liuzhou

Do you get to go back often? It is almost 50 years since I visited Sri Lanka but the memories are stiil strong. I'd love to go back.

Why do you imagine that? The water in most tourist areas is clean. The only time I've ever gotten sick from food in a restaurant in China was from ice cream in an American restaurant in Xi'an twenty-eight years ago.

I wasn't talking about iffy drinking water. They bring these things to use to sterilise vegetables and meat. Trying marching into a restaurant in China with your steriliser and solution to clean the food before the chef cooks it simply isn't going to happen. And 99% of tourists have no cooking facilities in their accommodation.

Some short-term western visitors / tourists to China bring those sterilising machines (probably made and sold much more cheaply here) and solution for babies' feeding bottles to clean vegetables. They mostly don't have babies. How or why they expect to be washing vegetables in restaurants is never explained.

Is this funny or sad? Probably both.

翘嘴鱼 (qiáo zuǐ yú, literally ‘warped mouth fish'), Predatory carp, Chanodichthys erythropterus is a new one to me. Native to rivers and lakes across eastern Asia from Mongolia to Vietnam, these are now farmed in limited numbers. They are a species of carp, usually sold at from 17 to 27 cm / 6½ to 10½ inches in length, but can grow much larger. The record is 102 cm 40 inches. Carnivorous, they feed on insects, crustaceans and smaller fishes. Tasty. Usually steamed. I can only buy them online; I guess most go to the restaurant trade. A 750g specimen shipped to me live sells for ¥110 / $15.20 USD.

ආයුබෝවන් සහ සාදරයෙන් පිළිගනිමු வணக்கம் மற்றும் வரவேற்கிறோம் Hello and Welcome! Your small island nation is one of the most beautiful I have visited and I have wonderful memories of the food. Seafood and coconut - what's not to love? Like others, I am looking forward to your participation here.

@Darienne Thanks for reviving this. It prompted me to order some besan / chickpea flour. In the past I had to order it from India, but found some in Xinjiang, China's westernmost province. India is actually nearer to me but import duties and transport make theirs more expensive. It took five days to get here from Xinjiang, but arrived this morning. Onion bhajis are on my horizon. Two 500g bags was the minimum order - no problem. $4 USD for the kilo, including delivery from 1,830 miles away.

In my account about the water where I live, I somehow forgot to mention that the city's water has been declared by the central government in Beijing to be China's cleanest for each of the last three years. What criteria they base that on, I don't know but it is a matter of civic pride.

Only partially. Like all of these pronunciation systems it take no account of regional or other accent differences. Hanoi and HCMC are often very different, but it's written the same. Chinese is written the same no matter what dialect is used in speaking. People often find themselves unable to communicate verbally, so pass notes or 'draw' characters in the air to make their meaning clear. I usually explain it by using the examples of numbers: 8 is used to represent the same number all over the world but is pronounced extremely differently from place to place. Chinese characters and Vietnamese diacritics are the same on a smaller scale.

Yes, indeed but the literal meaning is still baked. Not the 'in use' meaning.

Very. Bánh mì simply means bread (literally bánh is baked goods and mì is wheat.) Bánh is used for many things - cakes, tarts, doughnuts, pies etc. Wedding cakes are bánh cưới. The sandwich is more correctly 'bánh mì thịt' but usually abbreviated - in context it is usually obvious what is meant. Now, if the Vietnamese could just sort out their pronunciation system, it would help. Infinitely more confusing than any sandwich!

It looks the same as the one I bought in France 45 years ago, except mine is the classic orange colour. I'd need to measure mine to be 100% sure but it's in my daughter's kitchen on the other side of the planet.

I'm not a chocolate lover, never mind a chocolatier. so I very rarely venture into this part of eG. However, I thought this may be of interest to at least some of you. (That said, you may already know and I'm just miles behind the times, but no one has mentioned it that I can see.) Scientists develop method of making healthier, more sustainable chocolate

I will add to this by quoting @KennethT The same in south Asia and many other places. Always get reliable local information from qualified sources!

