liuzhou

Here in southern China, very common. Elsewhere in China, not so much. They are widely used in ethnic minority cuisines, but rarely in the majority Han cuisines. Zhuang lemon duck is probably the best known minority usage. The Chinese Lemon Chicken dish served in so many western "Chinese" restaurants is unknown here.

柠檬禾花鱼 (níng méng hé huā yú), Lemon Grass* Flower Fish 禾花鱼 (hé huā yú) are a type of small (10 cm / 4 inch long), soft boned carp (Cyprinus carpio var. Quanzhouensis**) which have been introduced to rice paddies throughout the rice-growing world. This allows subsistence and smallholding farmers to harvest two crops from the same plot of land while the fish help control insects and aid fertilisation while the rice plants simultaneously give shelter to the fish. Symbiosis rules! Everyone’s a winner. See here for a more detailed explanation. This dish is from a Hunan restaurant but is common among the Miao, Dong and Yao ethnic minorities in Guizhou and Guangxi, too. * The fish are “grass flower fish” and are cooked with lemon. There is no “lemongrass” involved! Besides the very noticeable lemon, the dish contains both green and red chillies, pickled onions, garlic and soy sauce. The fish are served whole, ungutted and with bones. The dish is very acidic.These ethnic minorities are well-known for their love of 酸 (suān), meaning 'sour' or 'tart' flavours, and so am I. ** The scientific name relates to the fish and rice farming technique first becoming famous in Quanzhou, a prefecture in Fujian province, East China, but it is now country-wide and beyond.

As noted elsewhere, I ordered a bottle of The Pogues Whiskey for Christmas and to toast the late Shane MacGowan. It arrived this afternoon. What was unexpected was that it was accompanied by a complimentary bottle of vodka. A brand I don't know. J. J. Whitely Artisanal Russian Vodka. Good old Tsarist name that, J. J. Whitley. Still they seem to have a good reputation. Why I've been sent this, I've no idea, but hey, it's Christmas and I did empty my Stolichnaya bottle last night. And "Free Vodka" is my favourite brand!

People are talking both the 2021 movie and the 2023 television series.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I dug out the opener. As you can see it is old and somewhat tarnished, but it is clean and the cutting wheel still sharp. As I suspected the lip on the top of the can was too high for the cutting blade to engage, but I flipped the can over and was able to cleanly remove the bottom. Now I have to eat 120 g of Russian fake salmon roe for supper!

I'm not sure my can opener would even deal with that can. The lip seems rather high, if you see what I mean. I'll try tomorrow. I'm not going on an opener hunt at this time of night.

I haven't used my can opener for years. It's an OK no name Chinese brand from the local supermarket. I might use one can a year but they all seem to be ring pull here these days. There is one product ("salmon" roe) I use a lot of which does come in a ring pull can from Russia but I've never been able to open the cans without resorting to pliers and a system of levers put together from screwdrivers etc. For some reason, probably stubbornness, I've never thought to open them with the can opener. Can't think where it is. P.S. Just checked. All the cans I have: beans, sardines and the above roe are ring pull. There is one ancient can of tomatoes which would require the opener, but I usually use fresh tomatoes.

酸炒鸡胗鸡肝 (suān chǎo jī zhēn jī gān), Fried Chicken Gizzard And Chicken Liver With Vinegar Sauce. Also with chilli, daikon radish and carrot. 柳粤炒饭 (liǔ yuè chǎo fàn), Liuzhou style Cantonese Fried Rice. I'm not sure what that means, but it was a reasonably good fried rice with egg, pork, ham, lap cheong (腊肠 - là cháng in Mandarin), Chinese chives.

These appeared on a holiday promotion on Taobao, China's main online shopping portal.

I'm thinking I may buy a bottle of this (yes, I can source it in China) to have with my Irish Coffee over the upcoming holiday and as a farewell tribute to the late Shane MacGowan. Anyone tried it? Have any comments?

The local pizza place was doing a special deal tonight. 意大利香肠披萨甄单人餐 (yì dà lì xiāng cháng pī sà zhēn dān rén cān), Italian sausage pizza selection single meal. This was comprised of: 8” pepperoni pizza Choice of snack (crispy chicken nuggets, French fries, chicken and avocado salad, shrimp and mango salad, or spicy, crispy lotus root.) Choice of beverage (lemon tea, Americano, café latté, Coca Cola, iced coffee (no sugar), iced coffee (with sugar), hot coffee (no sugar), hot coffee (with sugar)) My picks in bold. 可口可乐 （kě kǒu kě lè）Coca Cola

Well, they arrived. The question now is can I resist until Christmas? Maybe just one to test?

I already have some Keluga Queen caviar and smoked sturgeon and have ordered some goose foie gras. Planning a luxury Christmas after months of enforced delivery dinners. I'm not sure how all these cheeses, caviar and foie will fit together. I quite fancy a roasted suckling pig but I'll order that from the restaurant next door - It wouldn't fit in my toaster oven. Will last a few days. Image - Liuzhou Hotel Foie Gras Keluga Queen Smoked Sturgeon and its Caviar

酱爆鱿鱼 (jiàng bào yóu yú), flash fried squid in chilli sauce. I ordered this medium hot, but this being a Sichuan restaurant, that meant incendiary. Good though. With rice.

