liuzhou

Thanks. You have all answered my main concern, the acceptability of 'spicy hot' in other varieties of English.

I have a lot more condiments. Those are the basics, used every day. The others are in cupboards or fridge as appropriate. The rest of your questions I have answered elsewhere.

I can't agree spicy is preferable. Many, perhaps most, spices are not 'hot'. What about cinnamon or fennel seeds, to pick two at random.

It's just an appalling mistranslation by the software. It should just be 'chat'.

I had a conversation today with a friend. She is the Director of the city's CDC and was translating a paper from Chinese to English. She also an excellent qualified medical translator. Her medical English is better than mine. She was confused as she knows people often use 'spicy' when they mean 'hot' referring to the capcaisin content of chillies, and wasn't sure which word to use. In Chinese, the two are very distinct. Spice is 香 and chilli hot is 辣. Heat hot is a completely different word - 热. As she rightly pointed out, not all spices are hot. I explained that many people do use the two terms interchangeably and suggested that to be absolutely clear she could use the term 'spicy hot', which is certainly used in the UK. However, I'm not sure how widespread that is in other Englishes. So, my question is how would you distinguish the two meanings? It is for medical purposes, but not for medical professionals, so needs to be unambiguous. Thanks.

Answered elsewhere.

I was sent this by a friend who works in local government in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous county of Liuzhou prefecture. She has given me permission to share. In fact, she has asked me to share. The Dong are one of China's 55 ethnic minorities and most live here. This is a computer translation from my cell phone. I'm feeling lazy this morning. The Banquet of Hundred Families of the Dong Nationality is a banquet for the Dong family to entertain guests collectively, and it is the highest etiquette for the Dong people to entertain guests, including eight processes: blocking the road to welcome guests, tasting oil tea, singing and dancing, explaining money, eating a hundred family meals, toasting, celebrating and seeing off guests. There is a saying that "eating a hundred family dinners, accepting a hundred family blessings, doing hundreds of things, and enjoying a hundred years of life." When night fell, the lights were on, the bridge was bright, and the guests from different places tasted hundreds of dishes and drank hundreds of wines, showing a warm and harmonious festive atmosphere. I've been to a few of these banquets. Always a joy. I wrote at length about one such in this topic. Note: 'Nationality' is a mistranslation of 'ethnic group'.

Those tend to sit counter top next to or near the stove. Mine are, for the moment, on the window sill to the right of the stove. Left to right; dark soy, ponzu, rice bran oil (decanted from a 5-litre bottle in the cupboard below), regular soy (ditto) and Shaoxing wine. The condiment box contains MSG, fine sea salt and what you probably call kosher salt. They'll probably stay there.

Need a load more chillies to be truly Hunan! 😀

花生酥餅 translates as 'peanut shortcake' and 豆沙窩餅 as 'red bean nest cake', if that helps.

Still cooking as part of my rehabilitation but keeping it simple. Tonight was pan fried cod fillets with shiitake, garlic and chilli. Served with orzo and a glass of good Prosecco. Just the one glass... ... although it may have been refilled a few times.

No! That is 豆瓣酱 , but not the spicy version you want 拉都半件 (la dou ban jiang). That version is from Dan County in Sichuan. What you want is Pixian La Doubanjiang. La 辣 means hot. Dan county Doubanjiang is not hot unless specified so. The spicy hot version usually has the characters 红油 meaning 'red oil' above the characters for Doubanjiang as below.

This morning I took some home made but frozen 馄饨 (hún tún), wontons in American Chinese, from the freezer, renamed them tortellini and cooked them, then drizzled them with EVOO and freshly ground black pepper. Breakfast. Sorted. Forgot to take picture.

I just met with the landlady from the apartment I have recently vacated in order to hand over the keys. To my astonishment she handed me a paper bag containing these. On the left is a kilo of Australian oatmeal and on the right 850 grams of Nestle milk powder. I see some home made oatcakes in my near future. The Nestle will be passed on. I don't do powdered cow juice. Especially when it contains porn syrup and the ingredients of a rampant lunatic's chemistry set.

I have an annual lease on this apartment. That is the norm in China.The last place's three year deal was highly unusual. Normally, leases can be renewed. I renewed one annual lease every year for 17 years until the landlord's business ran into trouble and had to sell my home to raise funds. There are no specific conditions regarding alterations in the lease, not that I would consider doing anything major without consulting the owner as a basic courtesy. Adding hooks or small racks wouldn't be a problem. The fridge is strange. Top is a regular refrigerator, then two freezer compartments. I don't recall seeing that arrangement before. The storage units to the left are what I would call multi - functional. The left and right doors open to what could be used as wardrobes, whereas the centre section is shelves and drawers. I won't be using any as wardrobes - the three bedrooms all have fully fitted wardrobes and other storage space. The unit extends to the left to house a television and more low level shelves and drawers. 7 At the moment, the right hand section nearest to the fridge and the kitchen is holding dried food goods, cans etc. This may change. As you can see, unpacking is still a work in progress. Few spices are regularly used in Chinese cuisine and are sold in tiny quantities, so don't really present a storage problem. I have some star anise, fennel seeds, black cardamom and cassia bark all in small recycled honey jars.The one exception is coriander seeds, which the Chinese don't use, but I love. They are somewhere in one of those boxes in a jar like this. I can only buy them in 500 gram bags imported from Pakistan. One bag worth fits in that jar. I'll get there eventually.

