liuzhou

You've probably heard of 普洱茶 (pǔ ěr chá), Pu'er tea from the Pu'er region of Yunnan. However, this is 普洱咖啡 (pǔ ěr kā fēi), Pu'er coffee from the Pu'er region of Yunnan. The packaging states that it's an Italian style dark roast. I'm not sure what's Italian about it. This bag was a 'gift' which came with a new drip machine I bought today. I'll try it later when I've finished the batch of different Yunnan beans that's still half full. Will report back.

This is 红三鱼 (hóng sān yú), Nemipterus hexodon or ornate threadfin bream. Line or trawler caught in southeast Asia and southern China. Mine come from the Beibu Gulf off where China meets Vietnam. Nice meaty white fish similar to cod. Good for fish and chips.

It's almost 30 years since I lived in London so I can't be much help. However I do know the area around Tower Bridge is not London's best food site. Apart from the touristy places by the bridge and adjacent Tower, to the east there is little of interest and to the immediate west is London's financial district. Few people actually live there and many pubs, restaurants and lunchtime sandwich shops close early when the bankers and office workers head home. At weekends, it's dead. Further west, around Covent Garden and Soho with neighbouring Chinatown may be your best choice. Easily accessible by the Tube (London Underground). One recommendation nearer to Tower Bridge is on the south side of London Bridge (the next bridge to the west). Borough Market is both London's best food market and also has several good restaurants and street food type places. Check opening times, though. https://boroughmarket.org.uk/visit-us/

For something only recently introduced to China, this ingredient has gathered quite a few names. S: 小红莓; T: 小紅莓 (xiǎo hóng méi, literally 'small red berries'). 酸莓 (suān méi, literally 'sour berries'). 蔓越橘 (màn yuè jú, literally 'creeping fruit'). 蔓越莓 (màn yuè méi, literally 'creeping berry'). I'm talking Vaccinium macrocarpon, the all-American cranberry. Or maybe not so all-American as you think. Introduced around 2013 and the fruit slowly becoming known, the import market was hit by trade tariffs and stalled. Imports from Canada and Chile were unaffected and grew and now cranberries are being grown in China in limited but growing amounts. China grown cranberries It will be interesting to see what happens in the future. Most are sold dried and eaten as such although a lot are used in jams and in baked goods, especially 'cookies'. They're certainly not being eaten as sauce with turkey.

We get these here. In Chinese they are 真姬菇 (zhēn jī gū), which means 'true woman (or true concubine) mushrooms' or 玉皇菇 (yù huáng gū), 'Jade Emperor mushrooms'. There is also a white type called 白玉菇 (bái yù gū), meaning 'white jade mushrooms'. Do you get Jade Gill Mushrooms, (海鲜菇 hǎi xiān gū, literally "seafood mushroom") or 蟹味菇 (xiè wèi gū), crab flavour mushrooms'? They are a variety of the shimeji mushroom. Shimeji normally grow in clusters but when they grow individually they are referred to as jade gill mushrooms. Jade Gill Mushrooms By the way the Japanese for the beech mushrooms is ブナしめじ, buna-shimeji, buna meaning 'beech'. Don't be tempted to try any of these raw. They're not poisonous but very bitter if not cooked. Don't ask me how I know!

Chicken, black bolete, garlic, 美人椒 (měi rén jiāo, beautiful people chilli), ginger, Shaoxing wine and soy sauce. Stir fried South African ice plant with garlic. Rice. 'Beautiful people chilli - 美人椒'

This is a handy thing to have in the store cupboard / fridge, although I prefer to make it myself. It's easy. 上海葱油 (shàng hǎi cōng yóu), Shanghai scallion oil. There are other scallion oils, especially the popular Cantonese version, maybe the only thing where I prefer the Cantonese version to others. The Shanghai version includes too many unnecessary ingredients for me. Besides the obvious oil and scallions, it has soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and sugar. But then, Shanghai is known for its love of soy sauce and sweet flavours. The classic Cantonese version is simply oil and scallions. It is similar to the Vietnamese version, mỡ hành. Here is a recipe from inactive eG member Carolyn Philips, author of All Under Heaven (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). And here is a recipe for the Vietnamese version. As you will see it's almost identical. What to do with it? Add it to to noodles, fried rice, salads, stir fries. It makes be a garnish for all kinds of savoury dishes, Asian or not.

