liuzhou

One of the unanswered questions concerned salt with members wondering what types of salt are used, if any. While a lot of Chinese cuisine's salt content is derived from soy and other sauces, salt is most certainly also used. What types? The same as anywhere else. Refined table salt (S: 咸盐 T: 鹹鹽 - xián yán) with additives to enable easy pouring is most common. Available everywhere. Refined salt Locally sourced sea salt (S: 海盐; T: 海鹽- hǎi yán) is also widely available in most supermarkets. I often buy this low sodium salt (S: 低钠盐; T: 低鈉盐 - dī nà yán) in my local store. and we even have English Maldon salt imported via Hong Kong. I forget the Chinese name. The Himalayan pink salt (S: 喜马拉雅玫瑰盐; T: 喜馬拉雅玫瑰盐 - xǐ mǎ lā yǎ méi guī yán) scam is perpetuated here, too. All in all nothing much to say about salt.

If there's one thing better than Chinese ingredients, it's free Chinese ingredients. Today, I ordered some lamb for delivery. It came promptly accompanied by this free bag of S: 调味料; T: 調味料 (tiáo wèi liào) which means 'seasoning'. This particular seasoning is 狗牛羊兔香料 (gǒu niú yáng tù xiāng liào) which means dog, beef, lamb, rabbit spices. They mean it is suitable for use with any of these meats; not all of them in a dish together! It consists of sand ginger, star anise, black cardamom, cloves, cassia bark and dried tangerine peel. I won't be using it with my lamb. I already have another plan. It will turn up in the dinner topic tomorrow.

This topic is, I think, due a revival. It was a great idea but it is 18 years since the OP, hzrt8w, started it and many things have changed. The OP hasn't posted for a decade and although he started off strong, posting 10 ingredients over a one week period, he then stopped for unknown reasons. He was undoubtedly very knowledgeable and a valuable member but that knowledge rarely ventured beyond Cantonese cuisine. And that often in its American interpretation. Over the years, regional Chinese cuisine has become better known and ingredients once impossible or difficult to obtain outside of China are now readily available in many places. Difficulties in the past may account for a couple of anomolies in early posts. The Shaoxing wine in the first post is not from Shaoxing, but is a Taiwanese brand. Presumably, that is what was more easily located in California in 2006. A more recent, dedicated topic on Shaoxing wine is here. The doubanjiang shown is also a Cantonese version, not the original Sichuan version. While Taiwanese Shaoxing is not so different from the real thing, Cantonese doubanjiang is very different from Sichuanese. As described, the Cantonese version is made from soy beans. Sichuan doubanjiang is made from fava beans. It is also aged longer and is usually considerably spicier. The topic continues with lots of questions not all of which got answered. There are a couple to which I know the answers but missed at the time - e.g. the mysterious 'Chinese potatoes'. Unfortunately, the questioners have long since stopped posting so the answers may no longer be required. If they are, please ask again. Some questions may not have been answered due to linguistic difficulties in understanding the transcriptions used. Mandarin has an official transcription system, Pinyin but other Chinese varieties, including Cantonese and Toishanese don't. So, some people make up their own. Sometimes decipherable; often not. Also, even in Mandarin, often the only way to be sure is to see the Chinese characters; not always possible, I realise. Moving forward, I will give both the SImplified Chinese names used in mainland China and the Traditional Chinese used in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and among a large but rapidly shrinking proportion of the Chinese diaspora. If I only post one set of characters then the simplified and traditional are the same. I will give common Cantonese and other local names when relevant, if and when I know them. Please note only approx 4.5% of Chinese people speak Cantonese. I will not be following the original model for layout but will try to include all the information available to me.

I don't know but it seems to me to be mostly aimed at selling the soil testing kit advertised at the end of the article (for which they earn a commission.)

You beat me to it. I've done this successfully on my balcony despite my very ungreen fingers. I don't have any growing at the moment following a house move but now this topic has reminded me, I'll start again.

Final news. Liuzhou authorities just released an official report stating that the city saw over 6 million visitors over the past week. Given that all overnight stays in hotels etc are registered with the police, the figures are probably fairly accurate.

Although I started this topic and have had more than my fair share to contribute to it recently, I always feel disturbed when I see it revived. Wishing you a speedy recovery @Katie Meadow and sorry to read of your pitiful sustenance during your incarceration. I will say that it was the medical staff who kept me sane during my four hospital stays last year. I actually missed them after I was discharged last time. Not usually anything to miss about hospital stays.

In 2012, Liuzhou held an event they titled "10,000 People Eat Luosifen". There weren't 10,000 people in attendance; numbers can be a bit fluid in Chinese. It just meant 'a lot'. However, it may have been prophetic. Thousands of people have been visiting over the last week's holiday for the Chinese New Year, specifically to eat luosifen and other local specialties. Today, the stores selling luosifen which I passed were full, but the 3 - 4 hour wait lines had gone. Damn! I had vaguely planned to go out wearing my commemorative baseball cap from the 2012 event and sell it to the highest bidder. There can't be many still surviving - I'm not the baseball cap type, so mine has seldom been worn. I'm sure it's a desirable collectors' item now and these idiots will buy anything. Now I'll need to wait till the next holiday - May 1st.

