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I was shocked to see your jar of Baltic sprats contains fish!! 🐡

Yesterday was a public holiday, the first of five, if you count next weekend, as the Chinese do. However, today is the main day May 1st, the international Labour Day. Yesterday, two of the last students I taught before retiring came to visit. I have cooked for them in the past, but this time they wanted to cook for me to demonstrate they had learned something besides linguistics. Well, one of them wanted to cook; the other was assigned washing and chopping duties. She is now a PhD student and lives on campus in Guilin without cooking facilities. Here is last night’s dinner The Spread Beef, Asparagus and Matsutake Steamed Shrimp Steamed Grass Carp Clam, Pork and Greenery Soup This was morning glory but I have no idea how she cooked it. Unfortunately, it was inedible. It turned out she tasted it then salted it but thought it needed a little sugar to lift it - a common Chinese practice. Unfortunately, she thought a container of sea salt in my kitchen was actually the sugar and re-salted it in error. They were mystified as to why I have more than one kind of salt (I have four). So, they gained a lesson on saltistics. This caused more hilarity than grief and we had too much food anyway and everything else was more than fine! The chef

Lifestyle Advice

Not everywhere. Not always. It can be made from any fish. Or chicken. Even if made from wild caught fish, the final product is still a processed food and definitely not wild caught.

鱼香肉丝炒面 (yú xiāng ròu sī , fish-flavour* pork slivers with fried noodles, 老干妈 (lǎo gān mā), Laoganma chilli crisp and deep fried tofu. Simple nut tasty. *No aquatic animalia involved; it means cooked with flavours more often associated with cooking fish in Sichuan.

I love your salad picture!

Today, I picked up Jordanian za'atar hummus.

I've been confused. I have crabs. These are described as 青蟹 (qīng xiè) which tells me nothing. 青 (qīng) is one of those annoying Chinese characters with multiple meanings. Among yet more meanings it can mean blue, green or black. So these are crabs of some kind of colour. Digging around, I discover that the blue crabs I'm used to can actually come in any colour that takes their notion. So, this is a black green red blue crab. They are a type of 梭子蟹 (suō zi xiè) or swimming crab, a member of the Portunidae family. Which precise variety, I have no idea. Tasty, though

Oooops! 'Lebanon' is not the best way to spell 'Jordan' where the hummus really comes from. معذرة (maadhhera) as they say in Jordan and Lebanon!

I know, but after repeatedly saying "free from additives". And still not Thai.

It doesn't sound at all Thai. Sambal oelek is Indonesian. And erythritol?

海信炒粉 (hǎi xìn chǎo fěn), seafood fried rice noodles. Seafood was shrimp and squid. Also carrots, cabbage, chilli, etc.

I have been known to buy Mae Ploy's* red curry paste but as I can only buy this 1 kg pot, I don't do so often. Must admit I'm not keen on the sweet chili sauce, but that's just me. Too sweet for my tastes. * The brand name means 'Mother Ploy' (แม่พลอย) and is the name of a character in สี่แผ่นดิน (Four Kings), a famous Thai novel. In the novel, she is a strong woman who was determined to preserve Thailand's (then Siam's) cultural heritage.

Sorry. I wasn't aware this was an art or beauty competition!

Good morning! 新鲜肉小笼包 (xīn xiān ròu xiǎo lóng bāo) Fresh pork xiaolongbao (small basket dumplings). Here with a chilli dip. I couldn't decide which picture to use, so you get both.

Indeed. I live about 10 minutes drive north of the Tropic of Cancer - I used to cross it every day driving to work back in the day I did anything so undignified as work. The line is marked on the expressway. So, I believe that counts as 'hot climate'. All vegetation is kept in the fridge (except tomatoes - I'm not a complete philistine) or dies rapidly. It's not a big problem for people here; most only purchase what they will use that day. Chinese fridges are usually fairly empty.

Yesterday, I spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to open a roll of what you probably call "aluminum foil". I could open the box, but not in the neat manner they pretend turns the box into an ideal container with cutting blade. The big problem was they had glued the end of the roll down with what I can only assume was some kind of super-super adhesive developed by the local equivalent of NASA for some nefarious purpose. It was impossible to remove or unfurl the roll without shredding the foil to confetti. Gave up; binned it; bought another brand. No problems. (My spellchecker is screaming at 'aluminum'.)

Indeed, bread and dripping was common throughout the UK, not just England. I grew up in Scotland and until I moved to London at the age of 18, thought that "a piece" was the standard English to say anything on bread / any kind of sandwich. If no filling or topping was mentioned, jam was the default. The use of the word with that meaning is mainly western Scotland.

Well, I wouldn't dare try to speak for Anna but in England where she grew up the dripping would have been on bread, I'm sure.

I finally got round to defrosting my 'Russian style' smoked herring. To my delight it was full of roe. I added butter and broiled 🇺🇸 / grilled 🇬🇧 it for a few minutes. Delicious. The finished dish is on the breakfast topic. It was a bit bony but not excessively so and the bones were mostly soft and edible. Good source of calcium, I guess. Next time, I'll get a larger one. Roe

'Russian style' cold smoked herring with its roe. (Actually produced in China.) I added butter and grilled 🇬🇧 / broiled 🇺🇸 it. Served with buttered sourdough.

I haven't met anyone who disagrees with you and neither do I. It gets worse over here.

That's what I call dinner!

Another clanger from the Grauniad today. Good for the scientists. I hope they enjoyed their bonding over alcohol. I like a bit of alcoholic fruit. Preferably grapes. But what were the chimpanzees doing?

Very similar looking mangoes are common here. Same variety, probably.