liuzhou

Yes. The fish are edible. I've eaten them. They are very traditional and represent longevity. They are dough as you say.

No. As I said in my first post of this topic However, that is how it is described in all my Chinese sources; the 'sculpin' designation comes from them. There is nothing in any English sources that I could find to confirm or deny. If you know of any reliable sources I may have missed I'll be happy, as always, to edit my post. Thanks.

Thursday here* will be the third day of the third month by China’s lunisolar calendar. In Chinese, this is known as 三月三 (sān yuè sān, literally ‘third month, third (day)). For the ethnic minority people around here, the Zhuang, the Dong, the Miao, the Yao and more, this is the major festival of the year. Guangxi province is the only one in China which marks this an official public holiday, such is its importance as an event. Guangxi has the highest number of ethnic minorities in China – twelve, many of whom hold this festival. I should note that these ethnicities are not limited to Guangxi or indeed China. The Hmong people are a sub-group of the Miao and are found world-wide. Other groups have large presences in SE Asia and elsewhere. I have Tujia friends in the USA and Canada and Zhuang in the UK. They will be celebrating, too. One local school celebrated this today by holding a mini food festival. The kids learned how to make the ethnic minority’s special dishes such as five-colour rice and others. They wore their traditional ethnic costumes identifying their ethnicities and, by the look of it, had fun while learning about their culture. While I wasn’t there, a close friend was there as her daughter is a pupil in the school. She has sent me these images with permission to share. *China operates one time zone; the USA is between 12 and 15 hours behind so it may be on Wednesday for some of you.

Last night. Pork tenderloin, marinated in olive oil, juice of a lemon, crushed coriander seeds, black olives, chilli, salt. Drained and fried the pork then 'braised' briefly in the marinade. Added coriander leaf less than a minute before serving. Served with a simple tomato and red onion salad dressed with olive oil and black pepper - and rice.

This ingredient contains ingredients but doesn't contain one ingredient in its name. S:猪血豆腐; T: 豬血豆腐 (zhū xuè dòu fu) is 'pig blood tofu' and the ingredients are water, blood, salt and preservatives. No tofu, but is so named as it resembles tofu in texture and can be used in the same ways. It is also a common addition to soups and hotpots. For those who’ve never tasted this coagulated blood, it is naturally slightly sweet, with little metallic taste. Best washed down with snake’s blood wine, perhaps.

I mainly use them in soups, cut into sizeable chunks. Daikon and pork rib soup is common around here. I also sometimes sprout them to use the tops as greens.

Now a marine fish. This is 泥猛(鱼) (ní měng (yú), literally ‘mud fierce (fish)’), Siganus spinus, Little Spinefish, Scribbled Rabbitfish, Blunt-nosed Spinefoot, Bluntnosed Spinefish, Marbled-spine Foot, Scribbled Spinefoot, Spiny Rabbitfish, or Spiny Spinefoot. Native to the coastal reefs of western Pacific from Japan, down through SE Asia and to Australia, it reaches a length of up to 28 cm / 11 inches but is more commonly around 18 cm / 7 inches. Map: AquaMaps (2019, October). Computer generated distribution maps for Siganus spinus (Little spinefoot), with modelled year 2050 native range map based on IPCC RCP8.5 emissions scenario. Retrieved from https://www.aquamaps.org. The species is known for often having a maze-like patterned skin, which unfortunately doesn’t show up on my picture. A better example is here. Care is need in handling them as the fins are poisonous and can inflict painful stings. They aren’t particularly common on fish counters here but are frequently used in fish pastes. There is some aquaculture, but it is limited.

