liuzhou

Knife curvation is variable in home knives, but not extreme. Bone knives are in general much more curved.

History is against you on that one. 'Chili' was used for the pepper for hundreds of years before the dish was concocted. The word for the pepper came from the native Mexican language, Nahuatl which the Spanish, who were apparently extremely hard of hearing, rendered as Chilli. The name 'chile' was erroniously appled to the pepper in 1631 by the Dutch(?) physician, naturalist and writer Jacobus Bontius (1598?-1631) who thought it came from the country Chile, which it didnt. 'Chili' or 'Chilli' is the most commonly used name of the pepper in English worldwide and in other langages. In parts of India it is 'chilly' and I don't mean the weather.

The origins of the words 'shawarma' and 'kebab/kabob' are both derived from Arabic, but different dialects thereof. Turkey took the word 'shawarma' from Persian (Iranian) Arabic. 'Kabab' on the other hand probably came into English via Arabic>Urdu during the Raj. There is no real difference in meaning and immigrant communities tend to use their own version or adapt to local practice. Donor kebab has a complicated etymology but is, at least linguistically, not technically either. I refer you to The Oxford Companion to Food (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) which has a lengthy exposition.

Most research concludes the opposite of your opinion. Plastic or, heaven forbid, glass etc are more prone to "bacteria". Wood actually contains antibacterial properties. Any bacteria are not all bad!

In general, those with a flat blade are 菜刀 (cài dāo) which literally means vegetable knife but is use as a general cook's knives which are used for yes, chopping, but also slicing meats etc. These are usually the only knives in a domestic setting. Those with the curved blade edges are 切骨刀) (qiē gǔ dāo), literally cut bone knife, and are generally butcher's knives intended for cutting through bones, cartilege etc as well as slicing meats. The meat vendors in every market in China use those. Rare in home kitchens.

It reads 戴斯特牌 華氏廚刀 which means Dexter Kitchen Knife.

Splashed out for a nice little whisky.Only ₤2.1 million / $2.62 USD. Hey, It's nearly Christmas. https://news.sky.com/story/bottle-of-almost-100-year-old-whiskey-smashes-auction-record-13011457 Damned link writer spelled it wrongly!

酸甜排骨 (suān tián pái gǔ), Sweet and sour pork ribs 小炒藕片 (xiǎo chǎo ǒu piān), Stir-fried lotus root slices 米饭 (mǐ fàn), Rice 紫菜蛋花汤 (zǐ cài dàn huā tāng), Seaweed egg flower soup The ribs were good. Not over sweet and certainly not day-glo. Oversauced as usual. Stir fried lotus root also included 木耳 (mù ěr), wood-ear fungus. Tasty. $3.68 USD.

Post of the Year!

Somewhere, I have a reference to a chicken purée something, where the chicken is prepared solely using a Chinese cleaver, but takes hours. You probably don't want to know about that!

It was about 20 years ago. A friend was leaving China for the USA to study, so a farewell party. The event was held in a restaurant owned by a mutual friend who kindly gave me access to the kitchen. The omelette (plain) was made in one of their huge woks. Woks are not really suited to omelette making as the egg naturally pools in the bottom, so I had to keep swirling it until the egg set around the edges of the pan – back-breaking work. The hardest part was then folding it. I remember I took three of us to flip it over on itself. It was then served on a huge banquet platter, presented intact, then cut into slices with a machete! Someone did take pictures but it was before the Instagram age whereby people photograph every piece of trivia they come across, so I don’t have a copy. Also most of the attendees are long gone from China (two long gone from the world, alas), but I can ask around and see if anyone has one. The friend settled in Seattle after her study and is still there. She doesn’t have a copy, either. Everyone did find it hilarious but assumed it was just made with lots of separate chicken or duck eggs, but I had kept the now empty shell as evidence. Both emu and ostrich egg shells are sold here pre-blown (no, you don't get the contents) as curios or ornaments, usually intricately and beautifully painted or carved. Here are a couple of images from Taobao, Chinese largest online shopping site. Painted Emu Egg Painted and Carved Ostrich Eggs.

I can buy Australian Emu eggs here in China. The equivalent of $28 USD. I never have, but I have bought ostrich eggs which are at least half as big as emu eggs again (equal to around 24 chicken eggs), and cheaper at $19. I have cooked one as a party joke. Biggest omelette ever. Just for fun, but tasty. Image from the local emu egg vendor's advertising.

Most recipes I've seen suggest a pre-boil of about a minute then 3 mins at 325℉. They can also be air-fried.

Yesterday must have been Food and Drink Gift Giving Day in China, a previously unknown festival. Not only did I get a free can of beer (above post), but when I ordered dinner for delivery, they threw in this bag of shrimp crackers, free and gratis, without charge!

