liuzhou

Hospital lunch. Rice noodles with pork and pork offal. Not bad Not great. No picture, alas.

Hospital breakfast congee with century egg and lean pork, and a side of pickled beans.

Afraid so. Nothing too serious.

Tonight a lovely young nurse tried to feed me some rice noodles because she assumed a foreigner couldn't use chopsticks. I didn't want to embarrass her but I've been in China longer than she has and been using chopsticks three times longer than she's been alive. So, I just asked her for the chopsticks and fed myself. Instead of being embarrassed, she was delighted and spent the afternoon giggling. Real sweetie.

Working breakfast. 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), Century Egg and Pork Rice Porridge (Congee).

"Camembert" is not protected under EU laws. "Camembert de Normandie" is. Not the same thing. https://www.mashed.com/417638/what-is-camembert-cheese-and-what-does-it-taste-like/

For reasons only known to their avaricious fevered imaginations, the local authorities have, in their wisdom, erected a statue to luosifen out side the main railway station. A bowl of the aforementioned. Of course, it looks nothing like the real thing.

For more on chopsticks and their usage, see this topic's first couple of pages and again on page eight here.

My French compatriots are up in arms (again). Actually reading the article this quote is from, reveals the truth. Terrible "news" sight. The article is here.

A couple of 肉包 (ròu bāo), pork stuffed steamed buns (and a cup of that ancient Chinese medicinal strong black coffee). I served the buns with a chilli dip.

The mistake chopstick learners make most often is holding the stick too near the point. It may seem counter-intuitive but holding them further up towards the end is much more controllable. And hold the stick nearest your little finger still and only move the other one. Move both and your dinner will end up everywhere except your mouth. Wrong Better If the average two year old in China can master it, anyone with functioning hands can. Start with something largish, say a one inch cube, then work your way down through smaller and smaller to individual peanuts then individual grains of rice. Also, remember that a scooping action is also used with some foods.

Most of those are bamboo now, at least in China. The wooden ones contributed massively to deforestation and resultant flooding. They are being discouraged, but old habits die hard. They are still being exported all over the world, especially to Japan and the USA. Every time I order delivery food, I click the 'no utensils required' box, but still get them.

I don't think so. If that were the case , why do they only appear in Cantonese banqueting places? All chopsticks, immaterial of the material, are put in those sterilizers.

What irritates me most (except antediluvial imperial measurements) is when recipes tell you to cut to the same size as something you've never seen. Just today, some recipe was advising me to cut something to the size of a silver dollar. I, and most of the planet, have never seen any such thing, or any other US coins, for that matter. Don't these people know that the internet is international? In revenge, my next earth-shattering cookbook is only going to give measurements in Chinese jiao coins. Grrr!

开胃皮蛋 (kāi wèi pí dàn), Appetizer Century Egg. This was in a sauce verging on a soup, with incendiary chilli, garlic, Chinese chives, soy sauce and vinegar. A deal breaker perhaps for many people, but just how I like it. 黄豆酸笋焖鱼仔 (huáng dòu suān sǔn mèn yú zǐ) Yellow Soy Beans, Pickled Bamboo Shoot and Baby Fish (species undetermined). This is a common dish locally, from the ethnic minority Miao and Dong peoples. Rice, of course.

I too hate metal chopsticks, but the worst are the (fake) porcelain ones used in Chinese banqueting restaurants, usually Cantonese. They are way too slippery and the wait staff know it. Almost every customer requests plain wooden or bamboo ones. Why they insist on providing the bad ones is out of some misguided idea that they are more upmarket. No. They are just dumb.

@dcarch @rotuts I think you are both missing one major point. Bone cleavers are about three times heaver than the regular varieties. Curvature is a feature, but weight is more so.

Lunchtime rolled around as it tends to and, although I wasn't particularly hungry, I felt like some snacky type things. I remembered seeing a snack platter on the local "Thai" restaurant's menu, so ordered some up. Looks not bad, right? Here is the restaurant's description (translated by my cell phone app.) What arrived was this. It was awful. One of the worst things to ever pass my lips. The curry sausage must have been cooked a week ago, was rock hard, burnt and tasted of nothing but dirty oil, which clearly hadn't been changed since Thailand was called Siam. I couldn't tell the fish cakes and the shrimp cakes apart. They were cooked in the same oil. The spring rolls were a disgrace to Thai food. If they served that in a Bangkok riverside night market they would be thrown into the river. The vendors, not the food. The customers have more respect for the fish!

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Chopsticks are much more practical and efficient for eating Chinese and some other Asian cuisines which are nearly always served family style. Reaching across a table to retrieve some of the food you want to place in your bowl is much easier with chopsticks, providing you know how to use them. I agree that they are impractical for much western style eating. And believe me, Chinese people struggle with knives and forks just as much as you may struggle with chopsticks. I've seen them trying often in western restaurants here. Can be quite amusing.

No. You are all wrong! These are what you need! Available in various colours.

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.