A pictorial guide to Chinese cooking ingredients

[liuzhou]

Today I’m getting volcanic and beating about the bush.

 

火山豆 (huǒ shān dòu) literally means ‘volcano bean’ and is one name for a culinary nut, better known as 夏威夷果 (xià wēi yí guǒ), literally meaning Hawaii being a phonetic rendition and really meaning very little in a literal sense. This nut doesn’t originate in Hawaii, though. It is one of two species native to Queensland, Australia - Macadamia integrifolia or Macadamia tetraphylla. There are two other species of Macadamia but they are inedible as they contain cyanogenic glycosides which you don’t want to contain.

 

They are named after chemist, medical teacher, and politician John Macadam, who was the honorary Secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria beginning in 1857.

 

The nuts were eaten in the bush by Australian aboriginals but only produced en masse commercially in the 1920s after seeds of the trees had been introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s. Today the largest producer is South Africa.

 

The trees do not produce nuts until around seven years old and the nuts have to gathered by hand making them relatively expensive. Although, once they do produce nuts they go on doing so for up to 100 years.

 

The are used mainly as snack nuts or in cakes and desserts. Macadamia oil is also available. It has a high smoke point, but is expensive. Their shells are extremely hard to crack; those sold here come with a key to facilitate entry.

 

 

Note: Macadamias are toxic to dogs and cats.

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

 

 

This one is for my mother.

 

Corylus avellana are hazelnuts, cobnuts or filberts depending on species. The have several names in Chinese but 榛子 (zhēn zi) is most common for the unshelled nuts, while 榛仁 (zhēn rén) covers the shelled kernels.

 

 

The English name ‘hazelnut’ is ancient, dating back to the Old English ‘hæselhnutu’ first recorded in 725 AD, ‘Filbert. came from the French ‘noix de filbert’ in the 13th century and ‘cobnut’ from their cobblestone-like appearance in the 15th.

 

Hazelnut Kernels

 

They are used here much as they are elsewhere – in cakes, pies and mainly in chocolate. I’m told some of Starbucks’ Chinese competitors do a hazelnut flavoured coffee, but I never go there. We even get Nutella (能多益 - néng duō yì) here. I most certainly don’t go there. Can’t stand the stuff.

 

Nutella Ingredients. PD Image

 

 

[liuzhou]

I’ve been pining for this one. But I’m not fussy.

 

There are no songs related to these that I know of but 松子 (sōng zǐ) or, less often, 松瓤 (sōng ráng) here are Pinus koraiensis, pine nuts. I’d always considered these to be European but I was very wrong. In fact, the top producing areas are all in Asia with  China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan leading the way in that order.[

 

 

Pine and its nuts, from the Latin ‘pinus’ entered English over 1,000 years ago. The name ‘pignoli’, as sometimes used in America, is not the Italian name which is ’pinoli’. ‘Pignoli’ in Italy more usually means ‘picky’ or ‘fussy’. How, this amusing error arose is not clear, but I have theories which I won’t trouble you with.

 

As with most ‘nuts’, pine nuts are not nuts in any botanical sense; they are simple seeds, gymnosperms in botanical terms with that being from the Greek ‘γυµνόσπερµ-ος’, meaning ‘naked seed’.

 

There are 20 viable edible species, with P. koriaensis being the most common worldwide. Europe favours P. pinea whereas America tends to go most for P. edulis, P. monophylla or, in Mexico, P. cembroides.

 

Here they are used in pseudo-salads, stir fries, braises with meats etc much as in the west. I use them to make pesto, a decidedly not Chinese sauce. I have to grow the basil. Pine nut oil is seldom used as it has a low smoke point rendering it unsuitable for frying. The producers can make more selling the nuts.

 

Some (not many) people, when eating pine nuts, find they suffer from what is known as dysgeusia, a ‘taste disturbance’ popularly known as ‘pine mouth’. This can last up to two weeks. Symptoms are a bitter metallic taste in the mouth a day or two after consuming pine nuts. The US Food and Drug Administration investigated this and concluded that it was largely, if not entirely, caused by food fraud, with cheaper non-edible Pinus armandii being substituted for more expensive species. Results were not conclusive though as not everyone who eats the same nuts suffers the condition and some report the symptoms with other species.

 

 

[Katie Meadow]

13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I’ve been pining for this one. But I’m not fussy.

 

There are no songs related to these that I know of but 松子 (sōng zǐ) or, less often, 松瓤 (sōng ráng) here are Pinus koraiensis, pine nuts. I’d always considered these to be European but I was very wrong. In fact, the top producing areas are all in Asia with  China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan leading the way in that order.[

 

 

Pine and its nuts, from the Latin ‘pinus’ entered English over 1,000 years ago. The name ‘pignoli’, as sometimes used in America, is not the Italian name which is ’pinoli’. ‘Pignoli’ in Italy more usually means ‘picky’ or ‘fussy’. How, this amusing error arose is not clear, but I have theories which I won’t trouble you with.

