Gotten any fun stuff lately?

[liuzhou]

Chinese Tilia Honey

 

Here is the entire relevant Wikipedia entry

 

Quote

Tilia chinensis (Chinese linden, Chinese: 椴树) is a species of lime or linden tree that is endemic to China. It flowers in July or August when honey bees collect honey from its flowers. Especially famous is honey taken from the Chinese linden flowers in Changbai Mountain.

 

This batch is indeed from said mountain.

 

 

[chromedome]

I'll be keen to hear what flavor notes make it so prized.

 

When I was a farmer's market vendor I offered a flight of local honeys set up for tasting: five individual honeys in tiny sample cups, with cards for people to write their own tasting notes (and examples and leading questions to help them wrap their heads around what to taste for). The honey vendors thought it was a great idea, though admittedly their admiration was tinctured with a strong note of "You got $5 for a couple of teaspoons of honey???!!!?"

[heidih]

24 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I'll be keen to hear what flavor notes make it so prized.

 

When I was a farmer's market vendor I offered a flight of local honeys set up for tasting: five individual honeys in tiny sample cups, with cards for people to write their own tasting notes (and examples and leading questions to help them wrap their heads around what to taste for). The honey vendors thought it was a great idea, though admittedly their admiration was tinctured with a strong note of "You got $5 for a couple of teaspoons of honey???!!!?"

My question as well on the flavor profile. It looks like it has been creamed  https://beewellhoneyfarm.com/creamed-honey-101/#:~:text=Creamed honey is a type,creamy and easy to spread.  

[ElsieD]

I love good honey, but I don't care for the creamed ones.  Why, I don't know, but my preference for the liquid type goes way back.  I have paid small fortunes for good honey and loved every drop.

[TdeV]

Haha, @ElsieD, when I was younger I used to pay extra for creamed honey. 🙄

[heidih]

7 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I love good honey, but I don't care for the creamed ones.  Why, I don't know, but my preference for the liquid type goes way back.  I have paid small fortunes for good honey and loved every drop.

Me too. My preference is for aa deep dark honey. Our bees forages on coastal chaparral, eucalyptus, and frit trees incl citrus  memories...

[ElsieD]

24 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Haha, @ElsieD, when I was younger I used to pay extra for creamed honey. 🙄

 

You poor, misguided soul, you.

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I love good honey

 

Me too. I haven't tried this one yet. I seem to have acquired a more than adequately large collection of honeys in the last few weeks. This one is, as others have suggested, 'creamed'.

Here is my translation of the the more interesting information on the rear label of the jar.

 

Quote

Tilia is one of the excellent tree species to be found on Changshan Mountain. This product is made by bees collecting nectar from the flower stamens of the Tillaceae plant in north-east China. It is rich, mellow and sweet. This product is the crystalline state of the Tilia Linden honey, showing fine creaminess.

Use: Eat directly or spread on food. Can also be transferred to warm water or milk and drunk.

Tip: This product below 15℃ is crystalline. Heat gently to dissolve into liquid, this being the natural property of honey. 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

Eat directly

Love it. Someone else recognizes that spooning it right out of the jar is the way to enjoy it.

[liuzhou]

红油辣椒 （hóng yóu là jiāo, literally 'red oil hot pepper'）- Sichuan chilli oil from Meishan in SW Sichuan. For some reason they have labelled it in Traditional characters - 紅油辣椒 - which are not normally used in Sichuan. As you can see, only the first one is different. The rest of the packaging uses regular Simplified characters.

 

The ingredients are simply vegetable oil, crushed Sichuan chilies and sesame seeds. It needs to be stirred before use as the sesame seeds have all floated to the top and the chilli to the bottom. On the other hand, you may wish to leave the chili undisturbed for a slightly less spicy hit.

Edited July 10, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I found this to be fun when I spotted them in a local store. Not because of what it is; because of how the Chinese was mistranslated.

 

 

Female raisins?

 

The Chinese actually reads "Green Fragrance Concubine Raisins", which may seem to make even less sense, but does mean something sensible in Chinese culture.

