liuzhou

Do you remember if it said what kind of seaweed? It does look a bit strange. I love seaweed in general, but have never seen it with such odd ingredients before.

I'm in the no sticky rice with larb (or anything else) camp, too.

The article and the topic had me baffled for a while. I have never lived in any culture with a 'bar tab' culture and I've lived in twelve different cultures. It wouldn't work most places. In my native Britain, it is very rare and only an honour bestowed on very regular customers who are drunks with money. The whole British 'buying your round' culture depends on paying as you go. One exception I can the think of was in one somewhat seedy bar in the basement of a Soviet Moscow hotel opposite my apartment in the 1980s, but that was only because the bartender was terminally lazy and wouldn't even take your order. He just plonked a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Georgian brandy and a bottle of Russian 'champagne' in front of you, handed you a glass and let you get on with making your own коктейль, a cocktail made my mixing the three to your own formula. Lethal stuff. Any payment (if you remembered to pay) was on a trust system. Paying with your phone is quicker than using a card or cash. I also have problems with all this generational stereotyping. It makes as much sense as astrology.

海南菜 (hǎi nán cài), Hainan Cuisine Unlike Tibet (above), I have been to Hainan. Unforgettable, for a very wrong reason. As I was leaving to fly back home, then plane had just reached take-off speed down the runway when the pilot slammed on the brakes and we skidded to a halt then evacuated the plane down an emergency chute. Had the pilot delayed for another second I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. Now I know why we wear seat belts for take off. The thing nearly cut me in half. About four hours later a replacement plane finally arrived to take us home. I’ve never been a happy flier and that was a nightmare. Hainan has been China’s southernmost province since 1988, previously having been included in Guangdong Province. It is a beautiful tropical island and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit until I tried to leave. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The food is mild, similar in many ways to Cantonese but even more heavily seafood-centric with both shellfish and ocean fish widely available. It is also coconut central in China and, unlike anywhere else, coconut features in many dishes. Much of the tropical fruit I buy locally is also from Hainan. Many people will think of Hainanese Chicken Rice in connection with the island, but that is actually a Singaporean / Malaysian dish introduced by Chinese immigrants. It is however, loosely based on a different dish – 文昌鸡 (wén chāng jī), Wenchang Chicken. Wenchang chicken is both a yellow-skinned breed of chicken and a dish incorporating it. The breed is a small variety, always kept free range and fed on peanut bran and coconut. The birds are cooked by the white cut method of placing it whole into cold water, raising to the boil and then turning the heat off, leaving the meat to cook in the residual heat. The result is a soft, tender meat. Indeed poultry is also important here, with other well known chicken, duck and goose dishes all on offer. Another favourite dish is 文昌椰子鸡 (wén chāng yē zi jī),Wenchang Coconut Chicken in which the birds are poached In coconut water with coconut flesh, garlic, sand ginger, green loquat and 'facing heaven' chillies and served with rice. Wenchang Coconut Chicken - Image Meituan shopping app. 嘉積鴨 (jiā jī yā), or Jiaji Duck raised by being force-fed a diet consisting of tofu and cereal three times a day, then steamed. Jiaji Duck - Image: lvdaotianxia.com 溫泉鵝 (wēn quán é ), Wenquan goose is a local hybrid breed which is fattened in a mix of rice bran and silage. Wenquan Goose - Image: lvdaotianxia.com Most unusually for southern China. Lamb is popular here. Except it’s often actually goat! Chinese rarely distinguishes the two. 东山羊 (dōngshān yáng), Dongshan ‘lamb’ is either roasted or braised in coconut juice. Dongshan 'Lamb' - Image: k.sinaimg.cn Noodles dishes are common and usually served cold or at room temperature as a ward against Hainan’s heat.

I'd say a bit of both. Most are working animals, but excess males more often for meat. The working yaks are milked. The meat is similar to beef but in my experience fattier. It wasn't my favourite, but interesting. I have no idea about yak breeds. I'll report back if I find out. I forgot to mention that dried yak dung is a common fuel in Tibet, both for heating and cooking.

