Gotten any fun stuff lately?

[Tropicalsenior]

I am extremely happy. Carlos took me to a Chinese store that I haven't been to in ages. It's about 20 miles from us and what they carry isn't exactly the best but I don't want to go downtown San Jose to get that. I lucked out and got everything that I needed to get back into cooking Chinese food. Good Chinese food that is. Rice vinegar, rice wine, good sesame oil, mirin, some Chinese vegetables and some Char Siu Bao. Probably not as good as what I make and cost about five times as much but I didn't have to make them.

And the best part about it was that it only cost me about $50 to get back out of the door.

Edited October 20 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[liuzhou]

It’s international sausage day! Says who? Well, me. It might not be international internationally but it is here in my apartment.

 

As you know. China has sausages which you probably know as lap cheong, but few people in China do. They are 腊肠 (là cháng) to 96% of Chinese people. That literally means ‘preserved intestines’ and applies to all sausages no matter what type they are or which passport they carry.

 

Now, I don’t really like 96% of the Chinese variety, but they are all I can usually get – usually too fatty and horribly sweet. In fact the only ones I regularly buy are blood sausages, which I DO like.

 

So, I was delighted a few days ago to discover an outfit offering me this selection of “international sausages”. Well, they actually offered me what they described as German sausages, but they lied.

 

What they offered me was:

 

Debrecener

 

280g of 德布勒森肠 (dé bù lè sēn cháng) which means Debrecener sausage which originates in the city of the same name in eastern Hungary but popular around the former Austro-Hungarian Empire; then 

 

Mexican

 

240g of 墨西哥肠 (mò xī gē cháng), Mexican sausage which I’m going to guess is popular around Mexico; followed by

 

Piquillo sausage

 

330g of 皮丘乐辣肠 (pí qiū lè là cháng), Piquillo sausage which are named after the piquillo chilli, a Spanish cultivar popular around Spain; and finally,

 

Bierbiser

 

240g of 风干啤酒肠 (fēng gān pí jiǔ cháng) meaning Air-Dried Beer sausages but labelled as Bierbiser, the German for Beer Drinker. They may be German but could be from anywhere that has air and beer.

 

All delivered to my door for ¥177.33 which is equal to $24.93 USD. Of course, I ordered them. They arrived today.

 

On closer examination, it turns out that they are all made by a company using the suitably German brand name Bahnhof, meaning Railway Station, whose factory is in Guangdong, southern China. Very international.

 

 

I’ll have fun playing with them over the next few days or weeks.

 

 

Edited October 25 by liuzhou (log)

[gulfporter]

Hesitated to post this as it's not a cooking gadget.  But the end result of cooking is clean-up.

 

We have a d/w but we often hand wash items either because it isn't dishwasher-safe or it's too bulky (sheet pans).  

 

Hand-washing we use Dawn liquid; we've had it in a pump bottle as well as just the squeeze bottle it comes in.  Either way, when you need a bit more of soap on the sponge, you have to put down either the item being washed or the sponge to pump or squeeze the soap. 

 

So an early Xmas gift from Amazon was this.  It's great!  Works perfectly, no after-use drips.  

 

 

[Shel_B]

1 minute ago, gulfporter said:

So an early Xmas gift from Amazon was this.  It's great!  Works perfectly, no after-use drips.  

 

 

 

Can you post a link or provide the name or other details?

[gulfporter]

Here's a link to the soap dispenser at Amazon, 

 

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

5 hours ago, gulfporter said:

Hesitated to post this as it's not a cooking gadget.  But the end result of cooking is clean-up.

 

We have a d/w but we often hand wash items either because it isn't dishwasher-safe or it's too bulky (sheet pans).  

 

Hand-washing we use Dawn liquid; we've had it in a pump bottle as well as just the squeeze bottle it comes in.  Either way, when you need a bit more of soap on the sponge, you have to put down either the item being washed or the sponge to pump or squeeze the soap. 

 

So an early Xmas gift from Amazon was this.  It's great!  Works perfectly, no after-use drips.  

 

 

 

I have a couple of automatic hand soap dispensers that work well, but can you actually use Dawn in yours?  Dawn is so viscous that it would not work in my dispensers.

 

[gulfporter]

Yes.  The ad said dish soap would work and so far Dawn is working well.  

 

I also like that the battery is a rechargeable via USB cord.  Says 1 charge will last 3 months.   

 

Also you can set the amount of soap dispensed. 

Edited 7 hours ago by gulfporter
added info (log)

[Shel_B]

22 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

Yes.  The ad said dish soap would work and so far Dawn is working well.  

 

I also like that the battery is a rechargeable via USB cord.  Says 1 charge will last 3 months.   

 

Also you can set the amount of soap dispensed. 

 

Sounds real good. Thanks for the information. @gulfporterDoes it work if you run a sponge under it rather than just a hand?

Edited 6 hours ago by Shel_B
Additional information (log)

[gfweb]

Those automatic soap things have a short life in our house

[Shel_B]

7 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Those automatic soap things have a short life in our house

 

Why is that? Have you found issues with the product or is it the manner in which you use them? Would you not recommend them, in general, or have there been specific issues with particular brands or designs?

[gulfporter]

52 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

 

Sounds real good. Thanks for the information. @gulfporterDoes it work if you run a sponge under it rather than just a hand?

 

Yes, that's how we are mostly using it.  I did some research and there are some dispensers that won't work with certain colors of sponges, though this one wasn't listed or mentioned.  I buy my kitchen sponges at Dollar Stores in multi-colored packs.  We are using a blue sponge now and working fine.  When I toss it out I will try to remember to try a yellow sponge.  

[gfweb]

59 minutes ago, Shel_B said:

 

Why is that? Have you found issues with the product or is it the manner in which you use them? Would you not recommend them, in general, or have there been specific issues with particular brands or designs?

 

They just stop working.  We gave up after three failures.

 

 

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Those automatic soap things have a short life in our house

Useless extra piece of crap to eventually throw away. Or worse, to put somewhere thinking it might work better some day.