liuzhou

These bowls are a mere 4.5 cm / a shade under 1¾" in diameter at the rim. Good for dips I suppose. They were sold in sets of three, one of each colour. However, there was a minimum order of 4 sets. So 12 miniature bowls turned up this morning. But I like them. I guess some will be passed on to friends in time.

Ginger is prescribed by the TCM wallahs for gut problems. I've found it effective in the past.

Thanks. That's pretty much what I expected. Same here. The only English menus locally are either my translations or in an English dialect incomprehensible to anyone. The tourist places are a bit better - sometimes.

She's right. I always eat my baozi with chilli sauce. BTW, do many Indnesian restaurants have Engish menus? I know you were often staying in touristy centres this trip, so wondered if it was just those or more general. Excluding the islandl I know it's tourist only.

Hmmm. Another "superfood" scam. There is no evidence.

I can see that working well. It is a wonderful green vegetable. I'm much less enthused about the berries though, either red or black.

There are street vendors with portable cane extraction machines all over town here. Now I think about it, I don't recall seeing that anywhere else. We don't have premise based cane vendors so much.

I've been looking foward to this. Pulling up a metaphorical easy chair and getting ready! Good start.

鲜马肉煮伊面 (xiān mǎ ròu zhǔ yī miàn). Fresh horsemeat with boiled e-fu noodles. The actual noodles (aka Yi Mian) are Cantonese egg noodles, but the broth and toppings are pure Liuzhou. Spicy with chilli, fresh Sichuan peppercorns and chili oil. Morning glory, garlic and peanuts. All in a rich horse bone broth. This lot cost me ¥16 or $2.22 USD and could easily have fed two (inc an unrequested can of lemon squash and delivery). Half is now in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.

I don't know where all this British cold toast business is coming from. I've been British all my long life and never been served cold toast. It may be a hangover from the 1950s' bad bed-and-breakfast places, which are now stock in trade from bad sit-com writers. Or alternatively the many motorway Services places which were always a joke. The worst toast I've eaten was in France. That was cold. Plain untoasted sliced sweet "bread" is often called "Toast" here in China. Of course that doesn't count as there is one thing for sure - it ain't toast.

In 2021, my 35 year old Black and Decker finally went off to toaster heaven. I replaced it with this. A no name Chinese number with top-up feature as well as defrost setting. I'm happy with it, especially at a cost of $14 USD equivalent. Won't suit those who demand non-Chinese goods, though. Any of you got iPhones?

红烧排骨 (hóng shāo pái gǔ), red-cooked pork ribs 烤鸭 (kǎo yā), roast duck The two proteins were served with stir-fried and shredded spicy napa cabbage. Plating looks like it was lobbed from a helicopter, i know. My doing entirely, but I am semi paralysed and I was hungry. 枸杞菜蛋汤 (gǒu qǐ cài dàn tāng) This was delicious. Basically, egg drop soup but with goji tops replacing the more usual seaweed. I'll be pinching that idea if I ever recover enough to cook. I dealt with this by treating it as another vegetable side dish, digging out the greens. Then finished by drinking the soup. Very Chinese. 米饭 (mǐ fàn)

One of my earliest memories is of sitting with my parents around an open fire toasting bread over the coals using a brass toasting fork. It was about 18 inches long with swivelling head like this. That was around 70 years ago. I have no idea what happened to the fork. Last time I was in my mother's kitchen (2019) there was a Morphy Richards electric job. The coal fire disappeared decades ago. I have an anonymous Chinese toaster which cost next to nothing. I don’t see the need to spend a lot. However, I'd buy the fork in the link if I were in the UK. They don't ship to China. And I don't have an open fire.

Queso Blanco just means 'white cheese', so can be many different cheeses. The cheese sold under that name in Mexico etc is just one, albeit popular type. What is "regular cheese"? That depends where you are.

It's rare for me to spatchcock chickens although I've dispatched a few. When I am called upon to do either, I use this.

红烧狮子头 (hóng shāo shī zǐ) - Red-Cooked Lion's Head Meatballs 香卤鹌鹑蛋 (xiāng lǔ ān chún dàn) - Stewed Salted Quail Eggs 香菇滑鸡 (xiāng gū huá jī) - Fried Chicken with Shiitake 米饭 (mǐ fàn) - Rice

Yes, me too. The ones I am referring to were, I think just shown a glass of water from the other side of the kitchen. Hospital catering is designed to recruit new patients, I think.

But possible to undercook as I know to my regret. I recently had some which were inedible. Guess where? ☣

I didn't realise sand ginger (沙姜 -shā jiāng) was so rare. It's in every supermarket here, both 'fresh' (both young and old) and in the dried, sliced form but in different sections. The fresh variety is in the vegetables aisles whereas the dried is in the TCM herbs section. I can also order either type online and have it delivered with in the half hour. Dried Sliced Sand Ginger

If I were to start posting all the mis-spellings and mistranslations I see every day, I'd have a full time job. I think I've only ever posted one. Crap instead of carp. Of course, the errors are in several languages. Including Chinese (although not technically mis-spelling, the use of the wrong, but homophonic character can be hilarious. 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn) 螺丝粉 (luó sī fěn) are pronounced identically but the first means 'snail noodles' and the second, 'screw noodles'. They are often confused, even by cafe type shops selling the dish, Liuzhou's signature dish. One place near me has two signs; one wrong, one correct. But my favourite is this. The sign on the left reads "螺狮粉" (luó shī fěn) which means 'spiral lion noodles'

Another broken-backed delivery dinner. Clams with oyster sauce and chilli oil. Rice.

No room for a double rice cooker? I mean those dorms are short on hiding spaces. Came across this today. You may not be able to multiply but you can divide. 鸳鸯电饭锅 (yuān yang diàn fàn guō) Mandarin Duck Rice Cooker. Apologies for image quality. It's a screenshot from a video advertisement. I'll try to find a better image and replace but the inner bowl of the cooker is divided in two like this ... ... but with the dividing barrier taking the traditional 阴阳 (yīn yáng) shape.

I see what you mean, but the historical record shows otherwise. Both meanings seem to have arisen together. In fact, the "something that affected an organism" is recorded first (1585), a mere 16 years before the "the condition of an organism" meaning.

蚂蚁上树 (mǎ yǐ shǎng shù) / 小蛮椒 (xiǎo mán jiāo), Ants Climbing Trees* / Small Barbarian Peppers. 干椒酸笋红薯苗 (gān jiāo suān sǔn hóng shǔ miáo) Dried Chilli, Pickled Bamboo, Sweet Potato Shoots. *“Ants Climbing Trees” is a classic Sichuan dish comprising mung bean starch noodles (glass noodles) with minced pork. The grains of pork are the ants which appear to be climbing the branches of the tree (the noodles). Some sort of green vegetable is incorporated to be the tree’s leaves; here this rôle is taken by green chillies. In case that isn’t hot enough this one was supplemented by Small Barbarian Peppers. These are fiery red chilli peppers, so called as they, like all chilli peppers, were introduced from the central Americas where be barbarians! Sweet potatoes are on the barbarous side, too.

Been there. Right now my biggest problem is getting the oven door open. Haven't used it for nine months.