liuzhou

鱼香肉丝 (yú xiāng ròu sī), Fish Flavour* Pork Slivers. Pork, carrot and black woodear fungus with a 'fish flavour' sauce. * There is no fish involved. This Sichuan method uses herbs and spices etc more traditionally associated with fish dishes but applies them to other ingredients, especially pork as here but also with eggplant. Delivered to my hospital bed (with rice) for just $2.80.

@BonVivant Great topic and posts. Apart from the ever-fascinating food, in your last post, the stilt houses are not dissimilar to those found among some of the ethnic minorities here in Southern China. I've only seen sesame growing once and that was in Kew Gardens London's tropical house. I do remember it being an interesting plant with beautiful white trumpet shaped flowers. I'm told it does grow round here but most of our seeds, oils and pastes seem to come from further north, particularly Shandong province which is more on the same latitude as Japan. Makes sense, I guess.

Just saw this. I've been busy trying to see at all. Those in your last link look most sensible to me, even for children, despite lack of cuteness. Cuteness at the dinner table is not encouraged here. That said I don't recall seeing elders struggling here but maybe a lifetime of daily usage at every meal fossilizes the hands in just the right grip. Dunno.

Mala tofu 麻辣豆腐 (má là dòu fǔ), the vegan version of mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 (má pó dòu fǔ) is another standby and enjoyed by vegetarians, vegans and normal people alike. The interwebs have recipes.

I haven't seen what you call heavy cream in about 27 years! Not even available online.

I'm being boring and relying on my usual hospital standby for breakfast. It's the one thing they do really well. 皮蛋瘦肉粥, century egg and lean pork mince congee. However, I am yearning for one I spotted on my outside delivery app. The description given is "Prawn Seafood Porridge Heritage pork marrow bone soup is cooked for 8 hours without any additional ingredients. No chicken bouillon or monosodium glutamate. Only bone soup, rice, prawns and clams." The problem is it costs 15元 (very reasonable), but the delivery service has a minimum 20元 requirement. Were I at home I'd order two and refrigerate or freeze one for later but no such option here. I'll have to wait until my sentence is served! Soon.

铁板海鲜全家福炒饭, iron grilled sea food family portrait fried rice. Contains fresh clams, oysters,squid and shrimp. Medium spiced. Also came with a little pot of hot sauce (just visible) on the right. And a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup which wasn't listed or photographed

Took two days, but I managed to track down the only nurse in this huge hospital who knows the address of where she works. So, now I'm back to my usual food delivery app of late. To celebrate, for lunch I went for fusion food. Sichuan-Mexican, The in fact. Had a Sichuan flavoured burrito. Contents are chicken fillet, lettuce, tofu, scallion etc with a spicy Sichuan sauce. Not bad. Fat and bulbous, as the Captain said. Here's the thing as advertised on the app. Shows the contents better than the real thing.

Having visited fish sauce manufacturing places in both Vietnam and Thailand I can say the process is just as disgusting, but someone else's problem. I'll sticking with my bottles. P.S. Red Boat is Vietnamese. Not Thai.

I moved to the tropics and the problem stopped coming up! But seriously, it's about the only thing I do use my microwave for, when it's rarely required.

There are a number of simple Italian pasta dishes that I fall back on, including the favourite pesto pasta made with freshly made (cheese-less) pesto in the mortar and pestle.

Not a relapse or follow up, but a different issue. Not so serious. Thank you.

and I agree although I do like tofu. it is no replacement for any cheese.

Hospital dinner. A bit strange Beef, pork, potato (I think), luffah, cabbage, chilli, peanuts, rice. Not bad though.

Have any of the inexperienced chopsticks users tried the training type I'm not sure if they are sold adult size but maybe. These are what I see advertised here. I have no idea how helpful they are and none of my friends have use them with their kids. But they're cheap enough to play with. Maybe Amazon?

Hospital lunch. Rice noodles with pork and pork offal. Not bad Not great. No picture, alas.

Hospital breakfast congee with century egg and lean pork, and a side of pickled beans.

Afraid so. Nothing too serious.

Tonight a lovely young nurse tried to feed me some rice noodles because she assumed a foreigner couldn't use chopsticks. I didn't want to embarrass her but I've been in China longer than she has and been using chopsticks three times longer than she's been alive. So, I just asked her for the chopsticks and fed myself. Instead of being embarrassed, she was delighted and spent the afternoon giggling. Real sweetie.

Working breakfast. 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), Century Egg and Pork Rice Porridge (Congee).

"Camembert" is not protected under EU laws. "Camembert de Normandie" is. Not the same thing. https://www.mashed.com/417638/what-is-camembert-cheese-and-what-does-it-taste-like/

For reasons only known to their avaricious fevered imaginations, the local authorities have, in their wisdom, erected a statue to luosifen out side the main railway station. A bowl of the aforementioned. Of course, it looks nothing like the real thing.

For more on chopsticks and their usage, see this topic's first couple of pages and again on page eight here.

My French compatriots are up in arms (again). Actually reading the article this quote is from, reveals the truth. Terrible "news" sight. The article is here.

A couple of 肉包 (ròu bāo), pork stuffed steamed buns (and a cup of that ancient Chinese medicinal strong black coffee). I served the buns with a chilli dip.