I get these miniature pineapples from Thailand.They come peeled and eye-removed from the local fruit shop. 54 cents US a pineapple. Very juicy. The tray it's sitting in is 12 cm / 4¾" diameter".

A lot of people carry these 'travel chopsticks' to use in restaurants rather than the disposable or possibly, badly washed sticks supplied. The are in two parts to be screwed togather like a snooker cue and come in a carrying case. These are usually stainless steel, not my favourite, although I do have a pair.

That would be the death of them. They want you to stay in the store as long as possible hunting for what you want (and picking up stuff you don't).. Supermarket chains employ psychologists to trick you left, right, and centre. Expensive goods at eye level, cheap stuff at floor level. Go look for salt in your supermarket. Where is it 99% of the time? At floor level. They make almost nothing from it; they're not going to place it at eye level. Some supermarkets even control how quickly you push your cart through the aisles: slower in the luxury impulse buy section, faster in the boring staples. The vary the size of the floor tiles; we instinctively try to keep the clicks of the wheels even, speeding up or slowing down subconciously as we go. And that 's only the beginning.

Tonight's dinner. A local speciality, this was sold as 桂林啤酒鱼 (guì lín pí jiǔ yú), Guilin Beer Fish, but is probably better known as 阳朔啤酒鱼(yáng shuò pí jiǔ yú) Yangshuo Beer Fish, Yangshuo being the tourist trap in Guilin Prefecture., which lies to the north and east of Liuzhou Traditional Yangshuo beer fish is made with a freshly caught 1 to 1.5 kg carp from the local river, the River Li, perhaps caught by a cormorant – probably not. The fish is gutted, but not scaled. It is then fried whole in camellia oil until the scales form a hard crust, then the fish is braised with the local Liquan beer, ginger, red and green chilli peppers, garlic, onions, celery, tomatoes, soy, sugar and oyster sauce. Served with rice.

Aristology is a highly obscure word, seldom used. Derived from the Greek ἄριστο-ν breakfast, luncheon + -λογία discourse and meaning "the art or ‘science’ of dining". It enjoyed a brief, somewhat pretentious vogue in the 19th centurry, then all but disappeared. Gourmet is the older word in terms of first recorded written usage, but only by 15 years, a negligible time in word dating. There is no way of knowing which was in spoken use first. They would be considered contemporaneous by etymologosts. Also 'gourmet' referred to a person and not a science or art, so not synonymous. The more related term would be aristologist. The quasi-adjectival usage of gourmet didn't appear until the early 1900s, some 65 years after aristologist.

I've never come across this before in China. Rather than ordering whole dishes, this restaurant was offering selected half dishes in pairs allowing you to try different items. (Whole versions were also available). So I chose two half dishes. 1. 美味鲜虾 (měi wèi xiān xiā), delicious shrimp. Their description, but accurate. Large perfectly cooked shrimp. 2. 章鱼脚 (zhāng yú jiǎo), Octopus tentacles. Tender and plentiful. The two sauces were very similar (but not identical), both being heavy on the chilli oil, a good thing in my book. Came with rice. Very enjoyable. I'll order the full dishes in future.

I don't mind a drop of Glenfiddich although it's far from my favourite. More of a Macallan man, although I do love a Laphroaig, too. I even own a square metre of the distillery! Stocks of both have already been laid in. And the last of my cheese arrived today. All set, apart from mince pies which have just been dispatched from Shanghai a short time ago.

Yes, but that is usually in reference to city pigeons / rats. Wood pigeons and commercially farmed squab are very different. I have four in the freezer which will be used over the holiday. Very popular meat birds here, especially in Cantonese restaurants. Cantonese Roast Pigeon

自贡 (zì gòng) Zigong is a city in southern Sichuan It has been a major salt producing area for around 2,000 years and is well known as such throughout China. It is also known for having some of Sichuan's spiciest food. Dinner tonight was 自贡盐煎肉 (zì gòng yán jiān ròu), Zigong Salt Fried Pork. It is lean pork slices marinated with onion and fresh green chillies, then pan fried with dried red chilies, rice wine, fermented black beans, doubanjiang bean paste, and sesame seeds, then finished with red chilli oil. Seved with rice. ¥38.50 - $5.39 USD.

Nearly forgot. Having been born in Scotland, I don't recognise Christmas without these. In past years, I've bought two packs of the non-alcohholic version, but this year they are carrrying the Glenfiddich type for the first time. so I've ordered one of each. P.S. The Brillat Savarin mentioned above has arrived by plane from Shanghai and is now resting in my fridge.

I brought my 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), century egg and pork congee, home with with me, so I ordered some. This lot came with a small bag of 涪陵榨菜 (fú líng zhà cài), Fuling pickled mustard tuber. Fuling Zhacai