liuzhou

Cod with blood sausage, olives, capers and garlic. Herby fried rice.

I don't think I said anything about anyone eating soup wrong. I don't care how people eat anything. What I, and most people here, do care about is when literally 6 million people turn up in a city of 5 million over one week, bringing the place to a grinding halt. No one could move or go about their business. And for what? It was nothing to do with food, but about getting their precious 'look at me; aren't I so amazing' videos on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tik Tok. They were all filming themselves 'eating' malatang or luosifen, except few really were. There have been numerous reports from restaurateurs saying people were standing in line for over four or five hours, ordering these dishes, filming themselves beside it (maybe taking one bite) then leaving with the dish uneaten. Mission accomplished. On to the next vacuous venture. In the meantime, the good people of Liuzhou were going hungry as they couldn't get to the markets to get their food.

There are some things I like to put in my mouth that aren't available in my local markets or supermarkets but I can order for delivery. Today, among other things I ordered some portobello mushrooms (rare here) and one of my favourite black boletes (one is more than enough for a meal for me - they're large). Within minutes of placing my order my phone rang. Portobello Mushrooms "Hello, this is Ms. Li from Xincai (name of delivery company). I'm sorry but we're out of portobellos. Can we send you an extra black bolete instead?" Of course, she said it in the local dialect of Chinese that being what most of them speak around here for some reason. Wishing to be agreeable, I agreed. I said "OK" in Universal Language. 30 minutes later my order turned up. Two black boletes, and an unordered or paid for pack of essentials for Chinese cooking and a couple of eggs. Obviously the essentials and eggs were gifts, but given that the extra black bolete costs double what the portobellos would have, I'm considering that a partial gift, too. Essentials

The United Steaks of America

Pork marinated with garlic, sand ginger (kencur), facing heaven chilli, soy sauce. Stir fried with black boletes and served with rice and stir-fried pumpkin shoots and garlic, which I forgot to photograph.

Food for thought.

About a week ago, Liuzhou Government held a meeting and officialy declared that they are finally doing something I've been telling them to do for 25 years! They decided that from now on the only permitted offical English translation of 螺蛳粉 as used on restaurant signs and the packaging of the inferior 'instant' type is to be "Liuzhou Luosifen'. This will replace some of the ridiculous translations I see such as "Liuzhou River Snail Luosi Rice Noodles" or "Liuzhou Screw Powder" or worse. For some reason, they conceded that well-known Chinese dishes in western countries often use at least parts of the Chinese name: mapo tofu, kungpo chicken, egg foo-yung etc. It also helped when I reminded them that they shouldn't bow to the imperialist, capitalist running dogs and take some pride in their own language - they like that sort of rhetoric. Now I'm going to work on them changing "Grandma's Fragrant Fluttering Bones". I'll post the results in another 25 years.

I agree but there is more than kind of hot and sour soup in China and none traditionally use chili for the heat. Instead white pepper is used as it was before chili even reached beyond the Americas. Fun fact: the direct translation of the Chinese name(s) is 'sour and hot'. Packaged ínstant Luosifen is available from Amazon (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) in the USA. There is one restaurant I know of, north of you in Seattle. But to taste the real taste you got to come to Liuzhou. Just avoid Chinese public holidays. They are mayhem.

Slightly off-topic, though you could have it for with dinner, when I was living in Soviet Russia, I was introduced to chilli vodka. Perfect for colds. Cleared up sinuses and everything else while ensuring a good night's coma sleep. Actually, thinking back, I may have had it for dinner more than once. Luosifen or Laziji are now my go-tos.

三鲜馄饨 (sān xiān hún tun) - Three delicacy wontons (shrimp, pork, shiitake) with a soy, vinegar, chilli dip.

Are these Chinese ingredients? They are now. 马铃薯条 (mǎ líng shǔ tiáo). literally 'potato strips'. Are they Chinese? Well, they're certainly not French! Grown in China, chipped in China, frozen in China and sold in my local supermarket in China. When I first served some chips (I refuse to call them fries - I have standards) to some friends here in 1996, they were baffled and grabbed some sugar and poured it over them liberally. Soon after, McD's and KFC turned up and they worked it out. Yesterday was the first time I saw them like this, though. Did I buy them? No. I make my chips from this ingredient.

The Yugur are a Tibetan Buddhist minority ethnic group in Gansu province, north-western China. They are addicted to their special salty milk tea. Here is how they make it. 1) Take brick tea pieces and brew with black cardamom and sliced ginger in hot water. 2) When the tea is strongly brewed, add fresh milk and salt, repeatedly stirring to mix. 3) To a cup add parched flour, butter, and then fill with the hot milk tea. The Yugur regard this as nutritious and filling. They find unseasoned milk tea or sweet milk tea to be an abomination. They have a saying which translate as 'tea with no salt is like water'.

Shrimp and squid fried noodles. I also threw in some pumpkin flowers I had leftover unused in the fridge. Chaoshan fish sauce, chilli, Chinese chives and coriander leaf.

Fried sea duck egg with locally made blood sausage.

I usually just whack garlic with the side of my cleaver but when I want it very fine sometimes use this.

I'm having a good week in the fruit department. Not only did my second favourite fruit, mangosteens turn up but today I got the first of the season's 杨梅 (yáng méi) Chinese bayberries (Myrica rubra), my favourite. I first mentioned them back in this post. Happy mouth!

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/161694-china-food-myths/?do=findComment&comment=2285288

No reason. It's not unusual here.

Garland chrysanthemum, glebionis coronaria, formerly called chrysanthemum coronarium. 茼蒿 (Mand: tóng hāo; Cant: tung4 hou1).

Yes, but Haidolao is famous for having sauces from all over China. One of their selling points. All I know is I've never been served that type of sesame sauce in Sichuan/Chongqing. And it certainly it isn't served with malatang anywhere I've seen. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. It just seems strange to me in the context of that recipe and the claim about it being the "soul of hotpot". None the recipes I've seen over the last couple of days of looking even mentions it. Most mention the sesame oil dip.

This is an attempt at recreating a dish I ate in a Thai restaurant in China owned by an Indonesian, so I'm calling it just S.E. Asian. I've done it before a few times and think I'm getting close to what I remember. Mango beef. The cubed beef was marinated in Thai fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, and chilli. The mango was cubed and set aside with more lime juice to stop oxidisation. Stir fried the beef, then added the fruit and scallions and heated through. Simple steamed asparagus and rice to keep it company.

I very much doubt that they will. They have already paid their staff to write this clickbait. By the way, in Asia, their biggest market, McDonalds sell more chickenburgers than they do beef burgers.

Mine didn't last long. Going back for more.

I've been through my Chinese language cookbooks for Chongqing/Sichuan cookbooks looking for sesame sauce. Some suggest dipping sauces incorporating sesame oil, which is certainly not unusual. However that recipe seems to be suggesting some kind of commercially produced sauce - it says all sesame sauces are not the same, which is true, but all Chinese sesame oils are essentially the same. The recipe seems to be advocating a factory made sauce like this. I've never seen those being used in hotpots in Chongqing or Sichuan. They are more like what is used with Japanese しゃぶしゃぶ (shabu-shabu) as ごまたれ (goma dare), made with sesame paste. Anyway I'd argue the 'soul' of those hotpots is definitely their mala flavour and sensation.

@ElsieD Mangosteens