liuzhou

Marinara is Italian for mariners, aka sailors,

Here it was always cheese. The locals didn't want it and there weren't enough long-term foreigners to justify importing it. In recent years, with many more foreigners working in the larger cities and with online shopping, cheese has become much more available. Still a limited choice of varieties but much more than when I arrived when it was limited to 'zero'. I don't recell ever seeing North American cheeses here though - mostly European and New Zealand. Plastic American cheese is made here now. I call it 'fake fake cheese'.

Sure, of course the Soviet controlled countries weren't exactly replete with American products. I lived in Soviet Russia in the 80s. Even the Berioshka stores (with armed guards to keep out the rabble), exclusively reserved for foreigners and high ranking Communists and only accepting US dollar payments, had no American goods. In 1988, in Moscow, Air Rianta, the Irish Airport Authority opened Russia's first airport selling foreign goods (mostly Irish), but nothing American at that time. Two years later McDonals arrived. desecrating 'Moscow's Pushkin Square with their crap. (They had to change the Golden Arches logo as it was identical to the Moscow Metro signs.) North Korea probably doesn't have M&Ms today, either. In fact, they don't have food. much.

I'm confused by M&Ms being seen as difficult to obtain outside America. They're everywhere I've ever lived. I don't even need to go to an "American" store or '"foreign section" in a supermarket. Here in China, every Mom 'n Pop store has them and has done so for at least 30 years.I can order some for delivery through my phone app and they'll be here wiith 30 minutes. I first ate them in China. I've seen them in Mongolia,Japan, India, Vietnam, Thailand, as well as all over Europe. I doubt my neighbours even know they are American.

'Tomato sauce' is a term used with abandon around the English speaking world. It is commonly used in Britain and other Commonwealth countries to mean ketchup, for example. It is also used in many places to refer to ANY sauce mainly containing tomatoes. The Chinese for ketchup literally translates as 'tomato sauce'. Marinara literally translates as 'sailor juice'! Closer to the Italian literal meaning.

Pan-fried pork steak, buttery mash laced with 夜香花 (Mand: yè xiāng huā), pakalana vine, a local vegetable, and matsutake. French grain mustard.

I guess 莲藕 (lián ǒu), lotus root is more familiar to people in the west than it was only a few years ago. However it usually comes in this form. or sliced into lotus root coins. It also comes in other forms 莲藕切条 (lián ǒu qiē tiáo), lotus root chips 莲藕尖 (lián ǒu jiān), lotus root spears

It would work, I'm sure. It's just fat but a rich one. It can be used for any purpose any other fat is used.

There is a full explanation of tallow using hot pot base with recipe here. I think she overstates the need to dilute the beef fat with vegetable oil, though.

@KennethT Yes, I knew you knew that. We've discussed it before. My mentioning it was more for @Shel_B's benefit. The video you mentioned of the hotpot base factory is in this post.

I'd just add that extremely few home cooks make their hopt pot base from scratch. It takes a formidable list of ingredients (many of which you'd possibly struggle to find in the US). In 28 years, I've only made it twice and each time it took two full days. Instead people use the industrial hotpot bases @KennethT mentions. These are available in every supermarket, market and street corner stores. The Mala Market in the US carries bases. Asian markets in the US should also have. Most, but not all, are made using tallow, but you can check by looking for 牛油 on the packaging as here. I'll add to this tomorrow and try to list the ingredients used, but it's almost 2 am here. Bed is calling.

The better fish and chips places in the UK, traditionally fry in beef tallow. I use it for roast potatoes sometimes. It's a good use, but I prefer goose or duck for them.

Tallow is the fat of choice in Sichuan hotpots and other dishes. Strictly speaking, tallow is the rendered fat enclosing the kidneys. Unrendered it's suet. Not all beef fat is tallow. Not all tallow is beef. It can come from sheep. too.

I thought that, too.

I have a few of those, but that's not the point. There is no excuse for taking a tested reliable design and making it inoperable for no good reason. They could more sensibly put their idiotic QR code on the body of the can.

A few days ago, I visited the small store downstairs from my apartment to buy a six-pack of beers, as one does. On entering, I headed straight to where my beer of choice is sensibly located in a fridge, and there it wasn't. Where my beer should have been was an imposter! I looked around to see where some incompetent wretch may have deposited it, but to no avail. My gruntle was getting very dissed. I went back to where my beer rightfully belonged to examine the imposter to get the details in order to lodge an offical complaint and discovered that the imposter was my beer after all. For some reason, after twenty-six years the brewery had decided to disguise it by radically redesigning the cans. Old New I bought my needs and went upstairs, where I decided the makeover isn't so bad after all and actually makes it easier to spot. My gruntle was assuaged. Today, I repeated the process and bought another six pack. When I got back upstairs, I disocvered they've already altered the design again and replaced the previous non-coloured ring pulls with hideously bright red ones. But that is not the bad idea (not that it's a good one). These moronic ring pull do every except facilitate ringing or pulling. Whereas previously you could get your finger through the ring to pull, now they have reduced the 'ring' to a 3mm slot which a new born baby could get his or her finger through. This radical idea seems to be so that they can incorporated a tiny QR code on the damn thing for you to scan. Doing so goes to a webpage telling you that they require your personal and financial details in order to proceed. 滚开 (gǔn kāi)* ! as we say here to emphatically reject suggestions we wish to decline. I had to get my tool kit out to open the damn cans. It is impossible by hand. Idiots. * 滚开 (pronounced 'goon ky' - rhyming with sky) literally means 'to boil' but in Mandarin slang is an obscenity meaning 'eff off'. 1998 refers to a special edition of this local beer, made to mark Bill Clinton's visit to Guilin, China in said year. It has since become their biggest seller. Guilin is where the brewery is situated about an hour north of me.

Indeed. All cephalopods I've every cooked, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, are the same. I tend to cook squid for 90 seconds maximum, cuttlefish around the same, but octopus gets the long cook. Just my preference. Cepholopods

I have nothing to add to what I said years ago. Although LKK are said to have invented the stuff, others have certainly improved it. The brands I could recommend are probably not availabe in the USA. I don't have any oyster sauce at the moment; like most people in China, I seldom use it, but I do have this which is a fine alternative. Again it may not be available where you are. No connection to HP Sauce.

How saliva changes the flavor of food

That's a bit on the cool side round here, even in May. I too had a chicken thigh for dinner, but no avo. Braised with garlic and shiitake and served with rice and baby spinach. No pictures. Too hungry.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems you want to take canned tomatoes, sauce them, then can them? Why not do what you usually do with half the cans then store the ones you didn't order until next time? Canned tomatoes have a long shelf life.

Here is a similar meal, but they've cut out the shovel and instead tip the food straight from the wok onto what looks like a parchmment or greaseproof paper lined sheet pan. The end result is the same.

They put that in everything!

I am mystified as to what is "disgusting" or "gross". This is not significantly different from taking a dish from a commercial wok with a large wok scoop and plating it. All that is going on is that they plate it in front of you and the scoop is a little bigger. It is also normal for most Asians to eat family style. Food is rarely served as individual meals for each diner. No troughs involved.

They're always looking for a new gimmick, to stand out from the competition. I don't think it's so bad and anyway, it's the taste that counts. It will pass, as did the Bareheaded Sichuan restaurant where the wait staff, male and female all shaved their heads.