liuzhou

蒜苔黄牛肉饭 (suàn tái huáng niú ròu fàn), Spicy stir fried beef with garlic scapes. It also contained wood ear fungus, tomato, ginger and soy sauce. Came with a tofu side and rice. The tofu was like mapo tofu that someone had forgotten to season. Very bland. The beef was good and spicy, although you get a choice of no spice, mildly spicy or hot. I chose hot. ¥23 / $3.15 USD.

What @Duvelsays. All capsicums start out green and go through colour changes as they mature.

全家福铁板炒饭 + 加价虾仁 (quán jiā fú tiě bǎn chǎo fàn + jiā jià xiā rén), Family Portrait Lucky Seafood Iron Plate Fried Rice plus Extra Value Shrimp. The portrait reference signifies that it contains all the seafood family. Not quite all but there were shrimp, mussels, squid and scallops. I chose to add the extra shrimp to the order. This came from one of my nearest restaurants, 计大厨海鲜炒饭 (jì dà chú hǎi xiān chǎo fàn), Chef Ji's Seafood Fried Rice. I have no idea who Chef Ji is but guess that he might own the restaurant. Or he may be fictional. Whichever, the fried rice is no longer his. It's mine.

My gas cooker is not connected to any electric source, mains or batteries. It uses a piezo electric igniter as do most. Same as modern cigarette lighters,

All capsicums start out green. A few stay that way, most turn red, then some yellow, then all dark brown to black as they rot. They are essentially the same, just like button mushrooms, portabella mushrooms and cremini are all the same species at different ages. The only difference is the mushrooms are edible, whereas...

Aah! Candlelit dinner. Lovely! I've always been glad my cooking is with gas. We get too many electricity outages here but I can always cook. I have a tabletop induction cooker, so the rare times the gas supply is cut for pipe maintenance I can rustle up something on that or call for delivery. The gas and electric have never, touch wood, both been out at the same time.

荷兰豆炒鱿鱼须 (hé lán dòu chǎo yóu yú xū), stir-fried snow peas and squid. Snow peas and squid are a classic pairing round here. It's a dish which, before I broke my back, I often cooked. This one is from a local restaurant called "柳州妈妈菜 (liǔ zhōu mā ma cài)" which means 'Liuzhou Mama's Food". I don't know about that, but it is homely fare. The 'tomato' in the dish isn't tomato. It's pickled red chilies. Not standard. 荷兰豆 (hé lán dòu) or snow peas literally means 'Holland beans'. The name arose from the generally believed idea that they were first cultivated there, then introduced to China by the English. They were formerly known as Dutch peas in Engish.

My point was that you would have to double the price to compare it with a regular portion. It would then be over the ₤10 'barrier'. "Some pubs" is a bit of an understatement; it's over one a day in England on average and many of those are hearts of local communities.

There are four main factors in the UK. Energy prices rising (while the energy companies are making record profits), Covid, Brexit, and the general cost of living crisis. Australia doesn't have one of them.

Smithfield Market in London has been the main meat market for over 800 years, but is closing down its ancient site and moving to the far away suburbs in east London. The poultry section will be gone by the end of the month and the rest will relocate over the next five years. This has been predictable for a long time. London's fruit and vegetable market in Covent Garden (as seen in the movie My Fair Lady) relocated in 1974 when it became impractible to have hudrends of trucks arriving in the centre of London in the middle of the night through the narrow streets. It is now a major tourist site and legally protected against further development. The meat will become a new site for The Museum of London. Story with pictures here from the Guardian

I only partly agree. Chippies have undeniably been dying at an unprecedented rate, as have pubs. The Matlock sample is, as you said, a mini version. Sure people might buy it (often visitors - both places you mention are tourist destinations) but the time when Friday night was fish and chips night for many ordinary families all over Britain is all but over. I have family in the trade. They aren't "doom and gloom" media; they see it dying. I'm sure there was a time when the idea that you would struggle to find a pie and mash / jellied eel shop in London would have sounded ridiculous and impossible, but only a handful remain. Same with many other once ubiquitous choices.

Definitely. Nothing British about it.

It is apparently available in the US

What difference would that make? And what kind of induction hob would be able hold several gallons of oil / fat? As I already said, fish and chip shops don't use hobs and pans. You can't cook hundreds of fish and thousands of chips at the same time that way. Not quick enough. These places get very busy (or used to).

The End of Prohibition, 1933

I wouldn't go so far as to say common, but certainly not unknown. Ginger and garlic are in almost everything, but hot pots and slow cooked dishes such as ribs frequenty also include bay leaves. Not stir fries though. Bay leaves are noted for being used in many Sichuan dishes. The Chinese for bay leaf is 香叶 (xiāng yè) which literally translates as 'savoury leaf'. And they are real bay leaves from the bay laurel plant, unlike many elsewhere.

Incidentally, the ₤10 barrier has been broken. The article is wrong there. The current menu for the wonderful Anstruther Fish Bar, my favourite, lists just the fish at ₤9.70 with the chips adding another ₤2.70. More expensive if you eat in the restaurant.

I'm not sure. I guess thermostats sometimes fail. And with gallons of hot oil around... I have PM'd you re the ₤ symbol. That said, you could cut and paste it from the article.

Shiitake ribs. With garlic, ginger, bay leaf, soy sauce. Served rice and stir-fried sweet potato shoots.

Recently, there has been a fashion here for large oysters, with vendors battling to find the most humungous. I'm waiting to see which one loses! I agree; smaller ones are usually better.

Fish and chip shops do not use pots on ranges. They use dedicated fish friers like this. Its a ₤10 barrier. The UK, like most countries, doesn't use dollars! 😂

Well, that's incorrect. Beans and other pulses contain the lectin, phytohaemagglutinin which is toxic in high amounts unless destroyed by boiling the beans for 10 minutes at 212℉ / 100℃. Thereafter they are safe even if undercooked. Red kidney beans have the highest concentration of phytohaemagglutinin so it's best to be more than usually careful with them. https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/healthy-tips/are-red-kidney-beans-toxic Undercooked beans are unpleasant, I agree, but not poisonous if prepared correctly.

Yeah, I know, but i take this more personally. Although I wasn't technically born in the East Neuk, it is only seven miles away from my birthplace and was my growing-up playground. I know and have eaten in most of the chippies mentioned. I was last there in 2019 and ate in the Anstruther* Fish Bar as I have done many times - long before British and Hollywood royalty dropped by. It's always sad to see traditions suffer, but when you have a strong connection, the wounds are deeper. * Anstruther is pronounced Ainster locally. Also the Fish Bar is still operating - but for how much longer?

A very sad tale from the Guardian about the part of the world in which I first drew breath and still have strong ties to.