Despite having been brought up in Scotland, I never developed a taste for its traditional oatmeal porridge despite being surrounded by the very fields the relevant cereal Avena sativa grows in. I do however love Scottish oatcakes. Imagine my surprise on arriving in China many years later and finding that oatmeal porridge is even a thing here. A big thing, in fact, especially among those of more advanced years. Every supermarket carries oatmeal, porridge for the making of. Known as S: 燕麦: T: 燕麥 (yàn mài), oats have been grown here for thousands of years, mainly in the northwest of the the country. Most goes to animal feed and other non-human nutrition uses. Most oats for human consumption that I see now comes from Australia. Chinese company; Australian oats. At the same time, China is a major exporter, presumably of fodder oats. Nearly all oats for human consumption ends up in S: 燕麦粥: T: 燕麥粥 (yàn mài zhōu) porridge, with a little going to baked goods etc. Quaker Oats have had a presence in China since 2015 and Oatly, the Swedish fake milk pushers since 2021. I'm sticking to my oatcakes and cheese made from real cow juice.

@Maison Rustique @lindag @Katie Meadow @BeeZee I revisited this topic today to find a picture I posted and remembered you guys planning or thinking about making these. Just wondering how it went and if you repeated it.

Lamb with both cumin seed and powder, chili, coriander leaf, Chinese chives, asparagus and cordyceps militaris mushrooms, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce. Served with rice.

It's the end of civilisation. I've just discovered the creeping pestilence of veganism has reached out and defiled the greatness that is 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn)! Is nothing sacred? Are they insane?

China is extremely proud of its Great Wall, taking all foreign dignitaries to visit and also promoting it to every tourist. It is surely one of the most defining images of a country along with France's Eiffel Tower, the USA's Statue of Liberty and the UK's Tower Bridge. Great Wall - Public Domain image What they never mention is that their 'great' wall was never finished and was a total failure in meeting its objective. Or that the bit most tourists visit (including the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1986) was built in the 1970s by the People's Liberation Army, the original having been repurposed by local villagers to built their privies. Mrs Queen on Great Wall 1986. PD Image But we do have the benefit of knowing what the builders had for lunch and dinner. Archeological studies show they lived predominantly on boiled rice and pickled cabbage. When Ghengis Khan, the Mongol leader easily breached the wall they were building to keep him and others out, he found the pickled cabbage and mistook it for a weapon of mass destruction, so immediately set out for Europe, taking it with him to subdue the barbarians. In what is now Germany, they translated his name for the weapon, ᠬᠦᠴᠢᠯ ᠨᠣᠭᠣᠭ᠎ᠠ ᠃ into their tongue as 'sauerkraut', meaning 'sour vegetable', but with 'kraut' usually meaning 'cabbage' the only vegetable available in Germany at the time apart from sausages. Something of a coincidence because the Chinese Khan left behind also translated it. Because they didn't speak German, they translated it into Mandarin as 酸菜 (suān cài), literally sour vegetable, but with 'cài' usually meaning 'cabbage' the only vegetable available in Beijing at the time. This 'cài' is the origin of the pseudo-Cantonese 'choy' used in the West in 'bok choy' etc. Dongbei Suan Cai Hearing that this concoction was employed in wall building, the Germans, anticipating that they may one day have to build a wall themselves, adopted the dish as their own. The Chinese, meanwhile anticipating that they might one day have to repair their wall to show off to passing queens, also kept up the production of sour cabbages. S: 东北酸菜; T: 東北酸菜 (dōng běI suān cài) is sometimes called 'Chinese sauerkraut' although, to be more accurate, sauerkraut is 'German 酸菜'. Dongbei means East-North and refers to the area which used to be called Manchuria on account of the Manchu people, another group who ignored the wall built to keep them out and took over China, conquering Beijing in 1644. Whether they used cabbages or not, I don't know. In the 1930s, Japan also ignored the wall and took over Manchuria until 1945 which turned people against them and so, in revenge, the communists changed the name so the Japanese couldn't find their way back. The Chinese kept making stinking cabbage though, rather defeating that subterfuge. Beijing smells of cabbage. Follow your nose. And still to this day, Dong Bei Sour Cabbage is made by home cooks and in factories to be sold all over China. It consists of napa cabbage, salt and water and is fermented by ambient yeasts. Commercial varieties add sodium sorbate as a preservative. $1 USD / 500g. Dongbei Suancai Down in the south of China, not wanting to be thought of as cabbage heads, the people make their 酸菜 from mustard greens instead. And no, the Great Wall can't be seen from space although the cabbage can probably be smelled.

