liuzhou

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.

Line my bread baking pan with baking paper inserted the wrong way up. I now have an otherwise beautifully baked loaf, with paper welded to its base and sides. In my defence, this was a new batch of baking paper which is side specific. The last lot I used was non-welding either side.

Water buffalo stir-fried with the usual garlic, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns and chilli. Buffalo marinated in Shaoxing wine. Oyster mushrooms and yellow hothouse chives. Steamed asparagus. Rice. This I cooked as usual in the rice cooker, but unusually threw in the woodier trimmings from the asparagus. Gave the rice a delicate but pleasant vegetal taste.

We need an "interesting" button.

Boiled egg in buns.

Me! I can get a lot of Japanese ingredients in local stores, but never miso for some reason.

You seem to be on a Japanese kick of late. I really must get hold of some miso. I can only get it online and I ran out over a year ago! Here is a theme song for you.

My apologies. I should have been clearer. It is indeed warm soy milk in the bowl. I posted the second photo to show how it is usually served. I didn't have that one. It's an old photo I took a couple of years back. A friend had that one. This morning I only had the dough sticks with a bottle of water.

Fresh rice noodles, pork slivers, oyster mushrooms, baby bok choy, chilli, garlic, white pepper in a chicken stock.

Another breakfast on the run. Every morning, near my home, is a woman selling breakfast from a roadside cart. I was rushing to catch a train so I grabbed a couple of her 油条 (yóu tiáo), deep-fried twisted dough sticks or crullers. These are very popular here and are usually served with hot soy milk (豆奶 dòu nǎi). I loathe milk of any kind, especially hot, so I passed on that, as always.

I found this Twitter series of posts quite moving.

Lunch today was a disgrace. I was busy. No time to cook or even eat out. In a dire emergency I ate what I call "train noodles" as they were often the only food you could easily eat on the 24-36 hour or longer train journeys across China. Thankfully now bullet trains and a developed air service have largely replaced those trains. Liuzhou to Guangzhou used to take 26 hours. Now it's 4 hours by train. Beijing was 36 hours. Now just around 10. Truly horrible.

Coriander chicken with olives. Chicken, green and black olives, chilli, garlic, coriander leaf, lemon zest and juice. With couscous.

Very much so.

In tribute to Bourdain, The New Yorker has reposted his first published article which led to Kitchen Confidential. Don’t Eat Before Reading This

Just read this on BBC news. I didn't agree with everything he ever said, but bless him for saying it. Sad, sad, sad.

Here's one example. Not cooked by me, but how I would. From the Haunting Hunan thread.

Round these parts we steam them with light soy sauce, garlic ginger and chillies. Indeed one of the best fish.

Sad to say, while I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner tonight, I had a bit of photographic failure. Liver, onions and cabbage with baked potato. But I have no shame, so I'm posting one picture anyway. You're probably think that isn't very Chinese and you'd be correct. Although the liver was marinated in Shaoxing wine and I dropped in a splashette of soy sauce at the end. Force of habit. (I went back for more, as usual.)