藏菜 (zàng cài) / Tibetan: བོད་ཀྱི་ཟས་མཆོག, Tibetan (西藏) Cuisine Part Two I forget why I abandoned this project, if I indeed deliberately did. I was only about two-thirds of the way through my list. I came across it today, so, now I’ll resume. I left it hanging for some reason after promising a part two to the previous post. Here I will mention some typical Tibetan dishes. As I said before, I’ve never been to Tibet itself but have been to Tibetan restaurants in other neighbouring areas of China. Yet, this post will be lighter on images than I would prefer. The food is not that well documented (or is so very badly). Tibet relies on barley as its staple grain. It is made into རྩམ་པ (tsampa) which is a roasted barley flour used to bake various breads known as Balep བག་ལེབ།. Perhaps the best known is Sha balep (ཤ་བག་ལེབ), which are a kind of fried beef pie which remind me of Cornish pasties! Various noodle soups (thukpa - ཐུག་པ) are also popular, Among these thenthuk (འཐེན་ཐུག་) is common in the capital Lhasa. Thenthuk As said before, the main protein (and source of dairy products is yak (གཡག། - gyag) Braised Yak but celebration meals often consist of Lunggoi Katsa (ལུག་མགོ།་) which is a curried sheep’s head stew. Tibet is also one of the few Chinese areas where they make cheese, again from yak milk. Churpi (ཆུར་བ།) comes in two types – a soft cheese and as an extremely chewy type. Tibetan Cheese I must mention momo (མོག་མོག), although these originated in northern China as jiaozi and were introduced to the Himalayas by the Mongols. Whether they went first to Nepal or Tibet and which introduced them to the other is uncertain, although I favour them being from China to Tibet then to Nepal. My reasoning is that Tibetan momos are made in the traditional jiaozi crescent shape, suggesting they are direct introductions, whereas Nepali momo are round like bao buns. Whatever, they are more popular in Nepal these days. The Tibetan type contain yak, potato or cheese. Tibetan Yak Momo

海鲜炒粉 (hǎi xiān chǎo fěn), Sea food fried rice noodles. Squid, shrimp, rice noodles. been sprouts, cabbage, cucumber, chilli, garlic, soy sauce.

That Oleostepa oil from Andalusia Spain on the left is my every-day EVOO Yes, it's available in China, too. (And no, I don't keep it in the fridge despite living in the tropics.)

新疆维吾尔自治区 (xīn jiāng wéi wú'ěr zìzhìqū), Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China lies in the far northwest west of the country and is a mostly Muslim area, where the local language is more closely related to the Turkish languages than the Chinese. Xinjiang within China - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The Uygur people have travelled throughout the country bringing their wonderful foods with them. The staple protein is lamb. This is from a local Xinjiang restaurant.. 馕 (náng), Xinjiang spiced flatbread (the staple carb) with spicy grilled lamb skewers. Several were consumed.

They're all basically the same, but mild tasting, so are usually cooked with strongly flavoured sauces such as the garlic in French cuisine or strong chilli flavours as here. I like both.

Although the 螺蛳 (luó sī) in the previous post are the most common in Liuzhou, they are not the most common across China. That duty falls upon 石螺 (shí luó), Sinotaia quadrata. The Chinese name means ‘stone snails’’, presumably because they resemble stones (?) I have found no common name in English but that’s not surprising as they are native to East and SE Asia, although they have been introduced in a couple of non-English speaking countries as invasive species. "Stone Snails" They are found all over China and although they are eaten by humans, most go to aquaculture to feed farmed fish and crabs. They are popular in Isan ‘(Thai: อีสาน) areas of north-eastern Thailand. I once had a wonderful curried snail dish in Udon Thani (Thai: อุดรธานี) which used them. Very popular here in Guangxi is this dish of stone snails with roast tilapia, usually served to groups of beer drinkers (including one depraved Scottish man). There is a whole roasted tilapia under the sauce and toppings Then we have 田螺 (tián luó), Pond snails, Lymnaeidae. As the name implies these live in ponds and rivers but the Chinese name means ‘field sails’ as they also like to hang out in rice fields / paddies, where they eat things which prey on the seedlings. They can also appear in the tilapia dish above.