 

As with most ‘nuts’, pine nuts are not nuts in any botanical sense; they are simple seeds, gymnosperms in botanical terms with that being from the Greek ‘γυµνόσπερµ-ος’, meaning ‘naked seed’.

 

There are 20 viable edible species, with P. koriaensis being the most common worldwide. Europe favours P. pinea whereas America tends to go most for P. edulis, P. monophylla or, in Mexico, P. cembroides.

 

Here they are used in pseudo-salads, stir fries, braises with meats etc much as in the west. I use them to make pesto, a decidedly not Chinese sauce. I have to grow the basil. Pine nut oil is seldom used as it has a low smoke point rendering it unsuitable for frying. The producers can make more selling the nuts.

 

Some (not many) people, when eating pine nuts, find they suffer from what is known as dysgeusia, a ‘taste disturbance’ popularly known as ‘pine mouth’. This can last up to two weeks. Symptoms are a bitter metallic taste in the mouth a day or two after consuming pine nuts. The US Food and Drug Administration investigated this and concluded that it was largely, if not entirely, caused by food fraud, with cheaper non-edible Pinus armandii being substituted for more expensive species. Results were not conclusive though as not everyone who eats the same nuts suffers the condition and some report the symptoms with other species.

 

 

In my college years in New Mexico, when it was the right time of year, we would take a large blanket and drive up into the lower hills of the Sandia Mountains in search of piñon pine trees. We'd lay the blanket carefully under the tree and shake the limbs. Instant pine nuts.

[liuzhou]

Here’s one grand nut yew may not know.

 

 

香榧 (xiāng fěi) is Torreya Grandis, literally ‘fragrant nutmeg yew’ but better known (but not much) as Chinese torreya or Chinese nutmeg yew. They are related to neither nutmegs or yews. These are the seeds of a large conifer endemic to south and South Eastern China. Around 80% are harvested in The Kuaijishan Ancient Chinese Torreya Community, a sustainable agriculture heritage site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province where Shaoxing wine originates.

 

 

 

These originated in the Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago and are considered to be a living fossil, although people have said that about me. It is know to have been cultivated for at least 1,500 years.

 

There is a similar species in Japan, Torreya nucifera, also known as the Japanese torreya or Japanese Nutmeg Yew. Not very imaginative are they? An American species, Torreya californica has been listed as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on their Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book

 

In addition to be eaten as a snacking nut, Torreya grandis is used  in TCM and some of the claims have, unusually, been backed up by modern chemical and medical analysis, It seems that T. grandis does have a number of benefits and curative effects on the human body; for example, it has an inhibitory effect on lymphoblastic leukemia, and also has the effects of regulating blood lipids. In addition, the paclitaxel in the plant’s leaves, bark, and arils can be used to treat a number of types of cancer. Take that as you will; my only medical qualifications are knowing how to call an ambulance and shouting ”more painkillers, nurse!’

 

 

These are 芥末味脆皮香榧仁 (jiè mo wèi cuì pí xiāng fěi rén), Mustard-flavoured crispy torreya kernels. The ‘shell’ isn’t the nut’s original shell, but an edible coating. Although the English on the packaging says ‘Wasabi Torreya’, there isn’t a drop of wasabi in them. It’s the usual fake stuff made from mustard and horseradish. The Chinese says it correctly. Still, I’m quite partial to these.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Today I’m going to be peeking at another nut.

 

Carya illinoinensis is formally 长山核桃 (cháng shān hé tao), which literally means ‘long, mountain walnut’ but less formally and more commonly 碧根果 (bì gēn guǒ), meaning 'jade root nut’. They are in fact a type of hickory. The ‘long’ in the first name points to them not being true nuts but yet another drupe. I’m talking about the humble pecan.

 

 

Pronunciation varies regionally to the extent that the US National Pecan Growers Association felt obliged in 1927 to choose one while acknowledging the others as legitimate variations. A classic case of hedging their bets. They opted for puh-KAHN, IPA: /pəˈkɑn/ with the stress on the ‘can’, stating:

 

Quote

those in the habit of using any other pronunciation therefore be requested henceforth to adopt exclusively the pronunciation above specified above and hereby adopted by the Association.

 

Of course the good people went on pronouncing it as they always had done.

 

The word comes from the native name of the nut in various Algonkin dialects, e.g. Cree pakan, Ojibway pagan, Abnaki pagann, suggesting they couldn’t decided either!

 

 

The nut itself comes from the southern USA and northern Mexico in the Mississippi region. Although known to the Native Americans and the early colonists, commercial cultivation began only relatively recently – in the 1880s. Nearly all cultivation still takes place in their native range. The pecans here are imported from the USA.

