemon. Ate it then repeated with the second fillet. Nice crisp skin on the fillet.

For me that is corn. I really can't abide it. Even one stray ear in my dinner puts me right off eating. I have no real idea why. I just find the taste and smell revolting. Yet otherwise, I happily eat all sorts of strange things. Here in China, they like to ram corn into everything, even when I specifically ask them not to. I mean they even have corn ice-cream. If that's the peak of 6,000 years of civilisation, I give up!

They are beets, as described in the text of the article linked to at the top of my post. The video isn't great on its own, but then they are not professional cooks or, I expect cinematographers.

https://news.yale.edu/2018/06/14/what-did-ancient-babylonians-eat-yale-harvard-team-tested-their-recipes

While I wait for @liamsaunt's pizza to arrive, I made this. Chicken legs, skinned* and covered in flour, salt, pepper, chilli powder and turmeric. Deep fried. Triple cooked chips. Flower shiitake mushrooms drizzled with OO and finely chopped garlic. Sprinkled with sea salt. Asparagus ditto. Mushrooms and asparagus nuked together for about 1½ minutes. Eaten. * Fret not. The skin is in the fridge to be re-purposed with breakfast tomorrow.

I'll have the artichoke-mushroom, please. Do you deliver? To China?

Soft boiled eggs with raw asparagus "soldiers".

This is, perhaps, a bizarre mix. But a happy one. Pork tenderloin cubed and marinaded in garlic, chilli and a commercially bottled Thai ginger sauce and Vietnamese fish sauce, then fried. A very simple green salad of baby bok choy and scallions. Orzo and tomatoes. I didn't dress the salad other than applying some sea salt. Any dressing would have been overwhelmed by the umami rich marinade juices, which ended up on the salad anyway..

Good. Yes, they can be expensive here, too. Depends on grade which seems to be based on appearance as much as taste. The price of top grade dried, wild flower shiitake can be stratospheric.

Yes, very common.

Was just wondering. Were the shiitake your friend found fresh or dried. I like both, but they are different. The fresh are even more meaty.

Often. As a kid I would be packed off for the summer to live with cousins in Fife, where butteries are also eaten. Haven't had one in decades. As I recall, they taste...well, buttery. But savoury. Not sweet like kouign-amann.