liuzhou

It's Dominos.

Fancy a cup of tea with your tofu. No problem. This is medium firm tofu braised in tea, then left to marinade in the tea for a few hours, before being dried. This particular sample is from Sichuam, but it's also made elsewhere.

Is the package labelling in Chinese? If so, if you post a picture, I may be able to translate for you. That said, there isn't really any 'correct' type to use other than to be 'mein', they must be wheat noodles.

皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), century egg and lean pork congee. First thing I've cooked in almost five months.

...and another. This one's from Shaoyang, a city in Hunan. It is a firm type, again smoked but over firewood and given a much heavier smoke than the Sichuan type above. It heavy smoke is typical of Hunan, not only for tofu, but meats and sausages, too.

I kind of forgot about this topic. There are still many more tofu types. Here's another. Dried smoked tofu from Sichuan.

A water damaged menu from the Titanic has been sold in London for ₤84,000 / $103,000 USD. Full story here.

'Chinese knives' doesn't mean they're from China. Maybe China style. I can't find any trace of any such company anywhere in China. In fact, even in America it is only listed on your beloved Amazon with a mere trace on Walmart. The Chinese name on the blade is nonsensical.In Japanese it means monarch or champions, but I can find no trace of that company or brand in Japan, either.. Anyway, I only mentioned the name in passing. My real point is that you have bought a butcher's knife for chopping bones.

I've never seen anyone in China using a dumpling cutter. Every kid is taught to do it by hand as soon as they pass toilet training! Well made Chinese dumpling wrappers are hand rolled with a tapered roller to ensure the edges are thinner than the centre. You can't achieve that with a cutter. Jiaozi (dumpling) tools

We need a picture. Or at least some dimensions. Preferably both.

I don't know, but I can find no evidence that it is a Chinese brand. The name in 'Chinese' does not equate to Enoking and using the 'Chinese' name on an internet image search only returns a bunch of images from garish looking comics. No knives. Not to say that they don't make good knives. To over-simplify, there are basically two types of Chinese cleavers. What we call a 菜刀 (cài dāo) which literally translates as 'vegetable knife' but really means kitchen knife or chef's knife. This is most cooks' go to in China. Mine weighs 434 grams. 菜刀 (cài dāo） The second is 切骨 切 (qiē gǔ dāo), literally meaning 'cut bone knife', sometimes (incorrectly) translated as meat cleavers. These are considerably heavier and meant for butchering. They are designed specifically for cutting through bones. They are much less common in domestic kitchens. Mine is almost three times heavier than the cai dao, being 1.2 kg. 切骨 切 (qiē gǔ dāo) From your description, the heaviness and the image on Amazon, I think you may have bought the second type. To my amusement, while trying to find any reference to Enoking, I came across Serious Eats article on the best Chinese cleavers. Not only was there no reference to Enoking, but all the Chinese cleavers they recommended were Japanese! Seriously?????

I have to share this image of the front page of a British "newspaper" yesterday. The Star is the dregs of journalism and makes the National Enquirer looks almost intellectual! Celebrity trivia, fake news, hysterical nonsense and reportage that seems to think that soap operas are real life documentaries and regularly publish their plot twists as breaking news. You know the sort of thing. But this amused me.

Why do you think that? Where do you get that information?

河内熟牛肉粉 (hé nèi shú niú ròu fěn), Hà Nội Phở Bò, Hanoi Beef Phở Beef tendons, beef brisket, scallion, red chilli, bean sprouts, Thai basil and mint and rice noodles in a rich beef broth. Came with a mean ¼ of a tiny Vietnamese lime. Phở Bò in China From the my local Vietnamese restaurant named 西贡 (xī gòng) which is Sài Gòn in Vietnamese and Saigon in English. The restaurant isn't bad but ludicrously overpriced. This was ¥36 while I can get a not too dissimilar Chinese beef noodle dish for ¥12. I can't see many locals biting. There are a lot of Vietnamese students in the local colleges. They definitely won't be coming. I can't remember how much I paid last time I was in Vietnam (2018), but much, much less for a better bowl and unlimited lime. Phở Bò in Vietnam

One supermarket here trialled four self-checkout checkouts. Didn't save them a penny in staff costs as they had to employ more staff to help customers navigate the idiotic system. They were abandoned after about six months and the supermarket closed for good one month later.

I feel sure Anna woud be happy to know the topic is continuing.Think of it as a tribute to Anna from her many friends here.

Same in UK. Usually.

The term 'Pope's nose' has been around since the 18th century. One of my favourite books is Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd third edition published in 1796) which defined it as "Pope's Nose, the rump of a turkey." Also known as the parson's nose. My father used the term - to my mother's annoyance, She agreed with Grose that it was vulgar, despite her being a good god-fearing athiest.

There was a brief fashion for Brazilian BBQ here in China about 15 years ago. Lasted about 6 months. 巴西 means Brazil and 烤肉 (top right of the sign) is roast meat. I can also recommend Tibetan BBQ'd yak meat grilled over a yak dung fire. Not many trees up there!

But not around the globe which was the claim.

The packaging states 12 months.

Of course not, but I only added it as an interesting aside, as I said.

I don't think inventing new, perhaps better, more efficient tools to do the same thing affects the origin of the food which is the point of the topic. Also, I don't know where you get the idea that American Barbecue is sought globally. Barbecued / grilled meat is a miniscule minority in most of Asia. Xinjiang barbecue, Mongolian barbecue, Korean barbecue, Vietnamese barbecue, Indian barbecue etc are all hugely popular among the billions of people in Asia. I have lived in China for nearly 30 years and never seen an American barbecue place, although there may be some in Beijing or Shanghai (catering to the Americans working in those cities, not so much to the locals).

To make black ant 'wine'. Roughly translated by me from the seller's webpage. Take 1 pound of ants and stir into 10 pounds of 50⁰ baijiu* and allow to bubble for around 2 to 3 weeks. You may also added ginseng, wolfberries (goji), gastrodia** and other auxiliary herbs. You will live forever! (I may have added the last sentence.) * For those that don't know, 白酒 (bái jiǔ) is a Chinese spirit made from, usually, sorghum. Smells like vomit and tastes worse. ** Gastrodia elata Blume. Another unproven herbal medicine used in TCM.

Last night was a pizza I've posted often enough before, but I took the notion that I fancied some chips (fries) with that. Fortunately, I spotted this on the pizza place's delivery app page. I was sitting with my finger over the <SEND> button when some instinct stopped me. Sure enough, in the fine print I found that they weren't potato but fried lotus root. Now, I like lotus root, but this wasn't what I wanted, so I abandoned that idea. I could have ordered fries from a different vendor but there is a minimum order value of ¥20 on the app and fries alone cost half that and two portions is too much for me. So just pizza it was. Maybe tonight, I'll get my chips.