The first time I ate Chinese food was in the 1960s in Scotland. This was in an 'authentic' restaurant above a butcher's shop in a small mining town. I forget what I ate but guess it was as authentic as Japanese haggis. I do remember, however being served a plate of what were described as 'prawn crackers', the prefered term in the UK to this day. Every Chinese meal I ate in the UK thereafter and there were many, especially when I was a student in London, came with the obligatory prawn crackers, right up to when I left the UK in the 90s and moved to China. Since then, I've only ever been served a prawn / shrimp cracker / chip once and it was literally one, resting soggily on top of a plate of fried rice. Breaking news! Prawn crackers / shrimp chips aren't Chinese! They're from Indonesia where they're called keripik udang. Only in very recent times, it has become possible to buy these here where they are S: 虾片; T 蝦片 (Mandarin: xiā piàn; Cantonese: haa1 pin3). Strangely, I can only find them on my delivery app, not in supermarkets. Not that I want them. They are mainly sold precooked in bags just like potato crisps/chips. Most are imported from Indonesia but I've also seen them from Thailand where they are ข้าวเกรียบกุ้ง (khao kriap kung) and Vietnam as bánh phồng tôm. We can also source manufactured but uncooked discs, again usually imported as above, although there are a couple of Chinese brands. They come in two varieties: plain white and multi-coloured. These are made from tapioca, MSG and maybe prawns /shrimp if you're lucky. Cheaper versions are made using powdered shells or prawn extract, whatever that may be. Whatever you call them, they are a high calorie starter and not particularly healthy. What chips are? Images from Meituan food delivery app listings.

I'll mention mushrooms once more because I don't know who buys this, or why, but it's available everywhere in multiple brands. With such a wide range of fungi available, what possesses them? S: 香菇酱; T: 香菇醬 (xiāng gū jiàng) is industrial paste made using the most common mushroom here - 香菇 (xiāng gū) in Mandarin Chinese; hoeng1 gu1 in Cantonese; しいたけ or 椎茸 in Japanese; Lentinula erodes in Latin; and known in English as 'shiitake' from the Japanese. These are mixed with oil, doubanjiang (broad bean sauce), sweet bean sauce, fermented black bean, chilli, sesame, salt and sugar - all standard pantry items here. What people do with the stuff is a mystery; no one I know admits to using it. Pretty jar though. This one costs 15.90元 / $2.30 USD for 230 grams. Pass.

Yesterday, I mentioned in the Dinner 2024 topic that between them my local supermarket and wet market had 18 different types of mushroom. That was just the fresh mushrooms; the dried type would have taken it higher. One type I didn't buy is found wild in Tibet and parts of Yunnan province. This is དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ། (yarsagumba) in Tibetan; S: 冬虫夏草; T: 冬蟲夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo) in Chinese; Cordyceps sinensis or Ohphiocordyceps sinensis in Latin; caterpillar fungus in English. Cordyceps Sinensis in my local supermarket This is a fungus that attracts scare-mongering click bait on the internet and idiotic headlines in the print media. 'Zombie fungus' 'The Most Terrifying Fungus You've Ever Seen' I'm told that there is a PlayStation game, "The Last of Us" which is nonsensically based on this fungus potentially wiping out mankind. According to the more sober OED, this is : "A genus of ascomycetous fungi of the family Cordycipitaceae, members of which are parasitic chiefly on insects, replacing the host tissue with mycelium and producing prominent elongated fruiting bodies. Also: a fungus of (or previously included in) this genus; esp. Ophiocordyceps sinensis, used medicinally and in Chinese cookery." Sounds tasty. Not. Yes, basically these fungi take over the host's body eventually killing it and sprouting out of its head. The Chinese name literally means "winter insect; summer grass" reflecting the change. If you are an insect, get worried. Each of the hundreds of cordyceps varieties only attacks one specific species of insect. The main reason I didn't buy them is a) I didn't want to b) They are hideously expensive. Between $6 and $10 USD or more for just one specimen the size of a matchstick c) They taste of almost nothing They are reputed to bring medical benefits but, as usual, this is largely unsubstantiated by anything so inconvenient as actual scientific evidence. However, I do occasionally buy their close cousin, Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps militaris (fresh) These are cultivated but kept away from the ants whose bodies they would prey on in the wild. They are supposedly imbued with the same therapeutic qualities of their near relations but in weaker form. These are cheap, very mild in taste at best but make for an attractive garnish on the right dish. but are more usually included in chicken or pork bones soups for their supposed health qualities. When I was hospitalised last year, every soup contained them.

Well, this didn't go to plan. It was meant to be finished with the coriander leaf and Chinese chives I 'definitely' had in the fridge but didn't. Despite the supermarket and the wet market I visited today between them having 18 different types of mushroom, I picked the plain old white buttons. Hey, they're exotic round here! Anyway I stir fried them with shrimp (bought live and wriggling), garlic, ginger, fish sauce, Shaoxing and S: 辣豆瓣酱; T 辣豆瓣醬 (là dòu bàn jiàng), Spicy Sichuan fava bean sauce. The shrimp shells and heads are in the freezer for stock sometime later.

