liuzhou

Pork tenderloin slices marinated in Shaoxing with garlic, ginger, chilli and fermented black beans. Stir fried with shiitake and black skin chicken fir mushrooms, a native mushroom to these parts - 黑皮鸡枞菌 (hēi pí jī cōng jūn), Oudemansiella raphanipes. A splash of soy sauce and chopped coriander leaf and garlic chives to finish. Served with rice, of course.

Bingo!

No. No scraping involved.

Close but what? And why a spoon instead of just a grille to strain?

Here's one for you. Obviously some kind of spoon but for a very specific use. Don't let the German fool you. As ever, only jerks who want to spoil the fun use Google image search.

I often serve non-Asian soups in Asian bowls. They're the only bowls I have! I can't find what I call 'pearl barley' here. Barley yes, but it's used to make barley tea (a Tibetan specialty) and is pre-roasted. It is also toasted and ground before selling as flour to make the Tibetan staple, Tsampa. neither are what I want in my soups. I'd love a bowl of Scotch broth -it's been decades!

I had just bought a new jar of white miso when this article popped up on the Guardian this morning extolling the delights of miso in its many forms. Titled "The miso miracle: how to use the ingredient that makes every dish delicious", there's little new for the already converted, but makes a good read just the same. It is easily available here in all its traditional forms. Not surprising really - it originated in China and was carried to Japan in the 6th century CE. Unfortunately, I've never found dried bonito, katsuobushi (かつおぶし 鰹節) here and the supply I smuggled back from Japan a while ago is long gone. I can buy powdered dashi soup mix, but I have standards*! I do use the miso in western and Chinese dishes, though. Especially stir-fries and soups. it is the secret ingredient in my mushrom and seaweed soup which some of my Chinese friends ask me to make. *Actually, some a few are surprisingly good for what they are.

Welcome. Never having been to New Zealand (although I have been to the old one, Zeeland), I too would like to know to about NZ food, especially indigenous foods as opposed to adapted European or other cuisines. Should you wish and have time to share.

Working lunch. Real aged Spanish Manchego and real Scottish oatcakes. Real good.

Traditional Cumberland sausage is a protected species under British and EU law (Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)). It is made in Cumbria from chopped pork as opposed the more common minced/ground pork. It must be 80%-98% meat and flavoured with both white and black pepper, thyme, sage, mutmeg and cayenne. It is noted for not being separated into links, but comes in long coils and is sold by length. Traditional Cumberland Sausages can be made without these restrictions from almost anything, but cannot use the word 'traditional' or the PGI tag. Cumberland chipolatas is meaningless. Caveat Emptor.

I replenished my wasabi today by purchasing another root / rhizome. With it this time came this oroshigane (おろし金 or 下ろし金 ), also known as oroshiki (下ろし器). It is a metal wasabi grater of the type which have widely replaced the traditional sharkskin variety - same no kawa orishikin (サメの皮おろし金) as shown above. It is a fine grater but still rougher than the sharkskin type. No holes as found in western graters. I'll use both depending on application.

皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), Century Egg and Lean Pork Congee. Industrial strength black Yunnan Coffee.

This joy to behold is my new 30cm cast iron griddle. It came with a pile of tools, all of which I already have and a pair of premature baby-sized heat resistant gloves. Ah well. Happy griddling shall ensue.

Another day, another 6-pack, another ‘gift’. My beer purveyor delivery today came complete with this 俄罗斯风味牛筋肠 (é luó sī fēng wèi niú jīn cháng), Russian-style beef tendon sausage. I don’t know what the Russians are feeding their cattle but the ingredients list suggests they could be wiped out by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or worse. Ingredients list as translated by my cell phone. Binned. The rats can have it. Them being wiped out suits me just fine.

That doesn't look at all bad for having been served on a plane.

Yes, @KennethTusually gives his full report when he is home and rested.

because you're only searching this topic!

Not my experience. Today, I searched for pomfret and got results going back over 20 years.

Today, I fancied me some tuna to go with my fresh 'real' wasabi, so I searched my food delivery app for 金枪鱼 (jīn qiāng yú) which is the Mandarin for tuna. To my momentary confusion, this image for a whole 'tuna' came up! Clearly, this is no tuna. What it is, is sloppy mislabelling by ignorant, undertrained employees in Walmart. Not the employees' fault. This specimen is the similarly sounding 金鲳鱼 (jīn chāng yú), golden pomfret, a fine fish but not even closely related to tuna. In the end, I bought some donkey leg meat instead, as you do in these circumstances.

Balham market, South London, 1950s. An important market in the day.