liuzhou

Yes, home made. There is a recipe in the first post in this topic. Scroll down.

Thanks. Pretty much what I thought.

Konjac, pronounced in English as /ˈkɒnjæk/, (kohn-yak), is also known as konjac potato, voodoo lily, devil’s tongue or elephant yam. In Japanese, it is こんにゃく(konnyaku) and in Chinese, 魔芋 (mó yù) or 蒟蒻 (jǔ ruò). It is made from the corm of a large herb, Amorphophallus rivieri. Despite the various names, it is unrelated to yams, potatoes, lilies or tongues. A substance called glucomannan, a glucose and mannose based polysaccharid, is extracted from the plant’s corm. This dry glucomannan can be used to make flour and from that can be made noodles and gums. You may think you’ve never eaten it, but you probably have. Gum from the plant is used in many processed foods as a thickener, identified in some territories as the food additive E425. It contains several vitamins, but is otherwise devoid of any nutritional value but is valuable as as a filler. Hence, it is used in many slimming products. Here in China it is usually sold in off white blocks of gum, which can be boiled in hotpots to provide that chewy texture so many Chinese like. It is also used in the preparation of those fake meat dishes found in Buddhist vegetarian restaurants near or in temples. Fake shark’s fin is also usually konjac. Available in some supermarkets for around ¥12 / $1.66 USD per kg.

Finally. In the supermarket this morning.

The bustards thought they could get them by me. Lays have redesigned their luosifen chip/crisp packaging. Fortunately, I'm alert to such malpractice and am able to warn you not to accidentally buy these. Disgusting and still nothing like luosifen. It's the recipe that needs changing; not the packaging. In fact the recipe and the whole concept need destroying.

What a strange few days, The descending hoards were back. This is my favourite market street yesterday. It's the oldest market in the city, dating back to the Qing Dynasty and extends along a mile-long, narrow street and into side alleys off that. It was always a busy street market, with only one or two tiny restaurants / cafés for the foot weaary to rest their bones. Post-covid it hs been ridiculous. Many tiny restaurants have opened selling both malatang or luosifen, but never the two in the same store. Of course, the vain and vacuous have to visit. Now the locals struggle to buy their daily supplies there. Too many tosspots with cellphones. It's busier than The Great Wall of China was yesterday. It was near deserted by comparison.

Here is the ingredient section in my nearest malantang place, about five minutes from home. At the top are green vegetables and below that mushooms and non-green veg such as daikon radish, lotus root etc. Going down, next are various types on dried and fresh noodles. And on the lowest level are the proteins. I only photographed the proteins. The other shelves were being sprayed with mist and I prefer my phone dry. I've never eaten there. I'm kind of not into meats and vegetables that have been sliced and left exposed to every passer-by for hours on end,

Had to pass the Micky D's in the local mall today and spotted this. Angus truffle burgers? I think Angus might be the name of guy who cooks them and the truffles are 99.999999% likely to be Chinese truffles, which aren't worth the paper they're probably made out of. Utterly tasteless. Are truffle burgers available in non-Chinese McD stores?

Well, we all know Vegemite is a pale imitation of the real thing - Marmite! 🤣 Actually, I can source both here online. Not cheap though. I usually opt for Marmite out of habit, but when it's out of stock, will happily buy Vegemite. About a decade their was a really annoying Aussie veggie here for about a year. She complained about not being able to able to find Vegemite in China and I suggested the alternative. She screamed at me that she couldn't eat Marmite because "I'm a vegetarian!", her answer to every question. She point blank refused to accept that both are vegetarian. When, another time, she was going on about her eating disorder yet again, I mentioned that the Dalai Lama isn't vegetarian and she burst into hysterical tears. Even her boyfriend thought she was an idiot. Another friend, also Australian, a lovely, knowledgable and witty man just looked at her and quietly said "Calm down, mite." No, I didn't miss-spell 'mate'. Image from on-line advertising

