liuzhou

No mistake. That decoration is on the fridge. Only the one on the outside of the front door is traditionally hung upside down. It is dying custom though. Most are right way up now.

Having been asked about the kitchen in my new apartment in China which I mentioned in the Dinner 2024 topic and not wanting to derail that topic, I have started this new one. This is how I found it on my arrival. It has long intrigued me that despite the importance most Chinese people place upon their food culture, their favourite topic of conversation (along with money), their domestic kitchens seem almost an afterthought. This one is, shall I say, compact. It is however, larger than the one I just left. I loathed that kitchen. So, to answer some of your questions. @dcarch asked That is a serious exhaust hood above the stove for two burners, or is that also a microwave inside there? It that also an exhaust fan on the window wall? Looks like a very functional and bright kitchen. I assume the refrigerator is behind you where the picture was taken. That is a standard exhaust hood in these parts. Stir frying requires powerful hoods. No microwaves involved. Yes, the hood is supplemented by an exhaust fan. The fridge is, as almost all fridges are here, located in the sitting room and by the front door @Katie Meadow asked Looks very nice and serviceable. Great to have big windows over the sink and counter. Just curious, it seems to me that your last move wasn't very long ago, but my sense of time is getting less reliable. And I've been living in the same house since 1986, so moving is something I barely remember how to do. Why did you move again? And so happy you are back to cooking! Yes, I too like the windows but the view isn't very inspiring. I last moved three years ago almost to the day and, at that time, my health was beginning to go awry, leading me to make a bad decision. I hated almost everything about the dump from day one but was tied into a three year contract. I am delighted to have moved, despite the inevitable stress. Right now, I have to get all these boxes emptied and the contents put in their appropriate places. The kitchen is the priority, of course. I'll post another photo when it is to my liking. Right now, it looks like a war zone.

I fully intend to! We'll see how it goes. Thanks. New kitchen. Small, like most Chinese kitchens, but more than usually has lots of storage space.

An evening of firsts. 1. First meal cooked in new apartment. 2. First meal cooked anywhere in a year. Since I got sick and broke my back, I've been relying on delivery meals. Although I was happy with most of them and found things I'd never had before, I was aching to get back to the stove. 3. I set out to make my usual 'rou jia mo' but quickly realized I didn't have the large green chilli peppers I use for them. I had everything else. All I had in the vegetable drawer was okra, so I used it, livened it up with fresh red 'facing heaven' chillies, garlic, garlic chives and coriander / cilantro, Shaoxing wine and a splash of soy sauce. Thinly sliced beef tenderloin made up the protein. Slapped into the appropriate bread and it's done. I made and ate three. I think I invented a keeper!

Neither is a banana!

No. it isn't. The packaging ( which I have since binned) described it exactly as I did, except in Chinese.

I see a difference between 'melted cheese', my preference and 'melty cheese'. The latter, for me, describes cheese that can be melted but may not have been melted. Meltable may be better.

... never again set he timer on my phone to two hours when I mean two minutes. Fortunately, I realized in time and guesstimated perfectly!

I have no thoughts on luosifen shops in the USA. I've never been. I have concerns about how they obtain certain ingredients or whether they are using substitutes. I'd love to hear your impressions should you fall into luosifen temptation.

First meal in new home. Not home cooked, though - kitchen equipment is in one of those boxes. 手撕鸡 (shǒu sī jī) is hand torn chicken, one of the few dishes usually served cold. It is basically a chicken salad, but nothing like a normal western chicken salad. A whole chicken is gently poached until just cooked and left to cool. It is then torn apart by hand into chopstick weildable pieces, skin, bones et al. Then it dressed with a cold sauce made from chilli, spices, scallion, peanut and sesame oil. There any many recipes online of varying appeal and 'authenticity'. Here, prepared versions are sold in larger supermarkets, which is where I got this version.

For some reason, I can't open either of the links in your post, but I think you mean this shape. My confusion arises from the imagery in the Amazon ad you linked to showing only this shape. I don't see how it would work with the flat cans. Maybe I'll have to buy one. By the way, anything being available on Alibaba doesn't necessarily mean it's available here. A lot of their stuff is export only.

Wouldn't work on any of the sardine cans I buy, either here in China or in the UK. Wrong shape.

If so, I'll be the richest 150 year old in history!

I didn't buy it in an art gallery. Unless they have taken to disguising art galleries as supermarkets complete with kitchen utensils aisles complete with regular forks and knives. And checkout lanes.

Saw this today and thought how idiotic, so I bought it. About 75 cents US. A combined knife and fork. Of course, if the knife were to be anywhere near able to cut anything, it would be a useless handle for a fork. Also, the design renders both tools impractical at best. Difficult to hold and your hand will be slathered in food. What sort of idiot did they think would buy one? Oh! Wait a minute!

I have some cans of paint and one of lubricating oil. I hope that's enough.

including recipes for disaster.

This amused me. They don't have any zip code!

True (I've seen similar reports), but the legal shark fin market is in sharp declne. President Xi banned it from all official entertainment (where most fin was eaten) both nationally and at local level. Also, a growing public awareness of the horrific harvesting methds has had an effect. Yes, there will still be black market supplies, but they too have been curtailed. How far new attitudes will take things, remains to be seen.

China manufactures by far the majority of the world’s microwaves, but while it is true that many people in mainland China have them, very few are actually used for cooking. They are mostly seen as tools to reheat the last meal’s leftovers. Of all those microwaves, those capable of baking (convection microwaves) are a small percentage and three to five times more expensive. Even those who do own such things seldom bake in them and they can’t bake everything. There was a brief fashion about eight years ago for baking, but most people were using toaster ovens to bake Western style cakes. Nothing Chinese. Several shops opened selling the appropriate ingredients. 90% of them lasted a year or two at most. People moved on the next craze. The bookshops had a few Western style bakery cookbooks, but no longer.

I was thinking about this topic and your question, this morning. So, I did what I should have done earlier and searched in Chinese for baking cookbooks and chose the images option. Here are the results. Almost everything that turns up looks derived from European and American baking to me. I repeated the search on Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine. Results here. almost the same. Very little recognisably Chinese. Unfortunately, Google is not available to me at the moment. Presumably, the censors are terrified cakes will bring down the entire system, but you could try using this search term - 烘焙食谱 = baking cookbooks. Normally, I'd say "If you do find a suitable Chinese language cookbook, please tell me.", but I'm not really a cake person and don't have an oven! Good Luck!

10 lamb filled, steamed jiaozi. Served with a chilli oil dip.

They are usually sold in sets of two here.

I have those too. Very useful for all kind of tasks. They're very common here.

@Ann_T I had the Xinjiang Polo (Lamb over Fried Rice) dish above for lunch again, today and confirm there were no potatoes or carrots harmed in its making. There was however, carrot in the accompanying side of stir fried beg. I'm sorry, but I still have no better explanation for what we both saw as possible potato in the photo I posted. I look forward to seeing your version, if you get round to making it.