I have this one Bizarrely, I bought it in China. How it ended up here (in English), I have no idea. I have cooked from it, but a long time ago. I forget what. I'll have to go dig it out.

The snails are usually stewed and, here, very spicy. You could use a crabmeat pick, but toothpicks are more commonly used. Most Chinese restaurants have toothpick dispensers on each table, whether they sell snails or not. Conches are technically larger sea snails, although popular nomenclature distinguishes.

Part of my French heritage on my mother's side, means that I grew up regularly eating terrestrial gastropod molluscs, specifically escargot, snails. Love 'em. When I moved to Liuzhou, I didn’t know about the city’s deep affinity to snails. But was delighted to find out. The city’s signature dish, Luosifen is snail flavoured noodles. But I’ve never see terrestrial snails here. The rice noodle dish is made with aquatic snails, Margarya melanioides, a type in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. These are known as 螺蛳 (luó sī), hence 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn). They are widely consumed, not only as an ingredient in luosifen but several other dishes. The intact snails and their de-shelled meat are both sold in supermarkets. 螺蛳 螺蛳肉 - luosi meat Another snail we see is Oncomelania hupensis guangxiensis, a species of very small tropical freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family, Pomatiopsidae. These are a local subspecies in a family native to east Asia. These are completely overshadowed by 螺蛳 (luó sī) and are rarely seen; in fact when they are, they are always mislabelled – They are correctly 钉螺 (dīng luó), literally ‘nail snails’, due to their pointed nature. They are also prone to the schistosomiasis blood fluke parasite, and the paragonimus lung fluke parasites. The Chinese name for snail fever (bilharzia or schistosomiasis), disease caused by schistosome parasitic flatworm is 罗汉 病 (luó hàn bìng), literally ‘arhat sickness’, attributable to the Buddhist monks who fed on them. I avoid them. Parasite infested monks and snails! Then we have sea snails (海螺 - hǎi luó). Again, there are multiple species. I have no idea which these are. Usually only found in seafood restaurants and seldom in supermarkets or wet markets. It’s actually easier to buy the empty shells than the meaty ones. Those are used in the decorative arts. Sea Snails 🐌

I think there are two types of such ennui, although the two can sometimes coincide. a) Cooking ennui. Sometimes I just can't be arsed with the shopping, cleaning, chopping, stirring etc. When that strikes, I just go out or order meals in. b) Eating ennui. Obviously more dangerous. Sometimes, although hungry, I just can't be bothered with the whole eating exercise. This is especially annoying, after I have spent hours preparing and cooking an eight dish meal for friends and then just feel totally uninterested in eating it myself. It's easy for this to last a few days. I usually ease myself back by making a simple, slightly spicy lentil soup. Or just have cheese with bread or crackers.

Happily, the bottled Doritos hasn't made it to China. Yet.

I'm sure. It isn't that they're unavailable here. Sadly, they are. It's just I don't eat this kind of industrial crap, especially when it is made from the evil pestilence that is cØrn.

I'm in no position to comment on this as I've never tasted Doritos in my life, but I remember reading this a couple of years ago. Interesting back story. Didn't make me want to run out and buy either the edible or potable kind, though.

Toxic truth? The cookware craze redefining ‘ceramic’ and ‘nontoxic’ | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian

Guardian cartoon

Well, I live in Dumplingland, They are as un-exceptional as the sun rising in the morning. But I love most of them.

Some local bright spark has upgraded the cloche concept. He has cut off the tops of three of these 12 litre water bottles for drinking water dispensers and tied them together. Genius.

小笼包 (xiǎo lóng bāo), literally small basket dumplings, with a soy and vinegar dip.

And mine - a cheap one. The cloche; not my head!

I’m beside myself! Scored this this morning. Here is my translation of the description provided. Lean Cured Meat, A Speciality Of Hunan, Smoked Meat, Homemade Smoked Salted Meat From Local Farmers, Pork Tenderloin, And Dried Cured Meat From Hunan, Not From Sichuan Apart from liking a bit of Hunan charcuterie, I’ve never tried smoked meat made from farmers. I never fancied Sichuan farmer’s though. Those boys are obviously inferior meat. Now re-vacuum-packed into more manageable portions.