Not really. The main, but not only, original descriptive name is 香辣脆 (xiāng là cuì), which translates as 'flavour hot crisp or crunch or brittle'. This doesn't however feature on the jars in China. For the US, the company translated this as 'crisp' as a description, but it isnt their trademark; just a description. Their trademark is the name of the company, 老干妈 (lǎo gān mā*) with the distinctive script and the picture of Ms. Tao. I very much doubt she cares; although her lawyers may. She makes and sells 1.3 million jars a day, most of which are sold in China. Her pockets are very deep. * literally 'old godmother' or 'old adoptive mother'

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/apr/04/chili-crunch-trademark-momofuku-david-chang

This may sound like a stupid question, but are your self-check outs "manned"? My local supermarket has six self-check stations and there is always one member of staff standing there, 90% of the time looking bored and 10% helping out the clueless like me. Whether she carries out any surveillance, I doubt, but she may be a deterrent. Actually, I've only requested her (it's always a her) assistance once which was when one of my purchases somehow scanned twice when I only passed it over the scanner once. She cancelled one of them. She also dispenses plastic bags if you request (and pay) for one. There is a button on the machine to request bags of various sizes and prices. From what I’ve seen, most customers prefer the manned, traditional check-outs. I go for speed and not lining up behind the idiots who always seem surprised when they have to pay, then spend forever trying to work out how their cellphone works! 99% of payments are made by cellphone in China. I haven’t used or carried cash for years.

More an adventure in eating in east Asia, I'd say. All pizzas in China come with corn, including the infamous durian pizzas. Domino's pizzas in Vietnam, too. Mì too. But generally I find more sub-par bánh mì in the north than in the south. After all, they originated in HCMC / Saigon. But back to Japan. Thanks for this whole account of your trip. Fascinating side of a Japan I've never seen.

S: 花古鱼; T: 花鼓鱼 (huā gǔ yú) or S: 花鼓鱼; T: 花鼓魚 (huā gǔ yú), Trachidermus fasciatus, the somewhat off-puttingly named rough skin sculpin, is another freshwater fish once among the most popular in China. However, thanks to ‘development’ along the lower Yangtse river where it thrived, the fish is now endangered in China. It is still found in southern Guangxi, but in very limited numbers. Some are imported from Korea and Japan. At the equivalent of $30 USD in markets, it is the most expensive freshwater fish I’ve encountered. I’ve never eaten it, so can’t comment on flavour. Some local restaurants have it on their menu at more than double the market price. $60+ for a fish that is only typically 11.5 cm / 4½ inches long. The OED describes it as a 'small worthless fish'.

I mentioned tilapia in this post. Here is a variation on that theme. S: 黄立鱼; T: 黃立魚 (huáng lì yú). Yellow tilapia. This is a yellow bellied and yellow finned mutation of the common tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus. It is otherwise identical in use and taste. Suddenly fashionable for no good reason that I can see.

The jellyfish is gelatinous with the texture of a particularly al dente pasta. It isn't cooked as such but is processed. and cured before being sold. I have written more about that in this topic. Note: of the 4000+ species of jellyfish, only around a dozen are edible and they must be processed properly to be safe to eat. Don't be trying to eat what you come across at your local beach!

I was searching earlier for their scientific name which I'd forgotten and a couple of websites mentioned Dune, without which I wouldn't have understood your reference. I've never seen the movie or read the book.

I am not suggesting that anyone shouldn't make dim sum at home; merely that few do, as can be seen by the entries in this near-20 year old topic with extremely few examples.

Spicy shrimp with garlic, Shaoxing, soy sauce and scallions. 海蜇 (hǎi zhé), Rhopilema esculenta, an edible jellyfish. Rice.

What a bizarre topic. 95% of the historic contributions here have absolutely nothing to do with making dim sum at home (there are more posts about Chinese banking systems). I understand the lack of home cooking of dim sum posts, though. Few people ever do it. In fact S: 点心; T: 點心, (Mandarin - diǎn xin; Cantonese - dim sum), however delicious, is merely an aside at a social event, 飲茶 (Mand: yǐn chá; Cant: yum cha), drinking tea or 早茶 (Mand: zǎo chá; Cant: jou cha), morning tea. These places can be cacophonous early in the morning. Conviviality and conversation is the point. Food, not so much. The food served, the dim sum, often doesn’t lend itself to home cooking and for many items, considerable skill and experience is needed. The best dim sum chefs are highly regarded in the same way as the best sushi or ramen chefs are in Japan. Despite that, there are many recipes on the internet. Some read OK; most don’t; and some are just sadly clueless.

