liuzhou

Yes. I know the pub. Not sure if I ever entered its hallowed halls, though.

I would love to visit Dublin again. Spent a lot of time there in my time, but haven't been since 1994. Funnily enough, I never drank Irish coffee there! Too busy with the Guinness, I guess.

No. It is referring to western style broccoli.

Still haven't used it.

Yes, my recollection is that the island is OK away from the city, but for obvious reasons my brother's place was in the city and that is what I was thinking of. I only visited once. He moved to Mallorca where he now has three restaurants and not so many drunken idiots.

Here’s an oddity but a good one. It was described as American yet is redolent of the spices of Sichuan. Or perhaps they mean the crayfish are American in that they were introduced from America after the European varieties, Astacus fluviatilis were nearly wiped out by a plague in the 19th and 20th centuries then moved eastwards from there. That said there are crayfish native to China, in the Cambaroides family, so who knows? 美国小龙虾饭 [麻辣] (měi guó xiǎo lóng xiā fàn [má là]), American crayfish over rice [spicy]. The crayfish are cooked in a Sichuan ma la sauce with chilli and Sichuan peppercorns and served with 土豆丝 (tǔ dòu sī) potato slivers stir fried and finished with rice wine vinegar. Also some greens and served over rice.

You can hold the nutmeg!

Well, it isn't a mainstream meat. Anything you can do with beef, you can do with donkey. Donkey Fried Noodles Donkey Soup Noodles Donkey Soup Donkey Stir Fry Donkey with Green Peppers

To my surprise, I couldn't find a topic for this. Do you have any favourite recipes? I'm planning to make some for Christmas.

Donkey is also very much used nose to tail. In addition to the above, my local vendor also carries donkey brains, tripe, bones, hooves, skin, and intestines. All sold seperately.

Donkey is my favourite meat. Very tender and tasteful. I've had the meat often, but also the liver, kidneys, heart, penis and tail. Donkey Liver - Image from Meituan Food delivery app Donkey Liver with Champ

I guess like most people, I don’t like to eat the same things on consecutive days (or even consecutive weeks), but today I made an exception. Last night, I had 辣子鸡 (là zi jī ), Chongqing Chicken with Chillies and tonight I had 乐山辣子鸡铁板炒饭 (lè shān là zi jī tiě bǎn chǎo fàn), Leshan Chicken with Chillies Iron Plate Fried Rice. Chongqing is a city in China which used to be classified as part of Sichuan, but no longer. Leshan is a town in Sichuan famous for its 71-metre (233-feet) high Leshan Giant Buddha, the tallest in the world. So basically two variations on the same Sichuan idea. The fried rice looked very different from last night’s dish, as if someone had picked out most of the chillies from the mound of chillies and added them to the fried rice, but the taste was all there. The chillies are not meant to be eaten anyway!

Here's another example of myth making coming from an American-Chinese writer on Spruce Eats. China grows, by far, the most broccoli on the planet. 10,263, 746 tonnes a year! It isn't served as Chicken and Broccoli though!

Damn! I keep remembering things I NEED. Each box contains 15 raw oysters on ice. I have ordered one. ¥28 a box. That's $4 USD. Should be here in 30 minutes.

I ordered some coffee from Yunnan (yes! China grows coffee and it in't at all bad) and it came with a free cake. A small cake. A 'rose flower' cake. Tasted of not very much.

辣子鸡 (là zi jī), Chicken with Chillies 丝瓜炒肉 (sī guā chǎo ròu), Stir-fried Pork with Luffa With rice. Of course.

Despite my tragic attempt at ordering Korean food the other day, I tried again – a different dish and different restaurant. 韩式牛舌拌饭 (hán shì niú shé bàn fàn), Korean style beef tongue bibimbap, 쇠고기 비빔밥 (sogogi bibimbap). 豆芽鱼饼汤 (dòu yá yú bǐng tāng) bean sprout and fish cake soup, 콩나물 어묵 수프 (kong nam ueomuk soup – yes the Korean for soup is ‘soup’!) I’m not sure how ‘authentic’ it may be, but it was tasty. Took a picture but my cell phone (or I) malfunctioned, so here’s the app listing image.

From their invention. Marshmallows take their name from the plant (Althaea officinalis) of the same name which was used as the gelling agent used in their production. This was replaced with gelatine (making them non-vegetarian) in the USA, the marshmallow plant being native to Europe and Asia. However, today they are usually made using gum arabic instead. Peeps still use gelatine.

Nor vegetarians. It's also much more expensive than beetroot.

兰州拉面 (lán zhōu lā miàn), Lanzhou hand pulled noodles with beef, greens and omelette. It came with a little pot of hot sauce and another of soy sauce. I added the hot sauce.

I finally contacted my ex-student with the pomelo farming family. She told me she has never heard of the leaves being eaten or any other culinary usage, but repeated the Oxford Companion information re ceremonial baths in my opening post, adding that they are boiled in water which is also then used to bathe children with colds. So why they were being sold as a vegetable or spice remains a mystery. Could be. Who knows?

A lifetime squatting over Asian squat toilets develops the necessary muscles!

Sichuan is landlocked, but still comes up with seafood dishes in Sichuan restaurants around the country. 酱爆鱿鱼 (jiàng bào yóu yú), flash fried squid with soy sauce. The squid is almost certainly from Guangxi's Behai on the Tonkin Gulf near the border with Vietnam. Squid. Fresh green and both dried and fresh red chillies, onions, scallions. Soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Rice. Spicy hot.

Nothing like duck tongue, that's for sure.

김 (transliterated as ‘kim’ or more commonly, ‘gim’) is indeed the same as the Japanese 海苔 (nori) which is a type of laver. The wooden chopsticks would certainly also be my choice. The metal ones are indeed slippery and also many people dislike the netallic 'taste' they detect. Some plastic ones are alo slippery. The forks for serving surprised me. Here, if anything, it would always be serving chopsticks or spoons.