Thanks for the report. I'd be surprised if there are only two in America, though. I know for sure there is one in Seattle in the other Washington. Did your server say where the second one she had in mind is? Lettuce is not unusual in Chinese noodle dishes. There was some in my breakfast noodles this morning (not luosifen). The dark ingredient will be woodear as you guessed. The crunchy stuff is 腐竹 (fǔ zhú)*, rolled, dried tofu skin, always found on luosifen. The fermented bamboo is what gives luosifen its notorious scent. Essential! But, yes, it absorbs the broth rapidly and loses the crunch. I'm less sure about the 'special vinegar. The bamboo is simply fermented in a basic brine using ambient yeasts to do the work. I wouldn't call the liquid 'vinegar' myself but maybe that's what it was. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the experience. Now you'll have to come here to compare with the real thing on its native soil. Head northwest from Hong Kong. * Fu zhu is the Mandarin name. Also, known as yuba, the Japanese name.

My browser is blocking the picture for lewd content. If it is innocent load it onto eGullet. The Chinese you are looking for is this The white writing.

I don't agree that entertaining guests at home is because of the kitchens. If there is a connection, it's the other way round. The main reason for not entertaining non-family members at home in Asia is that it is considered inhospitable and you're being stingy and unwilling to spend money on your guests, instead cooking at home to save expense. As for your comments on Europe, in my experience, entertaining at home is not uncommon in most places.

Delia is somewhat out of fashion, but still reliable and British. https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/waist-watchers/low-fat-moist-carrot-cake

Living without water in the kitchen was fraught, yes. There was water in the adjacent bathroom (including hot water for the shower if I remembered to turn on the heater 20 minutes before needing it.) Of course, that raised hygiene issues. I was living on delivery for the last year, but that was more to do with my back than anything else. I'd describe the kitchen (and the whole apartment) as middle to upper middle class. I have seen some worse kitchens than my waterless example. Some places don't even have anything we'd recognise as a kitchen. I saw one young couple cooking every day on their balcony in the rain. Also, I posted before this picture of an old woman cooking her lunch over a bucket of burning firewood in a sort of outhouse in the countryside. I do love the new place so far, especially the kitchen and will love it more when I get all these boxes unpacked. Apartment hunting wasn't so bad. First, I had an excellent property agent who actually listened to my requirements and didn't waste my time or energy viewing inappropriate choices. This was the second place I saw on the same day, minutes apart as she had arranged for my convenience. Also we have an excellent Uber-like ride hire service here to take me to the sites and back. (Actual Uber got kicked out of China for some alleged unethical practices.)

I anticipated someone asking this. First, I must say my kitchen and the average Chinese family's kitchen probably differ. I cook western food about 25% of the time which my neighbours don't. Different cuisines; different techniques; different tools. For example, the most used tools, maybe the only tools in a Chinese kitchen are a cleaver, a wok scoop/spatula, a ladle and a strainer which normally hang on the wall beside the burner unit. Mine hang there, too for easy access, but my collection of 'essentials' is wider. Here is my kitchen wall in the rental before last. The strainer on the left, the wok scoop on the right and the ladle right of centre would be enough for my neighbours. Most wouldn't even know what the others are for, especially the microplane. One tool is missing, I notice. My fish descaler. Must have been a fish night. Smaller items usually sit on countertops in containers like this. This one is about 8 inches tall. It usually contains large spoons, a meat mallet, poultry shears etc. I also have a smaller one for teaspoons etc. I have three of the larger ones, but my neighbours probably just the one. I'm a bit of a gadget addict. Chopsticks live in dedicated boxes, either wall mounted or free-standing. Image from online shopping site, Taobao Knives and one of my sharpening steels are in a couple of knife blocks like this. The other steel is hanging on the wall. Image from online shopping site, Taobao OK. I'm a kitchen knife fetishist, too. My neighbours make do with a cleaver and maybe a paring knife. I like this system My tools are always to hand* and I don't need to go rummaging in drawers when I need something. At the same time, I see some advantages to drawers. I guess it's what you get used to that matters in the end. * They aren't to hand at the moment. Emptying boxes with a (healing) broken back is a slow process. A friend is coming tomorrow to help.

I'm not sure what I'd want to put in drawers. I don't recall ever seeing drawers in Chinese kitchens. Underneath the counter are regular cupboards apart from that under the sink which holds the drainage system, just like everywhere else. It still has space for storing cleaning stuff etc. And a fire extinguisher. One side of the cupboards under the stove holds the gas meters and again has additional storage space.

Thanks. The Yunnan coffee is very similar to the Vietnamese.

Yunnan Province (云南省 - yún nán shěng) is in southern China bordering Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Vietnam and like the latter grows decent to excellent coffee. It also borders Guangzhou, so I can source their coffee, easily. 云南咖啡 (yún nán kā fēi) is smooth and extremely low in bitterness. I've no idea how widely it is exported, if at all. Any coffee aficionados out here who have come across it?

Finally found my coffee machine in a box of home office stuff. It is now in new kitchen and now it smells like I'm home.