liuzhou

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.

Not so unusual. Here is one such pairing I spotted on my recent visit to Vietnam. There was also a vegan place here in town a few years back. It was sandwiched between a Sichuan and a Hunan restaurant. Both very carnivorous. It didn't last long.

Stir-fried chicken and black fermented beans, with "flower" shiitake and asparagus. Rice. The chicken was marinated with garlic, ginger, chilli and Shaoxing wine. "Flower" shiitake (花菇 huā gū)

Just a cheap plastic bowl, but I like it too. I have a purple one too. Can't remember where I bought them.

Soup noodles Rice noodles, pork, Tonkin jasmine, garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander leaf. In a broth made from Chicken and pork bones.

Not my style at all! Did consider some extra hot chilli sauce though.

Eggy bread (even my French mother calls it French toast despite it being neither French or toast). With leftover potato and carrot mash made into cakes and fried.

Didn't feel at all like Chinese, tonight. Pork medallions simply fried in OO with salt and lots of black pepper. Potato, carrot, garlic mash (rough - sometimes I like lumps). Nuked asparagus (first dressed in OO and sea salt).

Oh. They are very common in Chinese and SE Asian cooking. Umami bombs. If you have an Asian market or store near you, they would almost certainly have them. The combination of Tonkin jasmine, eggs and shrimp is well-loved in Vietnam.

Which part don't you think you would like?

Omelette with rehydrated dried shrimp and dried scallops and Tonkin jasmine flowers. Cooking Ready to eat. Getting used to a new induction cooker, so more brown than I prefer. But it was still moist inside.

Water

Then attaches itself to a fish.

Pan-fried duck breast with salad of lettuce, cabbage, hothouse chives, tomatoes and basil. Couscous. The duck was slightly overcooked by my preference, but the skin was beautifully crisp. I blame using a new induction cooker for the first time. I can't do pink duck on my regular Chinese wok cooker. Way too hot, even at low.

You are, of course, correct. Brain fart on my part. Have edited.

You might want to have a look at this. Six of the best aubergine recipes

This appeared on a wall near my home yesterday. Allegedly it is breaded chicken leg meat and salad in a football-shaped bun to celebrate the football world cup in Russia. 10元 is $1.60 USD

Marinaded cubes of pork with garlic, coriander seeds, olive oil, lemon juice. Dry-fried in wok and added Sriracha sauce (from Sriracha). Salad of lettuce, cabbage and hothouse chives in a lemon and rice vinegar dressing.. Served with smuggled - from - Vietnam - pitta - bread for self assembly. Well, there was only me. I don't fill the pitta until I'm ready to eat. The bread can get sodden while I'm eating the previous one. Seconds, as usual, were consumed.

I spent a couple of days out in the countryside at my second home. Here is my neighbour's garden. She is over 90 and still very independent. Don't ask me what things are. I am clueless, but I know they are all edible. That's the point. She doesn't do just pretty. and here she is, sorting out her firewood on which to cook her gardening bounty.

I'm sorry, but I have to object to Gen, Tso's anything being "classic Chinese'. It's American.

I have a roll of foil, but I've had it for a long time. Only really use it to keep my bread over browning on top (but I use the same piece for weeks before it falls apart) , or very occasionally to keep things warm/ rest. I thought you could oil it to prevent sticking, no? Anyway, roasting vegetables or anything else is not really a Chinese thing. I am probably the only person in a square mile or more who has an oven. I'd be surprised if there are more than 6 in the whole city.

I don't really understand the point. I've never known foil that sticks.

Wow! I never heard of that either!

Neither did I. During the post mortem, I read the blurb on the box and it doesn't mention it. But my bread isn't totally destroyed. I just have to cut of the crusts as if I am some tooth-less ancient.