I was thinking about this last night and thought I'd search the internet in Chinese to see if there were any recipes for making malatang at home. I found one, but it's utterly bizarre. I've translated it below, but literally to give you a flavour of the madness. But first let me say that luncheon meat and ham sausage are not exactly first choice of 'protein by any means and sesame sauce is certainly not "the soul of malatang" and milk? What is this person on⁈⁈ The ingredients list with some giving no amounts and the amounts listed without giving the ingredient are not my translation errors; they're straight from the original. Fairly normal for Chinese recipe writing. The only thing the recipe says that makes sense is the advice "Don't stick to this recipe." Malatang Ingredients 1 pack of instant noodles 100g of green bamboo shoots 3 shiitake mushrooms 100g of luncheon meat 100g ham sausage 100g fish balls 100g fish tofu 100g sesame sauce 15g light soy sauce 20g vinegar 20g sugar 10g salt 1 15g sesame oil and bean paste 35g hot pot base 50g green onion 50g, ginger slices 50g minced garlic minced coriander (can be omitted) 10g oil: 25g milk 300g Preparation Sesame sauce is also the soul of malatang, and it is also crucial. Mix all the spices in proportion. The consistency of the sesame sauce can be adjusted with the right amount of water. After all, each brand of sesame sauce is different. 2. Pour oil into the pan, pour in the green onion and ginger slices, and stir-fry a few times to taste. Tips: Malatang is a kind of food that can be put into the pot for everything, whatever you like, just add it casually. Don't stick to this recipe. Adding milk makes the taste smoother and less spicy. 3. Pour in the bean paste and hot pot base and stir-fry a few times, noting that the bean paste is easier to paste. After the hot pot base is melted, pour water, the amount of water depends on how many ingredients you have, and also depends on how big the pot is, which is more casual. 4. After boiling again, remove the residue and pour in the milk. 5. Then you have the exciting part, you can put your favourite ingredients, in line with the principle of meat, fish balls, vegetables, instant noodles, put the ingredients into the pot in turn. 6. After all the ingredients are cooked, take out and pour sesame sauce and minced garlic, and if you can eat coriander, you can sprinkle some chopped coriander. Of course, if you don't feel spicy enough, you can add some chilli oil. I dare you to try it!

I should hope not. https://www.mashed.com/459609/can-nutmeg-actually-make-you-hallucinate/

Had rather a large lunch so a light dinner. Mala shrimp with Chinese flat bread (馍 - mó) to soak up sauce. The shrimp were live fifteen minutes before I took this photograph.

Yes. Zhang Liang are international.. I've seen, but not visited the branch in London's Chinatown. However, they are in a bit of bother here in China after some branches were closed down after food safety violations. I've made hotpot just for me occasionally. Not for a while, though. Not very practical and anyway, the point of hotpot here is social more than gustatory, although the food can be great.

Not just yet, though. Here is a maybe a fifth of the line outside my favourite luosifen place (which I can't go to anymore) this noon. The malatang place round the corner had three customers.

Malatang and Mongolian hotpot are two quite different things. Malatang is based on Sichuan/Chongqing hotpot. Yes they are both hotpots, but that's all. The flavours are very different. Mala (麻辣 - má là), literally 'numbing and hot' refers to the combination of Sichuan peppercorn and chilli that is a signature feature of Sichuan cuisine.

Yes, I'd heard, not of that specific place, but that it was making an appearance internationally. It has turned up in London, too. The article you link to gives a good description of the dish and experience, but seems to imply that this is something new. It may be new to NYC, but it's been a thing for in China for at least twenty years here, just recently going viral. Same thing though with Luosifen. People though it was new, although it had been around for decades.. It went insane in 2020 with Covid. The inferior, packaged version became China's biggest seling "instant noodle" product overnight, then when all the restrictions were over the masses wanted to travel here to try the real thing. I get that. It's the ones who come not to like it and say so in their dumb videos that I don't get. By the way the translation of 楊國福 (yáng guó fú) they give as "Lucky Northern China" is nonsense. It's someone's name (in traditional characters). Probably male and born between 1966 and 1976.