It refers to the Chinese 'beauty', 楊貴妃 (yáng guì fēi), literally "Highest Ranking Imperial Consort". Born in the year 719, she was No. 1 consort to the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuanzong (685-762).

Many dishes are said to be her favourites, although there are so many that she must have been huge. In fact, she was described as 'large' or 'rotund', but standards of 'beauty' have changed.

Here is one 14th century depiction (public domain image) of her being helped onto a horse by a team of attendants. 

 

Why the raisin company have mistranslated the Chinese remains a mystery although I'm not doubting that she was female. Perhaps they thought 'concubine' was too risqué for us sensitive foreigners.

P.S. Many years ago, I was taken to what was described to me as "Chairman Mao's favourite DVD store!"

Edited July 9, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Kim Shook]

I've been wanting some new salad bowls/plates for a while now.  Everything we have is either DEEP (more suitable for soup) or way too wide (fine for when I'm doing a separate salad course, but too big to sit beside or just up from the dinner plate).  I found these 7.5-inch pasta plates online at Walmart which I think will work just fine and will go with the white everyday dishes:

 

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

I've been wanting some new salad bowls/plates for a while now.  Everything we have is either DEEP (more suitable for soup) or way too wide (fine for when I'm doing a separate salad course, but too big to sit beside or just up from the dinner plate).  I found these 7.5-inch pasta plates online at Walmart which I think will work just fine and will go with the white everyday dishes:

 

I LOVE these.

[Kim Shook]

2 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I LOVE these.

Thank you!  They are a Pioneer Woman product.  I think they may take the place of my pasta bowls/soup plates a lot of the time.  

[Toliver]

3 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Thank you!  They are a Pioneer Woman product.  I think they may take the place of my pasta bowls/soup plates a lot of the time.  

The design/pattern/colors harken back to an older, more genteel era of tableware.

You lucked out...

A lot of the Pioneer Woman's products are stylistically...uhm...wanting.  

[Kim Shook]

2 hours ago, Toliver said:

The design/pattern/colors harken back to an older, more genteel era of tableware.

You lucked out...

A lot of the Pioneer Woman's products are stylistically...uhm...wanting.  

I agree.  I always have to giggle when I see some piece of $400+ MacKenzie-Childs tableware over her shoulder and then see some of the dreck that is apparently good enough for her Walmart shoppers! LOL

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Not sure how much fun counts as fun, but this week I acquired a new MEPAL 1L plastic storage bowl.  I find performance of Rubbermaid storage containers disappointing.  So far the Nordic Green MEPAL seals well and looks sexy.  For those who have a plastic fetish.

 

[MokaPot]

Hasegawa textured synthetic (rubber), wood-core cutting board. Not sure why there are four or five "stripes" on the side of the cutting board. My understanding is that it's three layers (rubber, wood, rubber).

 

My board is the smallest one, about 13.5" by 9". The pink scraper is about 4.5" in length.

 

The scraper, I haven't had to use yet.

 

Anyway, so far, I really like the board.

 

 

[weinoo]

Heh...

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, KennethT said:

Interesting - I have never heard of MEPAL - but they look great on their website. How do they handle staining - like with tomato products or turmeric?  The cheap rubbermaid stuff stains very easily and even after washing, can feel slightly greasy on the inside.

 

Funny you should ask.  It is too early to tell.  However my MEPAL bowl is full of tomato products at the moment.

 

[Toliver]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:29 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Not sure how much fun counts as fun, but this week I acquired a new MEPAL 1L plastic storage bowl.  I find performance of Rubbermaid storage containers disappointing.  So far the Nordic Green MEPAL seals well and looks sexy.  For those who have a plastic fetish.

 

I would also be interested in how it is regarding food or detergent odors.

Tupperware tends to hold onto detergent fragrances.

[abooja]

I was recently forced to buy an 8-ounce bottle of Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract, after not having purchased vanilla extract in more than a decade, when my beloved jug of home brew shattered in a tragic vacuuming accident. Vanilla bean prices are more reasonable than they have been in recent years, so that is the next vanilla related purchase on the horizon. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

 

 

[Duvel]

A t-shirt ?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Just now, Duvel said:

A t-shirt ?

 

Not just any t-shirt.