This webpage disagrees. In fact, it disagrees so much, it disagrees with itself, too. But interesting discussion. https://thecookingfacts.com/is-beef-shank-the-same-as-shin/

As I said. The fresh buckwheat noodles I pictured are pure buckwheat in the sense that they don't contain wheat. The dried are not.

I think you mean buckwheat is 'not' a grass. 100% buckwheat noodles can't work; they need some starch component to come together.

I'm not allergic, but I don't particularly like it. However, it is very interesting. I was surprised to learn it is not only used in China, but originated here.

This grain is not a grain; it's a pseudo-grain in that it isn't a grass but the seed of a flowering plant. It originated in SW China but is now grown around the world. Both its English and Chinese names are somewhat misleading. I'm talking about buckwheat, which isn't related at all to wheat or to buck in any of its many meanings. The 'buck' part is a corruption of 'beech' and the 'wheat' part is related to 'white'. It isn't beech or white either! It has etymons in most Germanic languages. The Chinese name S: 荞麦; T: 蕎麥 (qiáo mài) also includes the character 麦/麥, meaning 'wheat'. Buckwheat is a friend to those with celiac disease as it is gluten free, but see the warning below. Should anyone visiting China need to know, celiac disease is S; 乳糜泻; T: 乳糜瀉 (rǔ mí xiè). Two types of buckwheat are grown. Fagopyrum esculentum, common buckwheat, mainly in the north including Inner Mongolia; and F. Tartaricum, Tartary buckwheat, in the southwest including Yunnan and Tibet. The latter is now being called Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat by the wellness wankers and paleo plonkers trying to cash in on the so-called Himalayan pink salt craze. The grains are ground into S: 荞麦面粉; T; 荞麦麵粉 (qiáo mài miàn fěn), buckwheat flour, which is used to make S: 馒头; T: 饅頭 (mán tou), steamed buns Buckwheat flour Buckwheat flour Steamed buckwheat buns and S: 荞麦挂面; T: 荞麦掛麵 (qiáo mài guà miàn), buckwheat noodles. Dried buckwheat noodles Fresh buckwheat noodles The noodles are used as any other and can be served in soups or fried. Warning: Be careful. Many brands of buckwheat noodles also contain wheat, so aren't gluten-free. Pure buckwheat noodles are available. Check the ingredients list. If you see 麦 listed without the preceding 荞, then that's almost certainly wheat. If you see S: 小麦; T: 小麥 (xiǎo mài), that's definitely wheat. In Yunnan province, the Yi ethnic minority make a type of buckwheat flatbread called 粑粑 (bā bā). Yi ba ba flatbread Do not confuse this with 糖油粑粑 (táng yóu bā bā), a sweet sticky rice snack made from glutinous rice and honey in Hunan. And, again, buckwheat turns up in congee mixes For more on the history of buckwheat in China, see here. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-017-0649-4

The UK's Independent Television News (ITV) is one of the few foreign news sites not blocked by Beijing's paranoid censors. Unfortunately, it is semi-literate at best. Typos and downright errors are the norm. They routinely use 'infer' when they mean 'imply', one of my many pet hates. This garbage assaulted me this morning before my first coffee. Unforgivable! "William Maughan keeps 30,000 free range hens near Darlington. Like all British farmers his birds are vaccinated against salmonella." All farmers aren't vaccinated! All farmers' birds are! Which is what they meant to convey. Grrr! https://www.itv.com/news/2024-03-19/polish-chicken-imports-may-be-banned-as-salmonella-cases-rise

My breakfast was a B囗T because I forgot to buy L.

I regularly eat ants, as reported here. https://forums.egullet.org/topic/139109-eating-jiminy-cricket-insects-as-food/page/3/#comment-2405720

The next ingredient is an ancient grain. There is archaeological evidence of it being eaten in China in Neolithic times and it was cultivated at least 7,500 years ago. It was eaten even before China stumbled across rice. Husked but uncooked rice is 大米 (dà mǐ) in Chinese with 大 meaning 'large'. Here, I want to look at 小米 (xiǎo mǐ) with 小 meaning 'small'. These sizes are referring to the grain's relative dimensions. Millet is a small grained grass of which there are many types. Two main types are commonly harvested in China: broomcorn millet (Paniceum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica), the latter being, by far, the dominant species. Each species comes in two varieties. Besides regular millet, we also have 粘小米 (nián xiǎo mǐ), glutinous millet. Regular millet contains 20% amylose and 80% amylopectin, and glutinous millet contains 100% amylopectin which makes it sticky when cooked. Instead of cooking it, it is mainly used in the making alcoholic beverages including beer. The regular millet is, like sorghum, mainly used in congees, either on its own or in mixed grain types. It is also occasionally used in some baked cakes and cookies/biscuits.