Not a concept with which I'm familiar.

I had the same dish with friends today, but this time in a restaurant next door to my apartment block. Here is a poor cell phone shot of the dish being served. Enough chillies for ya⁈

Spanking Wine I took this picture almost 30 years ago in Hunan. I never posted this scan of the print before because I always hoped I'd see it again and get a better (digital) shot but it hasn't happened. Presumably they went out of business. Not enough alcoholic S&M fans in China?

Back in the Spring Festival (incorporating Chinese New Year), I moaned about 6 million puerile sensation seekers landing in Liuzhou over ten days to film themselves eating Liuzhou Luosifen in order to to post videos on anti-social media. The locals had to forego their favourite food and took to cowering under their beds to avoid these clowns lining up outside every shop which sells the local favourite (there are thousands of them). In my and most people’s favourite outlet, they were standing in line for six hours to eat some cheap noodles then complain to the world that it smells like rancid feet (not true) and is too spicy (ditto) They still turn up in their hundreds every weekend. Luosifen Line Today, May 1st 2024 marks the first day of a three day holiday all over China to mark International Labor Day. (Actually, it’s only a three day holiday but the Chinese count the weekend too, forgetting they don’t usually work that day anyway!) This morning I read some potentially wonderful news. It seems the vacuous and fatuous may be moving on to 麻辣烫 (má là tàng), Malatang! Malatang is available all over China including here, but it seems the sheep are latching on to one city in Gansu province, far from here. While I feel sorry for the poor people of 天水 (tiān shuǐ) Tianshui, literally Heavenly Water, an ancient city in north-eastern Gansu, I’ll be delighted if they all go! Why they want Tianshui’s version is a mystery. The article features a girl named Mao from Changsha, the capital of Hunan travelling all the way to Gansu to eat something sold all over her home city! Bucket list ticking gone insane. Perhaps she is from the same family as the Chairman, also a Hunannative from near Changsha. He wasn’t exactly stable in the mind, either. So, what is malatang, some of you ask. Well, it’s anything you want it to be, really. It’s a street food single serving of a Sichuan style hotpot. Hotpot for one. Sichuan and other hotpots biggest failing and attraction is that it is only suitable for a group meal. Four minimum. Eight to 12 for perfection. Decades ago, someone thought it would be good if people could have a quick version just for themselves and malatang was born. Malatang - Image from Meituan, China's largest food home delivery app Basically you choose the ingredients you prefer among the stall’s offerings; meats, vegetables, tofu, noodles, meatballs, fish balls, etc and the whole mess is boiled in a spicy broth and there you go. Hotpot for one. The ingredients are usually on skewers and, just as in most hotpot places, you are charged by the skewer. Obviously the noodles aren’t on skewers – don’t be silly. The article I read has complaints that people are now being charged by weight instead, but I don’t see that necessarily being a problem – the vendors judged how much to put on the skewers by weigh anyway! Logic isn’t the sensation seekers greatest skill. What amuses me is that although malatang is hotpot for one, these jokers never hunt alone, but in packs negating the whole point of the dish. The article is here. Note: They mistranslate 烫 (tàng). It has many meanings, but 'boiled' isn't one of them. Try to scald, to burn (by scalding), to blanch (cooking), to heat (sth) up in hot water, to perm hair, to iron, scalding hot.

Stir-fried chicken with okra, scallions, garlic, gnger, chilli, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce. Rice.

For some reason, I read that as 'crystal meth' and thought that would definitely add something! I am looking forward to your trip!

How can noodles be "ever so chewy" and "al dente" at the same time? All the Lanzhou lamian I've eaten. and that's a lot. has been al dente; never "ever so chewy".

Indeed. There are also several YouTube tutorials. Making them is certainly not something I'm about to take up when I've got a pro five minutes away who sells me them for a pittance.

Well, if that was what you meant, and it wasn't clear, it would be unenforceable anyway.