Chinese Home Kitchens

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

Maybe I should have asked about where you will keep your soy sauces, cooking wine, flavoured oils, etc? 

 

Those tend to sit counter top next to or near the stove. 

 

 

Mine are, for the moment, on the window sill to the right of the stove.  Left to right; dark soy, ponzu, rice bran oil (decanted from a 5-litre bottle in the cupboard below), regular soy (ditto) and Shaoxing wine. The condiment box contains MSG, fine sea salt and what you probably call kosher salt. They'll probably stay there.

 

[Laurentius]

On 1/20/2024 at 7:57 AM, liuzhou said:

don't agree that entertaining guests at home is because of the kitchens.

 

Why are there bars on the windows of a highrise? Is this normal?

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, Laurentius said:

 

Why are there bars on the windows of a highrise? Is this normal?

 

Stylistic grids, perhaps? 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Laurentius said:

 

Why are there bars on the windows of a highrise? Is this normal?

Answered elsewhere.

[dcarch]

7 hours ago, Laurentius said:

 

Why are there bars on the windows of a highrise? Is this normal?

And bars for air conditioners.

 

dcarch

[palo]

I'm amazed at how few condiments you have, but as you say you've been eating a lot of takeout

 

Re - bars on windows - safety - decoration?

 

A lot of NYC kitchens would be considered closets in some parts of the world - it's easy to criticize cultures we are not familiar with

 

p

[liuzhou]

22 minutes ago, palo said:

I'm amazed at how few condiments you have, but as you say you've been eating a lot of takeout

 

 

I have a lot more condiments. Those are the basics, used every day. The others are in cupboards or fridge as appropriate.

 

The rest of your questions I have answered elsewhere.

[liuzhou]

Getting away from my kitchen and city apartment kitchens I general, here is a typical countryside kitchen. This one is in a Yao ethnic minority village in the north of Liuzhou Prefecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is in preparation for the Chinese New Year / Spring Festival, on Feb 10th this year. Year of the Dragon 龙年.

 

 

 

Edited January 27 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Getting away from my kitchen and city apartment kitchens I general, here is a typical countryside kitchen. This one is in a Yao ethnic minority village in the north of Liuzhou Prefecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is in preparation for the Chinese New Year / Spring Festival, on Feb 10th this year. Year of the Dragon 龙年.

 

 

 

What's in the gas can?

[liuzhou]

20 minutes ago, KennethT said:

What's in the gas can?

 

I'd guess water.  The houses tend not to have indoor plumbing so get their water from a communal stand pipe in the centre of the village.

 

I took these pictures about 18 months ago, so can't remember.

 

 

[Laurentius]

11 hours ago, liuzhou said:

This one is in a Yao ethnic minority village in the north

Wow, thanks for sharing these photos.  Do the Yao eschew modern things or electricity?

[Smithy]

That looks like a huge room. Is it all one room in those photos, or are you showing us more than one kitchen?

 

What's this in the foreground, if you remember?

 

And is this a long-handled wok with a lid on? Is it set into a recess atop the stove?

 

 

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, Smithy said:

That looks like a huge room. Is it all one room in those photos, or are you showing us more than one kitchen?

 

It's all the one big room. Normal.

 

7 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

What's this in the foreground, if you remember?

 

I don't need to remember. I have one. It's a rice mill, used to grind grains down to a powder for various dishes.

 

Mine is a toy one sold as a souvenir, but  works on small quantities. When I dig it out of whatever box it's hiding in I'll demonstrate.

 

 

7 hours ago, Smithy said:

And is this a long-handled wok with a lid on? Is it set into a recess atop the stove?

 

 

No. What you are seeing as a handle is a flue pipe behind the stove.The work is the two looped handled type. It is set into a recess in the brick stove.

 

7 hours ago, Laurentius said:

Wow, thanks for sharing these photos.  Do the Yao eschew modern things or electricity?

 

No. They are mainly subsistence farmers and live in the higher elevations with little infrastructure. They wouldn't refuse modernity. They just can't afford it.  They are master rice terrace builders though.

 

Image: westchinago.com

 

 

Edited January 28 by liuzhou (log)

[Laurentius]

22 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

They just can't afford it.  They are master rice terrace builders though.

I would love visit there.

[liuzhou]

When it comes to preparing for the winter, the Yao kitchen gets extended outside. An extended family raises a pig (or two) over the year and then slaughters it in order to prepare it for preserving by various means to see them through the winter. 

 

There is no grocery store in the village. People eat what they grow or raise.

 

The pig  is slaughtered and butchered in the street outside the house before being air dried, salt cured, pickled, or smoked then hung up inside the kitchen. It is bled first and the blood preserved and all the offal is carefully collected. The carcass is then singed in a straw fire to get rid of as much hair as possible. Any left will be shaved off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also have fish and frogs from the rice paddies and raise duck and chickens. They grow corn (alas) and various greens.

 

Their diet is heavily  vegetable based.

 

 

Edited January 29 by liuzhou
typos (log)

[Smithy]

14 hours ago, liuzhou said:

the blood peeved

 

?

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

?

 

Multiple typos now corrected. Technical difficulties.

Edited January 29 by liuzhou (log)

[Laurentius]

On 1/28/2024 at 12:39 AM, liuzhou said:

Their diet is heavily  vegetable based.

 

Never let it be said they don't know how to cut a fat hog.

[liuzhou]

There is more on Yao diet in this post.

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/164469-guangxi-gastronomy/?do=findComment&comment=2366802

 

This topic is about kitchens.

 

 

 

[haresfur]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:27 AM, Laurentius said:

Wow, thanks for sharing these photos.  Do the Yao eschew modern things or electricity?

 

Note the power-point and rice cooker