liuzhou

I'm getting tired of delivery dinners. Although they have been good almost without exception, I miss cooking and being able to make what I want rather then what a restaurant wants to sell, no matter how good. It's been almost a year. So, today I clicked through the app in a desultory manner and hit upon a place I've tried before. I noticed they were offering a beef, pork and chicken burrito. The concept of a three meat burrito intrigued me. That said, I know nothing about Mexican food so maybe they're as common as fish and chips or pizza. No doubt, someone will tell me. Here it is. Actually, rather good. Spicy and lots of salady vegetables to accompany the meats. There was a second one, but the first filled me up. I'll have the second maybe for supper; maybe for breakfast tomorrow.

One of my favourites is this stir-fried sweet potato shoots and garlic. Fried in self rendered lard, yes. Even better with spinach instead of the sweet potato.

It surprised me the first time I saw it, but here the strawberries don't appear in summer, but in December. I was used to July in the UK.

Here (centre) are the potato slivers in my delivery dinner today.

China likes slivers, 丝 (sī), or julienned strips for dinner. The Chinese word is used to describe any threadlike thing and is the origin of the English 'silk'. So tonight a trio of slivers over rice slithered its way to me. On the left, we have 香辣鱿鱼丝 (xiāng là yóu yú sī), spicy squid slivers, centre is 清炒土豆丝 (qīng chǎo tǔ dòu sī ) stir-fried potato slivers and right, 美极杏鲍菇 (měi jí xìng bào gū), king oyster mushrooms (eryngii). I'm struggling to remember ever seeing this cutting technique used in any Chinese restaurant in Europe.

Who will ever know?

I have every intention of eating on and always did. I apologise for using irony. Most people got it but not all. Remember, my neighbours are the same people who went ballistic buying cooking salt when the Fukushima disaster occured in the deluded belief that it would somehow protect them. What I am worried about is that the very real outrage will be enough to damage the seafood business and I won't be able to get the seafood to eat on. In future, I'll have to add this to my posts.

Obviously I can't answer for @wellfoodrecipesbut potatoes are not actually very common in Chinese cuisine. They have long been looked down on disparagingly as poor peasant food. That is changing slightly, but very slowly. I can only think of one stir-fried treatment, which is also the most common treatment*. The potatoes are slivered like the narrowest shoestrings you can manage along with carrots similarly slivered, then stir fried with chilli and maybe slivered scallions or Chinese chives and finished with white rice vinegar. Served with other dishes as a sort of side. Here are some I inexpertly made and photographed a while back. The potatoes do cook very quickly. * Apart from McDonald's and KFC's fries.

Apart from the redundant second bowl, that's pretty much how I've ever seen anyone here do it here. No second bowl. Straight from the tap. The Chinese, the world's biggest rice eaters, are meticulous about cleaning rice. Obsessive, even.

That I don't understand. Of course it's been engineered; they don't grow on trees. Sieves and bowls are engineered, too! Washing the rice in the insert is no different from washing the insert after dinner.

I learned that in junior school. 60 years ago.

You and a billion people in China.

I may have to limit my pescatarian and related consumption. According to the map below showing the projected risk, Guangxi is one of the highest risk areas. I guess about 90% of our marine food is local, especially that landed in Beihai on the south coast. Beihai is also a major aquaculture centre for southern China. Not surprisingly people are concerned angry not only about the health risks, but the effect on the local economy. Map translation by my Android phone. Looks like I've got around 8 months before I start glowing in the dark. Reminder: No politics, please.

牛肉炒面 (niú ròu chǎo miàn), beef fried noodles (chow mein). A generous plateful, featuring the beef and noodles but also including Chinese celery, garlic, carrots, cabbage, water spinach, soy sauce and chilli. I also got to see the motorcycle courier bringing it on the GPS tracking system, taking a wrong turn and tie himself in amusing knots trying negotiate the one way system around my home. He got here in the end and the food was still hot.

A message from Fuchsia

Fried grasshoppers are a delicacy popular among Chinese diners. In Liudong New District, Liuzhou, farmers built 50 greenhouses to raise grasshoppers artificially. Each greenhouse raised 50 kilograms of grasshoppers per month, and the annual income of the greenhouse base reached 600,000 yuan. ($82,3320 USD) Image via Facebook

British English v American English, in the main.

Sounds to me you are buying stale peppers. Or, please no, pre-ground.

To be fair, picture captions are rarely written by the article's writer and anyway the article does mention them again. And tinned anything is a type of conserva. The word means tinned food. The article is a hack job, though.

Tonight's episode in my delivery dinner saga is not visually great, but tasted fine. 子姜炒牛肉 (zǐ jiāng chǎo niú ròu), young ginger and beef stir-fry. Onion, chilli, young ginger, beef, rice wine and soy sauce.

I always double fry at minimum. Even better is Blumenthal's triple cook method, but time consuming. For me, more important than the cutting, is the choice of potato.

Today in 1837...Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins begin manufacturing Worcester Sauce, one of the best loved and versatile bottled English sauces.

Tonight's dinner was advertised on the delivery app as 清香藤椒鸡 (qīng xiāng téng jiāo jī) and promised it would contain 小米椒 (xiǎo mǐ jiāo) a dialect name for 朝天椒 (cháo tiān jiāo), facing heaven chilli peppers, but also used for other cultivars. 藤椒 (téng jiāo) is green Sichuan peppercorns, also referred to as rattan vine peppers. The American Mala Market, importer of Sichuan ingredients, claims that these are only used fresh which is erroneous. I have both fresh and dried here at home. To my amusement, they claimed this in a description for industrially prepared Rattan Pepper Oil. Duh! They do not stock the peppercorns. In fact they are not widely available even in China. They have the oil. The green peppers contain more of the essential Hydroxy-alpha-sanshool which gives all Sichuan peppers their numbing power than do the more common red variety. Also, the fragrance is stronger so eating them is more intense. Fresh Green Peppercorns Dried Green Peppercorns Anyway, back to my dish. It was generously loaded with sliced, on-the-bone chicken thigh meat, the required rattan peppers and two types of chillies, red and green. Finished with a sprinkling of white sesame seed, Chinese chives and peanuts. Damn but it was good. ¥21.40 / $2.93 USD inc delivery.

Pad kaphrao contest seeks true taste of Thailand’s most loved dish from The Guardian