liuzhou

I never drink the tap water, but happily clean my teeth with it and wash vegetables. Most people do the same. Never had a problem with it. I guess it varies from place to place, though.

Burger in a homemade jiamo bun. The first of two. I had vaguely considered making some fries but it's too damn hot - 35℃ in kitchen before turning on any cooking equipment.

I don't know, sorry. First time I remember seeing that. I do know that if they are, then there is a legal obligation to state so, though.

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I'd be surprised but few, if any, companies making curry powders give their precise ratios of the ingredients. They're all possible different. That's true of all curry powders: Indian, Japanese, Burmese, Thai etc. Also, regulations on ingredient listings are different in different places. In places, spices can just be listed as 'spices'. most usual though is from highest amount to lowest.

Yes. On the rear label. In Spanish, English, and Chinese.

I've mentioned dips here several times. They are routinely served with almost every meal here, at home or in restaurants. What I haven't mentioned is dry dips. These, too are very popular especially with bbq's / grilled meats or hotpots. Usually a mixture of salt, powdered cumin and chilli powder or flakes. I recently came across this tiny 3 gram sachet of 四川干碟 (sì chuān gān dié), Sichuan dry dip, with a bizarre ingredients list. My translation. Dried chilli, rapeseed oil, white sesame, soybean, peanut, MSG. Edible salt, pepper (irradiated), sugar, chicken essence mixed with hemp material, spices (irradiated), flavor. On sale for an outageous ¥0.88 / 12 cents USD. I however had it delivered along with a heap of other stuff and they only charged ¥0.01 / $0.0014 USD. I guess that's as low as the system allows them to go. Still a rip-off. I can mix it myself without all the crap for even less.

I went down the chardonnay trail last night. Ot maybe chardonnay tail. Despite the kangaroo or wallaby (?), this is Chilean. Cheap at the equivalent of $9.39 USD, but acceptable. It was a gift.

Like almost everyone here in the largest rice eating country in the world, I don't use cup measurements. Totally unreliable. For rice/ water ratio, I tend to use the first knuckle of the index finger method as do my neighbours. That said there are many factors involved in rice cooking. Even two batches of the same rice can be quite different. How it's stored, how old it is, what variety it is, the weather! Every time I get a new bag (I usually by 5 or 10 kg bags) I test and adjust. Then I consider how I'm going to use that rice. A drier rice works better for fried rice. Much wetter for congee 8:1 Water:rice.

I agree with the above. The problem is it's turkey. Why have you been making them for years if you don't like them.

This page outlines what topics go in what forums. I'd say this goes under Cooking If you report your post, I'm sure @Smithy will move it to where it should be (and hide this).

Prawn fried rice with (mostly) SE Asian herbs: culantro, coriander leaf, Thai basil, Chinese chives and non-Asian rocket / arugula. Chili and garlic, Chinese fish sauce.

BLT 2024-6-1

I have two small rice cookers which each do about two servings. They are, of course, Chinese and were very cheap. I bought the first about 5 years ago or more, but when I moved house in January this year couldn't find it in the jumble of boxes littering the new place and wanted to eat that night, so I bought the second. They're that cheap here - almost disposable. This it the 2nd one. Cooks 1-4 cups of rice; I usually just do one or two. I'm pretty sure the names of the specific brands would be of no use to you, but I'd check out a Chinese or generally Asian market if you have one nearby.

How would I know? Oh! You don't thing I bought them, do you? 🤣🤣🤣

It is normally only used with seafood. I elaborated on this serving style on this topic .

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be for sale.

Astonishingly often, I come across strange food themed oddities, mostly on Taobao, China's largest online shopping portal (part of the Alibaba group). I'd like to share some of the most amusing or bizarre. Kicking off with a pistachio. Well, a pistachio pin / badge. These come at a whopping ¥8.39 / $1.16 USD a nut. Real pistachios are around ¥20 / $2.76 for 100 grams. Made here in China. Next, also Chinese, are salad (or whatever) bowls resembling pillows. I often rest meats; never salads. Maybe that's what I've been doing wrong. Bedding down your salad will cost you ¥100.78 / $13.93 a bowl. Finally for now, this time from Japan is the strangest (in my estimation). A half eaten hamburger. When I first saw this image, I thought it was a giant burger cushion but no. It's hamburger sized. Ths nonsense costs a whole ¥500.77 / $69.21. For that I could buy 15 real burgers from McD's. More to come as I spot them.