BLT

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2024-02-16/people-get-ready-to-crumble-at-englands-only-rhubarb-festival Some more rhubarb news and ideas.

Local media is now reporting a 3 hour 40 minute wait in line for a bowl of Luosifen and still they're coming. Idiots.

Rabbit ravioli in spicy garlicky tomato sauce.

Here is Qing Yun market in more normal times.

This past week has been a holiday for most people in China and it seems that 90% of the 1.4 billion population has crowded into Liuzhou! With crowds drawn by Luosifen initially, the city has become a wider gastronomic destination. People are piling in everywhere with long lines and waits of up to two hours outside most of the hundreds of luosifen shops. All over Chinese social media are videos of people lining up to sample the delights of rice noodles in snail broth. The snails are moving faster than the lines. The line outside my favourite, near my home, is now one of the longest and the locals' gruntle is decidedly dissed. We can't get our own food anymore! Above is about 1/16th of the line. The shop has seating for 8 people. But it's worse than that. 青云 (qīng yún) means 'clear sky' but is also the name of the city's oldest and largest street market and one of my favourite haunts. Over the last week it has turned into purgatory. Thousands of tourist sheep are cramming themselves into the narrow streets in search of 'authentic' Guangxi street food. No one can do their regular shopping there anymore. Hopefully, they'll all go home this weekend, but perhaps not. 🔥🔥🔥

I don't know. They aren't waxed though. Maybe just super fresh? People here wouldn't accept waxed citrus. Everyone (including me) dries the peel for cooking with. It's an essential ingredient in many dishes.

Of course, we also get regular oranges. When I lived in Hunan, oranges were almost free. 7 cents (USD) a kilo. It was said to be the world's largest orange producing area. These are a bit more expensive and grown locally.

Absolutely. All my local supermarkets and wet markets sell them pre-peeled. They are held in lightly acidulated water (using diluted rice vinegar) and are unrefrigerated even here in the tropics.

Douban chicken and mushrooms. Chicken, garlic, chilli, ginger, 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng - Sichuan broad bean and chilli paste), button mushrooms, Shaoxing wine, scallions. Rice and stir-fried spinach (unphotographed).

...and some grapes from Hainan Island

A couple of friends paid a Chinese New Year visit yesterday, bearing fruity gifts as is traditional. Among their gifts was an introduction to a new addiction. These are 耙耙柑 (pá pá gān), a type of giant tangerine / orange hybrid from Sichuan. They are the size of a regular large orange but have that easily removed loose skin that tangerines have. They taste sweet but balanced with a citric edge. There were eight, China's lucky number, but I quickly reduced that to these four before remembering to take a picture. They too are critically endangered. I'll buy more tomorrow.

To sell more. I have seen, but not bought, Seabrook's here in China! Although Burt's are more available. For the export market, they use the silly American term. Shame on them.

Yes, the same is true in many languages around the world. As well as European languages, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Not surprising really.

This has already been discussed at length (10 pages) here.

Mention has been made of cloves, the spice and the etymological connection to nails, the things you hit with hammers. That is an interesting topic but not as interesting as the history of the cloves themselves. Syzygium aromaticum, formerly known as Eugenia caryophyllata is native to the Maluccas, a group of islands in Eastern Indonesia. It's a long story worth investigating but at one time the islands were controlled by the Dutch who imposed the death penalty for unauthorised possession of even one clove. Later the French prevailed and named the tree and its spice gilofre. Later, the spice changed to clou or clou de gilofre meaning 'nail of gilofre' due to the appearance of the dried flowers buds used as the spice. From here it passed into English as 'clou gilofre' following the Norman Conquest. In 1386, Chaucer, a master of the colloquial, could write "And many a clow gilofre and notemuge (nutmeg) to put in ale" with no fear of it not being understood. At some point, the pronunciation changed from 'clue' to the current 'clove' for reasons unknown. Gradually, the gilofre was dropped from the spice, although the flower name remains as gillyflower. In modern French, it is girofle. Several languages, mostly European but also Arabic, took a similar path, naming the spice after nails. Many more didn't. In Chinese, the spice is 丁香 (dīng xiāng) (literally T-shaped aromatic) whereas the fastener is 钉子 (dīng zi). The first character of the former appears again in the first character of the latter, again referring to the shape. The two characters are homophones. Incidentally, 'clove' as in garlic is unrelated. It is from the verb 'to cleave' as in 'separate'.

I've been freezing roasted beans for about 30 years. Supplies are not easy for me to source. Any degradation is minimal.