Last night, more out of laziness than considered thought, I ordered this. 套餐B: 黄咖喱喱鸡+泰式炒牛肉+冬阴功汤+泰式包菜+米饭 tào cān B: huáng gā lí lí jī + tài shì chǎo niú ròu + dōng yīn gōng tāng + tài shì bāo cài + mǐ fàn Set Meal B: Yellow Chicken Curry+Thai style fried beef+Tom Yum Soup+ Thai style cabbage+Rice. Soup To my surprise, they threw in a bag of Thai style shrimp crackers; I've ordered from them before and this was a first. It was all very good for the genre. $4.50 ic delivery from the local Thai restaurant.

There is possibly a better place to post this but I couldn't find anywhere just to say "this looks interesting". I'm not at all a cookbook collector, but I'm tempted to buy this one. This is an interview with the author rather than an independent review but I thought to share and perhaps get thoughts back. https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/food-writer-most-underappreciated-culinary-city-2756826 By the way, Dhaka airport is the worst I've ever been in and I've been in a lot! Love the country and people, though.

This afternoon I ordered a six pack of the local brew from my local beeratorium. They arrived 20 minutes later and it turned out that they had also thrown in a seventh as a thank you gift for my custom! I have been buying from them for about 15 years so ...

Breakfast this morning was that Sino-Italian classic - leftover pizza from last night. Served - 冷 (lěng) , freddo. No picture. You know what cold, leftover pizza looks like.

Now that I'm out of the bed I lay in for over four months, I am back to my favourite snack. It's (con)fusion snacking. Irish Cheddar Cheese on Chinese seaweed crackers with Japanese nori and peppered with black pepper from Vietnam. I remember AnnaN being intrigued when I mentioned it before, but will now never know whether she tried it as she said she would like to.

Next up, hard dried tofu. This is what it says - ultra-dried to the point it becomes dense and chewy. Often served as a snack item. It comes in two varieties. This one has also been smoked. and This one has been treated with 5 spice powder. Both from Sichuan.

Shoe removal on entering homes is standard practice over most of Asia, especially East and South-East Asia. Every home, including mine, has an abundance of house slippers just inside or even outside the home for residents and visitors to use. It makes sense. No one wants the dirt, mud, detritus and unidentifiable but suspect crap from the street (or unpaved paths is some places) inside their homes. I remember one guesthouse in Thailand where the owner sat at the door all day and most of the night in case one guest dared to so much as put so much as one shod shoe over her doorstep. She would scream at offenders and have the entire guesthouse fumigated and exorcised if anyone ignored her. But the best was when I was teaching in a Hunan university. All faculty and their families lived on campus in a special dormitory area. Shoes were left outside the doors as normal. As a pre-graduation prank, the students crept in one night and stole all the shoes then laid them out on the school basketball grounds in mismatched pairs. In the morning, all the staff were to be seen scuttling around in their house slippers attempting to find and match their shoes, all of which looked remarkably similar, while the students lined their overlooking dormitory balconies howling with laughter. Fortunately, most of the staff saw the funny side and no retribution took place. I was spared as I lived in a separate area. Anyway, in order to remain on topic, I will add that I've never heard of anyone having a foot accident in a domestic kitchen in China, although I supposed it must happen sometimes, but not enough for it to be considered an issue.

Week ago I posted here a version of 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng), Kung-po Chicken in America. That one was OK but not great. Tonight I tried again and bought this from an actual Sichuan restaurant. It was freaking hot and freakin good. Maybe the best I've eaten outside Chengdu, Sichuan's capital. It did cost the equivalent of $5.00 USD compared to last week's $2.50, though. Money well spent.

Yes. Some of the lobsters I can buy find here are frozen Canadian, but most of them are from New Zealand and they are shipped by air both live and frozen. But lobster, fresh or live, is very much an expensive luxury and therefore a tiny niche market.

This one is a bit odd, at least to my mind. Here it is always sold as ‘Japanese Tofu’. I guarantee you it has never been anywhere near Japan. It is actually 蛋豆腐 (dàn dòu fu), ‘Egg Tofu’. Now I’m not denying that Japan also has ‘egg tofu’ but so do many any other places. As the name suggests, it is a mix of egg and tofu. Usually sold here in these plastic prophylactics. Squeezing your mouthful out of its condom, you are rewarded with this semi-erect sausage of eggy tofu. It is slightly firmer than silken tofu (which did originate in Japan) but marginally more handleable with care. It is usually eaten in restaurants, particularly during celebratory banquets but using many different cooking techniques. It can be eaten raw, fried, roasted, toasted, boasted and ousted. The most common, in my experience is a very light fry on scallop shaped discs and served with soy sauce. I find it OK but wouldn’t go searching for it.

The fresh food in that supermarket is very fresh. You can see, smell and taste the difference. The Chinese shopper is fanatical about freshness. Fish and other seafood is almost always bought live. That is one important reason why there is so little frozen food available. Are you suggesting flash frozen than live? Japanese restaurants in many countries are legally required to freeze fish to be sold raw on sushi or as sashimi, not to preserve it but to kill parasites.