liuzhou

Those are ubiquitous here. Not for sheet pans but for lifting steam pans from steamers etc. Anything hot and with a lip to grab hold of. Other than my girlfriend.

We've been talking about home pickling. I've been doing it for over 50 years. People have been doing it for centuries; millennia.

Agreed. I pickle young ginger slices as served in many Japanese sushi restaurants as a tongue cleanser. No unpronounceable ingredients involved; just rice vinegar and salt. Stays in good condition for months, not that a batch often lasts often; I eat it too often! I see no reason why you couldn't do the same with onions of any colour.

As I mentioned earlier, for baking I do wait until they are black and almost semi-liquid. Fortunately, I can buy them in that condition or close to it.

They do chunky ones too. I chose these deliberately. 串 (chuàn) are from Chinese far western Muslim province. The Chinese character is a clear pictogram. They are very different from the Greco-Turkish type (mostly Cypriot) you find in England. They are cumin and chilli heavily spiced, whether "stingy" or chunky. Usually the lamb meat is interspersed with chunks of sheep's tail fat.

A delivery lunch. A bit of a screw-up on the vendor's part. I ordered 5 lamb skewers and 5 beef skewers, but they delivered ten lamb. The fries came with tomato ketchup sachets but no salt. As usual. No worries, I have plenty of salt. Four types, in fact. I didn't use the ketchup. Never do with fries.

香港式蛋挞 (xiāng gǎng shì dàn tà), Hong Kong style egg tarts. Not to be confused with 澳门式蛋挞 (ào mén shì dàn tà), Macau egg tarts And certainly not 鸡蛋布丁 (jī dàn bù dīng), egg pudding.

Yes. For banana bread I usually wait till my local supermarket decide the unsold bananas are beyond redemption and give them away for a token payment.

Just to be clearer, the name I gave is the name used in Thailand for the specific cultivar known internationally as pisang awak . Also, the transliteration I gave is the standard Thai. The English name is not indicator of nationality of origin any more than 'English muffins' are from England. It is an indicator of the cultivar. They are grown in many countries. Of course, Thailand has other banana varieties including Cavendish. However, กล้วยน้ำว้า (kl̂wy n̂ảŵā) is by far the most common.

I would.

Thai bananas (Thai: กล้วยน้ำว้า (kl̂wy n̂ảŵā) but more commonly known as pisang awak, the Malay name in most countries) are eaten both raw and sour as well as sweet and yellow all over SE Asia, including here in southern China. I have often made successful banana bread with them when fully ripe to the point of over ripe. By the way Thai banana flowers are a delicious and commonly used vegetable here and in Vietnam. Also, grilled sticky rice Thai banana cakes are a common street food in parts of Vietnam.

I can think of a number of metals that cannot possibly be made razor sharp. Let's see you sharpen a mercury knife.

Which one is correct?

薄饼 (báo bǐng), literally ‘griddle cake’ is a pancake rather than what is normally considered ‘bread’. They certainly aren’t made in bread machines. Note 刨冰 (bào bīng) means ‘shaved ice’, a popular summer dessert so searching Google etc for ‘bao bing’ will return more recipes for that than for flatbreads. Just to confuse things further 抱病 (bào bìng) means ‘to be ill’ which you should try to avoid! The only flatbread I regularly come across in China is 馕 (náng), a variation on the Middle Eastern naan. These these are baked in commercial ovens and don’t use bread machines, either. They do, however usually contain yoghurt.

That one is from Domino's China, too. Fruit pizzas are not at all uncommon here. It was a limited edition for 七夕(qī xī), the QiXi festival, China's equivalent of Valentine's day, which was yesterday. The Chinese writing doesn't mention the banana, but it looks like that. It is no longer available. What stunned me most about the one I posted was the incongruity of the volcano* cake on a savoury pepperoni pizza. *The literal translation of the term they use.

Urgent Newsflash! Warning! Danger! New is breaking that some deviant extra-terrestrial employed by Domino’s Pizza has decided that it would be a good idea to dump a chocolate lava cake onto what appears to be a pepperoni pizza! Available at branches in China! Obviously some terrorist plan to cause mayhem and chaos among the masses! Fortunately for me, and the good decent people of Liuzhou, there are, as yet, no Domino’s outlets here in town. They are mainly only in the large cities, especially Shanghai. Take suitable precautions! Biohazard suits are recommended for all humans and their pets. P.S. I'm hoping those while things are cyanide pills to put the unwary out of their misery. .

Sadly, the only anchovies I can find here (apart from other fish mistranslated) are these. These are Italian and not intrinsically bad but I like my anchovies packed in salt, not oil. I did buy a few cans of the salted last time I was in the UK (2019) and smuggled them into China but they now are long gone.

You know I'm always super polite!

The best pizza I’ve eaten in China was here in town. Many years ago, a Liuzhou native who had lived in S. Korea for many years, retired, sold his pizza shops in Korea and came home to spend his final years. As a hobby, he opened one pizzeria here in town. It was beautiful with an open kitchens where you could see him and his staff making then tossing pizza dough into perfect discs, adding mozzarella they made each morning and adding sensible toppings you would find in Italy. S. Korea knows good pizza. Sadly few people went and, after struggling for a year, he gave up. The premises are now a baby clothes store. A month or so later, Pizza Hut opened and people were lining up round the block to eat crap pizzas shipped in from Guangzhou, 500 km (311 miles away) away, and reheated. I wept. Yesterday, I found this on a delivery listing. Seoul crispy fried chicken pizza! What it has that relates to Korea or Seoul in particular remains a mystery. Obligatory Kewpie squiggles, as usual. Not in Korea. 괜찮아요!!

Not only the US. Pretty much every pizza place in the UK features their version of a 'supreme'. It's usually just a mix of pretty much all the toppings they happen to carry. The only thing hidden under that pile of cheese seems to be the pizza base.

Yes. Happens here a lot, too. Especially with steak restaurants. I have also encountered the permanently missing ingredients turning out to be something they'd never even seen.

I can only go by the customer's review which discloses the name they give it. That person described it as a very simple pizza. I strongly suspect that the store just saw the English name somewhere without knowing what it meant and decided to use it. I've seen that happening before in other so-called 'western' restaurants.

This was more a brunch but I'm putting here as it was closer to breakfast time than lunchtime (just). Pork wontons in broth with lettuce. Apologies for dreadful image. I tried every which way tov make it look better.

This, I'm told, is described in store, but as usual not on the the delivery app. As "Supreme Pizza"! I am struggling to think of anything that looks less like a 'supreme pizza' or supreme anything else! They are clearly delusional.

I've never had ube anything but vanilla is a favourite. Not keen on chocolate ice cream, either.