A local rarity. S: 青竹鱼; T: 青竹魚 (qīng zhú yú), Cyprinidae Spinibarbus, green bamboo fish is a freshwater fish mainly found in Guangxi and Yunnan. It occupies fast moving waters, including the river flowing through Liuzhou. It is vegetarian. It is also farmed but is a slow grower, so less desirable to fish farmers wanting a quick return - i.e. most of them.

北海 (běi hǎi, literally ‘north (of the) sea’) is a city on Guangxi’s southern coast on the Gulf of Tonkin near the border between China and Vietnam. It gets a large number of domestic tourists looking for its beaches and seafood ; few foreign. The city and especially 外沙岛 (wài shā dǎo), Waisha Island, connected to the city by a short bridge, gets the bulk of the visitors and is full of seafood restaurants. Most of my fish and seafood (and all seawater species) come from there. One special attraction is S: 北海沙虫; T: 北海沙蟲 (běi hǎi shā chóng), Sipunculus nudus, Beihai sandworms. a local delicacy. They are also referred to in English as ‘peanut worms’. These on average, 15 cm / six inch long, unsegmented worms are picked from Beihai’s beaches early in the morning when they emerge from the sand. Fried until crispy, they have a pleasant umami-laden flavour. They are often added to congee, which is how I have eaten them. Today, they are being cultivated in limited but growing numbers. Away from their natural habitat of Guangxi, they are sold dried. I can buy them fresh. $9.00 USD per 250 grams. Need I mention, they are also used in TCM? In that context they are sometimes called ‘sea cordyceps’ as they are claimed to have similar medicinal benefits to those parasitic fungus infested worms?

Two more starches used in the kitchen. 1) S: 红薯淀粉; T: 紅薯澱粉 (hóng shǔ fěn), sweet potato starch. 2) S: 马蹄粉; T 馬蹄粉; (mǎ tí fěn) Chinese water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis or E. congesta) starch.

Dim Sum items like these are seldom made at home. However the internets have several recipes of varying appeal. A search for 'lo bak go', the Cantonese name should point you in the right direction. I'd avoid the Woks of Life recipe, though. When a recipe writer says he doesn't know what he is cooking, it hardly inspires confidence!

https://kitchenmisadventures.com/water-chestnut-cake

Here is yet another version of celtuce. Known as S: 贡菜干; T: 貢菜乾 (gòng cài gān), this is shavings of the stem which are then dried. The name literally means 'tribute vegetable' as some emperor or other supposedly tasted it and thereafter was given it as a tribute on a regular basis. Can be eaten raw after rehydrating or can be stir fried. Regular folk have to buy it. 80 grams / 40 cents USD.

Here’s something I haven’t seen before. S: 陈皮;T: 陳皮 (chén pí), dried orange or tangerine peel is a common ingredient in Chinese cuisine. Every supermarket has it, although most people dry their own, including me. It keeps for decades in a sealed container in a cool dark cupboard.. In fact, for most people, the older it is; the better. It is possible to buy peel up to 80 years old. That is expensive, though. More than $5 USD a gram. These three jars in my local supermarket hold (left to right) 15-year-old peel ($77.39 USD / 500g), 10-year-old ($46.99), 3-year-old ($24.88). The Woks of Life site goes to its ludicrous lengths as usual, explaining how to dry it. One sentence would do. “Remove peel and dry it in the sun.” It is used medicinally, but also in both sweet and savoury dishes. It is used in hot pot bases, in soups, stocks, and especially, braised dishes. So, I’m well used to the ingredient. What I found yesterday was powdered peel in sachets. I totally fail to see the point. The stuff comes free with every tangerine you buy! Dried tangerine peel powder