This issue came up again yesterday in the Dinner 2024 topic. I was asked by @KennethTabout my local water supply here in China. In general, the advice given is not to drink the local tap water anywhere in China. Few people, including me, ever do. When I first came here (1996), I didn't even brush my teeth with tap water, but was never concerned about washing vegetables with it (not logical, I know). I would use bottled water for teeth and for drinking. I soon gave up the teeth related usage. As someone mentioned on the thread yesterday, people do get acclimatised to the local water and less prone to negative reactions. So, when I get visitors from Europe or North America, I advise them to stick to water for teeth cleaning and to only drink bottled purified water. Ice cubes in bars are made from purified water and safe. Local Chinese friends simply don't believe me when I say the water in the Uk is generally safe to drink. A couple of disgraceful water pollition scandals in Britain in recent weeks have only confirmed their views. In more rural settings in China , people always boil the local water. In fact, trains and hotels always have supplies of boiled water available in samovars on trains and vacuum flasks in hotel rooms. Many people even in cities still hold on to their flasks. I found one in this rented apartment when I moved in. 4 litre vacuum flask I can buy purified water in large (19 litre) bottles for use with this type of dispenser – most people have them at home, as do I refills are cheap and delivered to the door. Additionally, I buy in these 555ml bottles for convenient portability. I buy in boxes of 24, again delivered to my door. China has very little ‘mineral water’ and no sparkling / carbonated water, although imported Perrier, Evian, San Pellegrino etc are available, though expensive at up to five times the price of local brands. But nearly all the local waters are ‘purified’. The only time I’ve had a problems with water, albeit a serious one, was in 2012 as reported here in an article I wrote for a Beijing media company. The ‘problem’ lasted less than a month. Yizhou is a small city in Hechi Prefecture in the north west of Guangxi. It is a sleepy sort of place which has yet to benefit from the development being carried out elsewhere in Guangxi. It is popular with the locals in summer as it lies in beautiful karst scenery similar to that of Yangshuo, but definitely much less touristy. There are many riverside fish restaurants, but most popular are the boat rides along the Longjiang River, some of which drop you off at “minority villages’ where you can partake in mock marriage ceremonies. I’ve been “married” there more than once. Never saw the girls again. The first village I visited was actually built as a movie set and no one really lived there. Apart from that, nothing much really happens there, although in 2008, it made international newspapers when twenty people were killed in a chemical factory explosion. Now it has hit the headlines again. On January 15 2012, alerted by the discovery of hundreds of dead fish in cages in a reservoir on the river, local authorities tested the water and discovered cadmium levels higher than the permitted safety level. Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal used in batteries, electroplating and in some industrial paints. Exposure can lead to kidney failure or cancer. On Thursday January 19, the Hechi government issued a statement saying that the cadmium level at Luodong Hydropower Station at the river’s lower reaches was 0.0247 mlligrams per litre, three times higher than the official limit. Other reports also mentioned that arsenic levels were above permitted levels. The authorities warned local residents not to drink the water and ordered dams to be opened to dilute the chemicals and hopefully bring levels back to normal. They began dosing the river with dissolved aluminium chloride in an attempt to neutralise the contaminants. At the same time, they started digging wells and arranging other alternative water sources. Investigations later revealed that the pollution was caused by a discharge by Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company, which operates upstream. After flowing past Yizhou, the river meanders west before joining the much bigger Liujiang river which then flows south to the first major city in its path — Liuzhou, Guangxi’s industrial centre. The river loops through the city centre and is the venue for international water sports events etc. Thereafter, it flows south east, eventually joining the Pearl River. Several years ago, it was possible to take a ferry from Liuzhou to Guangzhou, but no longer. The news from Yizhou also trickled down to Liuzhou over the Chinese New Year weekend and Monday’s New Years Day. I first read about an outbreak of panic buying of bottled water on Tuesday January 24 but I visited the city’s three largest supermarkets that day and saw no sign of anything unusual. By Thursday, the news had reached the wire services and appeared on the BBC news site. By then, people really were panic buying and they still are. This morning (Friday 27), I visited the two largest supermarkets in the city centre. Nancheng department store had completely run out of bottled water but in Lianhua Century Market, people were queuing up with stacks of boxes of bottled water piled up in their trolleys. My local corner shop, also operated by Lianhua, is completely out of water, too. It is only today that the local media are beginning to report anything about this, perhaps out of their usual reluctance to print bad news, or perhaps because everyone is still on holiday. Liuzhou authorities are saying that pollutant levels in the Liujiang are well within safety limits and urging people to behave calmly. At the same time they say they are monitoring bottled water supplies and trying to ensure that there are no illegal price hikes as happened in March of last year when people idiotically began panic buying salt to supposedly prevent radiation poisoning in the wake of the Japanese nuclear accident. There is a long tradition of swimming in the Liujiang. Every day, no matter how cold, elderly men and women can be seen slowly swim long distances up and down the river, trailing their clothes behind them in floating boxes. Today, when I walked by the riverside, there were none. And I don’t suppose the locals will be buying much fish this week. Update: At 23:36 on Friday January 27 2012, Liuzhou officials sent this message to all cell phones in the city. Don’t worry about your tap water. It’s safe. If it becomes necessary to control the water supply, we will give 24 hours notice via the media. 温馨提示：只要水龙头拧开出的水，必定是合标的安全用水，请大家放心使用 在控制供水之前24小时，将通过新闻媒体提醒您储存好备用水。【代柳州市应急指挥部信息发布组发】 Now, I just stick to drinking beer.

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.