Pork tenderloin cubes marinated in EVOO, lemon juice, garlic, chilli and crushed (roasted) coriander seeds. Stir-fried in the marinade. Served with a simple white onion, tomato and coriander leaf salad and rice.

Nice. Originally खिचड़ी in Hindi (khichri and various other transliterations), kedgeree was described by visitors to India hundreds of years ago, long before British rule.. The Arab traveller Ibn Batuta wrote in 1340 that The word for lentils in Hindi, दाल। (daala) covers many more species than the English and includes mung beans. Under British influence and for British Raj colonialists, flaked fish or smoked fish replaced the pulses and chopped hard-boiled eggs came into the dish. Fish-based kedgeree is still popular in the UK and even in India. I was served an excellent version several years ago in Kolkata. I’ve often thought of making it here in China, but the only smoked fish I can source is much more heavily smoked / cured than that used in India or the UK and tends to overpower the spices in the dish. I know it can be made with fresh, unsmoked fish, but for me the whole point of kedgeree is that smokiness. I occasionally make the traditional version with lentils, but with fish I tend to just go for a Chinese fried rice.

I think this is a UK site, but of universal appeal. We Want Plates.

I couldn't resist these. They were being sold as hair clips for women but I can use them as tie clips on the once a decade occasions I wear ties. $1 a piece - minimum order, two. I never wear two ties. One is more than enough. Ridiculous garments.

Velveting This came up elsewhere, but I think belongs here, too. I read things like this Hmmm. Not quite. Velveting is a Cantonese cooking technique. Although a large, but shrinking, proportion of Chinese emigrants and their descendents in the west are of Cantonese origin, in China they only comprise around 4.6% of the population. And not even all of those 4.6% use velveting in their cooking. Additionally, I see statements like this Maybe in America where both these quotes originated; certainly not in China. To repeat, it’s Cantonese. Also, few home cooks employ it anywhere. It’s mainly a restaurant thing. Then we have the terminology. There is no name in Chinese that translates as velveting. A number of American writers tell us that it is 走油 (Cantonese: zau2 jau4*2; Mandarin: zǒu yóu) The first character, 走 literally translate as ‘to walk’, ‘to go’, ‘to run’, ‘to move (of a vehicle)’, ‘to visit’, ‘to leave’, ‘to go away’, ‘to die (as a euphemism), ‘from’ or ‘through’. Take your pick. The second, 油 means ‘oil’. So they put the two together and come up with ‘passing through oil’'. One problem. In Cantonese (and Mandarin), the two together means either ‘to lose lustre (of varnished furniture)’; or specifies "no oil" when cooking – almost exactly the opposite. And no velvet in sight. Some writers suggest that velveting in water rather than oil may be better for home cooks and/or that the results are almost indistinguishable. This they have dubbed 走水 (Cantonese: zau2 seoi2; Mandarin: zǒu shuǐ). Again a problem. This means ‘to flow’, ‘to leak’ or ‘to put out a fire’! No culinary association. Neither of these two terms appear in any of my Chinese dictionaries (Cantonese or Mandarin) in any culinary sense other than the ‘no oil’ mentioned. Even my dictionary of food and drink doesn't mention it. A related term, which unlike the above, which I have seen on Cantonese restaurant menus, is 滑 (Cantonese: waat6; Mandarin: huá) which means ‘to slip’, ‘to slide’, ‘smooth’, ‘slippery’ or ’cunning’. Presumably, this is meant to to describe the resulting texture achieved by using either the oil or water methods. A number of food writers, including the esteemed (in America) Grace Young use the technique when making non-Cantonese dishes, such as her ‘Kung-po Chicken', another term unknown in China. The good people of Sichuan rarely, if ever, do. My two favourite Chinese cuisines, Hunan and Xi’an don’t use it. Like I said, it’s Cantonese. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with velveting; just that it isn’t as common in Chinese cooking as people make out. I put it into a similar category to the other American obsessions, wok hei and high butane burners as I mentioned in a previous post. Note: Cantonese pronunciation here is using the Simplified: 粤拼 Trad. 粵拼 (Mandarin: yuè pīn Cantonese: jyut6 ping3) Jyutping transliteration system.

Roujiamo night! 孜然牛肉夹馍 (zī rán niú ròu jiá mó) - Cumin beef roujiamo. The first of more to come. Still cooking.

Potatoes are almost always eaten wuith rice in Chinese cuisine. They are seen as just another vegetable to be stir fried or added to hotpots. The most common treatment is to sliver them along with carrot and often chilli, stir fry them and finish with white rice vinegar. In fact, most supermarket sell the potato and carrot pre-slivered.