Unexpected Food Gifts

[liuzhou]

There are a few topics from the past dealing with gifts in connection with various festivals and holidays. but sometimes gifts arrive for no particular reason other than someone being kind. It happened to me today.

 

I was sitting at home minding my own business when I received a call from a courier company to say they were outside my apartment building with my package. I knew of no such package, but didn't think I'd upset anyone enough recently to expect dangerous deliveries, so I went downstairs and relieved the driver of his burden..

Back upstairs I found I was the happy possessor of a bunch of sausages and bacon made by a friend, her mother and husband. They live in a small town on the Guangxi-Yunnan border. I'm told that they were smoked over bagasse, the dry remains of sugar cane after the juice is extracted. Round here is the world's largest sugarcane producing area.

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[teonzo]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

but didn't think I'd upset anyone enough recently to expect dangerous deliveries

 

Damn, I paid top money for priority shipping and it's still on the way?

 

 

 

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Back upstairs I found I was the happy possessor of a bunch of sausages and bacon made by a friend

 

Surprises like this are one of the reasons why it's worth living, I'm happy you have such friends.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Round here is the world\s largest sugarcane producing area.

 

This is another surprise, since China is not that famous for pastry or rum. Sugar production for export?

 

 

 

Teo

 

[lindag]

What a very special gift!

[liuzhou]

11 hours ago, teonzo said:

This is another surprise, since China is not that famous for pastry or rum. Sugar production for export?

 

For both domestic use and for export. See the Sugar in China topic.

 

[teonzo]

Yup, I remembered that thread, that's one of the reasons why I was asking. I was surprised to read "world's largest sugarcane producing area", since people in Europe and America (whole continent) consume much much more refined sugar than Chinese people. I would have guessed China was importing sugar after the globalization, not exporting it. Another thing to learn.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[liuzhou]

12 minutes ago, teonzo said:

Yup, I remembered that thread, that's one of the reasons why I was asking. I was surprised to read "world's largest sugarcane producing area", since people in Europe and America (whole continent) consume much much more refined sugar than Chinese people. I would have guessed China was importing sugar after the globalization, not exporting it. Another thing to learn.

 

I did mean to write "one of the world's largest" as I think I did on the original thread,

The European Union is the world's largest importer of sugar. China is the third largest consumer, most of it home produced.

anyway, a bit off topic, don't you think?

[Shelby]

Nice!

[liuzhou]

Once again, a surprise. I was sitting at home (again) watching a movie, when someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find a man standing there with a 10kg bag of locally grown rice and 5 litres of peanut oil from the north of China, thousands of miles away.

 

 

He explained that he was from the local university where I do very occasional stints as a guest lecturer and that they were giving all their staff rice and oil, and had decided to include me in the deal. Rice and oil has a kind of symbolic meaning, being the two basic staples of life here in southern China and hence representing life itself.

 

Thank you very much.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@liuzhou on the bag of rice there is what looks like a European building.  Am I seeing things?

 

[liuzhou]

35 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

@liuzhou on the bag of rice there is what looks like a European building.  Am I seeing things?

 

 

It certainly looks European. Here is a closer look.

 

 

China's packaging and advertising is not known for its veracity. I've seen pictures of all sorts of very non-Chinese stuff on packaging for very Chinese foods.

 

That said, however, there are many European looking buildings in China. Qingdao, home of Tsingtao beer, for example, looks German (mainly because it was built by Germans) and there are replicas of most of the world's landmark buildings all over the place -Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Leaning tower of Pisa, etc.

 

As it happens, I have one friend from the town where that rice is produced. I will see her on Monday and will ask her if that building is really there or not.

 

Incidentally, the town in question was the scene of one of the worst atrocities of the cultural revolution.

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Here's a news report about western cities replicated in China.

[liuzhou]

I have also posted this on the Fruit Topic.

Another unexpected gift. For no apparent reason someone I only slightly know decided to bring me a mango. Not any old mango, but this monster. I have pictured it beside a regular sized chicken's egg and beside three regular mangoes to give you an idea of scale.

 

 

 

This titan of the mango tribe comes in at just over 2 lbs or just a tickle short of a kilogram. It isn't ripe yet, so I'll get back to you on its taste.

Edited July 25, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[Fernwood]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Another unexpected gift. For no apparent reason someone I only slightly know decided to bring me a mango. Not any old mango, but this monster. I have pictured it beside a regular sized chicken's egg and beside three regular mangoes to give you an idea of scale.

 

 

It looks like a piece of art glass!  All the mangoes in my market are either plain yellow or a standard red-green combo color scheme.  I have never seen such a showy one. ❤️

[caroled]

It's looks like some of the chocolates on one of the other thread of the cosmos. What color will it be when ripe? 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, caroled said:

It's looks like some of the chocolates on one of the other thread of the cosmos. What color will it be when ripe? 

 

It won't change color any more. It is very nearly ready to eat. Could just use another day to soften.

[liuzhou]

A friend just dropped by with these, after returning from a Chinese New Year/Spring Festival trip to Thailand.

 

She knows I like Thai food a lot (as does she), but find it difficult to get some of the herbs and spices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[ElsieD]

@liuzhou  Nice!  

[Anna N]

@liuzhou

 

 Can you talk about saffron versus saffran?  Is the latter powdered? 

[liuzhou]

28 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@liuzhou

 

 Can you talk about saffron versus saffran?  Is the latter powdered? 

 

Yes. I have no idea where the terminology comes from, other than Saffran being Swedish for saffron.

[liuzhou]

@Anna N

 

Thinking about your question further, I'm wondering if the SAFFRAN might actually be safflower (also known as bastard saffron). It was, in the past, known as saffranon. Maybe someone in Thailand is still using an 18th century Thai-English dictionary! *

Taste will tell.

 

*There is no such thing.

Edited February 20, 2019 by liuzhou
typo (log)

[Anna N]

 Being someone who is almost equally enamoured of food and language I did find your comment about the 18th century dictionary amusing.  

 

 It does seem a shame to powder saffron if it’s the real McCoy.

[CantCookStillTry]

A guy at work asked if I liked Snow Peas. 5 hours later.... 

 

Anyone got any recipes using 10 kg of Snow Peas ?!

 

[chromedome]

Well, blanching and freezing buys you a lot of time to think about it.

For something quick and easy, they make a nice soup. Pull the strings, simmer them in chicken or vegetable broth, then buzz them with a blender. I'll sometimes add a bit of green onion or sorrel to mine, but that's basically it. No recipe as such, just "that looks like enough."

[CantCookStillTry]

Okay. Who hung the invisible 'This Girl can't say no to huge amounts of things she can't use' sign around my neck? 

 

Pulled up at the drive through car wash in the big smoke today, a man approached my window as I went to tap and go. I lowered it a gap, expecting to be told it was out of order, and he said 'Do you like Mandarins?' 

 

Now what?!?

 

 

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Okay. Who hung the invisible 'This Girl can't say no to huge amounts of things she can't use' sign around my neck? 

 

Pulled up at the drive through car wash in the big smoke today, a man approached my window as I went to tap and go. I lowered it a gap, expecting to be told it was out of order, and he said 'Do you like Mandarins?' 

 

Now what?!?

 

 

 

 

It's tough to have too many of those!