liuzhou

Don't I know it!

Bit of an odd morning. I was being wheeled through the crowds (it's a busy hospital) to a treatment room when someone called my name. An ex-student who graduated with a good MA about ten years ago. Neither of us had time to stop. About 15 minutes later she reappeared bearing a large shopping bag of gifts from the hospital shop - a typical polite reaction to running into me. Chinese custom. Later, back in my cell, I found two large bao buns (stuffing as yet undetermined), two boiled eggs, two half litre containers of soy milk, two cobs of damnation (my students weren't so aware of my c@rn aversion as people here) and two bottles of purified drinking water. The kindest nurse of the day will get the corn and the runner-up the the soy milk. The rest I'll use.

An aside, but even as a crab lover, the concept of Dungeness crab scares me. The original village of Dungeness near London is most famous for its nuclear power stations, among England's most well known. The village is actually now a bizarrely beautiful tourist attraction and the area known for its presumably non-nuclear seafood. But the now decommissioned power plants (also open to visitors) remain best known. https://www.historyhit.com/locations/dungeness/

I'm no meat expert But the persillé of beef just means the marbelling of any cut. I've never known it to refer to a specific cut.

Dinner tonight was a Bánh Mì from my favourite Vietnamese restaurant which fortuitously is just across the road from the hospital's main entrance. Sorry, I'd eaten almost half of it before I remembered to take a photograph. 😎

I never pay attention to lists compiled from anonymous 'customers' (or reviews from same 'customers'.) Too many fakes, too many vested interests, too many scores to settle, too many trolls, too many clueless diners, etc. "The curry was spicy! I don't like spicy food!" "The ice cream was COLD!" "The soup was too wet and the spaghetti was too long."

A few days ago, I mentioned I had a rice noodle dish with pork meat and offal from the hospital canteen for lunch but had no picture. Today, I had it again. As supplied, it was a bit bland but I had cunningly secreted a leftover little pot of hot sauce from an outside delivery dinner a couple of evenings ago. That woke my rice noodles up nicely.

Pork tenderloin (里肌肉 - lǐ jī ròu) is my go-to pork cut for almost everything. Stir fried dishes, as steaks, sino-schnitzels, Greek style kebabs, my favourite coriander pork dish and more. The only other cut I regularly use is pork belly, 五花肉 （wǔ huā ròu) 'fiver flower pork' , but that's a different kettle of pig.

I agree that unvarnished chopsticks are easier to grasp (and hold the food better) but in my experience shorter sticks are not an advantage. Less leverage.

South Asia and parts of S.E Asia do use coconut cream, but not in most of China. They use neither.

鱼香肉丝 (yú xiāng ròu sī), Fish Flavour* Pork Slivers. Pork, carrot and black woodear fungus with a 'fish flavour' sauce. * There is no fish involved. This Sichuan method uses herbs and spices etc more traditionally associated with fish dishes but applies them to other ingredients, especially pork as here but also with eggplant. Delivered to my hospital bed (with rice) for just $2.80.

@BonVivant Great topic and posts. Apart from the ever-fascinating food, in your last post, the stilt houses are not dissimilar to those found among some of the ethnic minorities here in Southern China. I've only seen sesame growing once and that was in Kew Gardens London's tropical house. I do remember it being an interesting plant with beautiful white trumpet shaped flowers. I'm told it does grow round here but most of our seeds, oils and pastes seem to come from further north, particularly Shandong province which is more on the same latitude as Japan. Makes sense, I guess.

Just saw this. I've been busy trying to see at all. Those in your last link look most sensible to me, even for children, despite lack of cuteness. Cuteness at the dinner table is not encouraged here. That said I don't recall seeing elders struggling here but maybe a lifetime of daily usage at every meal fossilizes the hands in just the right grip. Dunno.

Mala tofu 麻辣豆腐 (má là dòu fǔ), the vegan version of mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 (má pó dòu fǔ) is another standby and enjoyed by vegetarians, vegans and normal people alike. The interwebs have recipes.

I haven't seen what you call heavy cream in about 27 years! Not even available online.

I'm being boring and relying on my usual hospital standby for breakfast. It's the one thing they do really well. 皮蛋瘦肉粥, century egg and lean pork mince congee. However, I am yearning for one I spotted on my outside delivery app. The description given is "Prawn Seafood Porridge Heritage pork marrow bone soup is cooked for 8 hours without any additional ingredients. No chicken bouillon or monosodium glutamate. Only bone soup, rice, prawns and clams." The problem is it costs 15元 (very reasonable), but the delivery service has a minimum 20元 requirement. Were I at home I'd order two and refrigerate or freeze one for later but no such option here. I'll have to wait until my sentence is served! Soon.

铁板海鲜全家福炒饭, iron grilled sea food family portrait fried rice. Contains fresh clams, oysters,squid and shrimp. Medium spiced. Also came with a little pot of hot sauce (just visible) on the right. And a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup which wasn't listed or photographed

Took two days, but I managed to track down the only nurse in this huge hospital who knows the address of where she works. So, now I'm back to my usual food delivery app of late. To celebrate, for lunch I went for fusion food. Sichuan-Mexican, The in fact. Had a Sichuan flavoured burrito. Contents are chicken fillet, lettuce, tofu, scallion etc with a spicy Sichuan sauce. Not bad. Fat and bulbous, as the Captain said. Here's the thing as advertised on the app. Shows the contents better than the real thing.

Having visited fish sauce manufacturing places in both Vietnam and Thailand I can say the process is just as disgusting, but someone else's problem. I'll sticking with my bottles. P.S. Red Boat is Vietnamese. Not Thai.

I moved to the tropics and the problem stopped coming up! But seriously, it's about the only thing I do use my microwave for, when it's rarely required.

There are a number of simple Italian pasta dishes that I fall back on, including the favourite pesto pasta made with freshly made (cheese-less) pesto in the mortar and pestle.

Not a relapse or follow up, but a different issue. Not so serious. Thank you.

and I agree although I do like tofu. it is no replacement for any cheese.

Hospital dinner. A bit strange Beef, pork, potato (I think), luffah, cabbage, chilli, peanuts, rice. Not bad though.

Have any of the inexperienced chopsticks users tried the training type I'm not sure if they are sold adult size but maybe. These are what I see advertised here. I have no idea how helpful they are and none of my friends have use them with their kids. But they're cheap enough to play with. Maybe Amazon?