 

As elsewhere, they are used as eating nuts on their own and incorporated into baked goods, but aren’t a mainstream choice. Searching Taobao, China’s Amazon equivalent, for ‘pecans’, returns more instruments of torture for opening the damn things than it does the actual nuts. It is no coincidence that the original Algonquin name meant something like ‘that which is cracked with an instrument, by a stone or hammer’.

 

I heard a rumour that, in the nuts’ native area, people put them into some sort of pie! Obviously fake news! I searched the Chinese internet for ‘pecan pie’ and all I got was children’s comic books! Who starts these stupid stories?

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2024 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

I’ve already said I’m going nuts. Now I’m going batty and to the devil.

 

菱角 (líng jiǎo) are mostly Trapa bicornis although T. natans is also sometimes available. Commonly known, among other names, as buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, ling nut, moustache nut, singhara nut. I call them water caltrops. They also get called water chestnuts but that is a misnomer. Water chestnuts are totally different plants and aren’t nuts in any sense; they are the corms of Eleocharis dulcis.

 

 

The word caltrop comes from the Old English coltetræppe, this being a name given to various devices that catch or entangle the feet. It then extended to plants that do so. The water caltrops grow underwater up to 15 feet deep, but more typically around 8 feet and can indeed trap the feet.

 

Trapa bicornis are known for their strange appearance, often said to resemble bats’ heads or the devils’ horns, hence the names above. The character 角 – jiǎo in the Chinese name means ‘horns’. Bicornis means ‘two horns’. Some people apparently see a moustache instead.

 

They were once widespread across Asia, Europe and North America. Today, they mostly only survive in Asia; the European caltrops are endangered and the North American variety extinct. The were re-introduced to North America around 1874, but are now regarded as an invasive species from Vermont to Virginia and a noxious weed in Florida, North Carolina, and Washington, as well as in Australia. Trapa natans was illegal to sell or ship in the United States from 1956 until 2020 and subject to a fine and or imprisonment.

 

 

Water caltrops have been cultivated in China and the Indian subcontinent for their edible nuts for at least 3,000 years. They were used in religious rites in the 2nd century BC and they were mentioned in a Chinese guide to herbal medicines published in 1694 CE with the unsubstantiated claim that they can cure hay fever and alcoholism.

 

The starchy kernel can be eaten raw or cooked but good luck getting intact nuts out of the shells in one piece. They are notoriously difficult to crack. Some people boil them in the shells for twenty minutes then attempt to break in. Care is required as the horns are very sharp.

 

 

The taste is pleasantly similar to that of chestnuts, with a cooked potato texture. Water caltrops are most often eaten as part of a tradition dinner for Mid-Autumn-Festival which falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar (which falls between mid September and early October by the Gregorian calendar – October 6 in 2025).

 

They are also used to make jams, drinks and ground into flour and used to make pancakes and fritters etc.

 

 

[liuzhou]

And now I’m going for the popular vote. Probably finally in this nutty saga, I come to the world’s most popular “nut”, which isn’t a nut, at all. It is a legume.

 

Arachis hypogaea, 花生 (huā shēng), literally ‘flower (of) life’. The peanut, groundnut, goober, goober pea, pindar or monkey nut. 🥜

 

 

Not only are these not nuts; they are also rather odd in that they grow underground unlike most legumes. The scientific name hypogeae means ‘under the ground’ from the Attic ὑπόγαιος. The Romantic languages take their names from Arachis, whereas the Spanish name cacahuate comes from the Nahuatl tlālcacahuatl. My favourite is cneuen ddaear, the Welsh.

 

The peanut is native to South America but is now grown in tropical and semi-tropical areas world wide, with China being the highest producer today.

 

A large proportion of China’s production goes to peanut oil which is a major cooking oil in parts of China. 90% of the oil in my local supermarkets is peanut. It is valued for its mild flavour (but it isn’t totally neutral as some claim) and its for its high smoke point of 225°C (437°F).

 

 

The rest are eaten as roasted nuts, boiled nuts, salted nuts etc same as elsewhere. My favourite are 酒鬼花生 (jiǔ guǐ huā shēng), literally ‘drunkard’s peanuts’ – roasted, salted peanuts with chilli. They also come in a non-chilli version.

 

Drunkard's Peanuts

 

They also appear in many candies, cookies etc. They turn up in sauces and pastes. Most supermarkets also carry peanut butter, both domestic and imported. The American peanut butter and jelly sandwich is unknown, but the hardest part to source would be the bread.

 

 

Many Chinese dishes incorporate peanuts. Innumerable noodle dishes include them, including this city’s signature dish, luosifen. And of course 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng), known in the west as kung-pao chicken (or variations thereon) traditionally includes peanuts. The recent use of cashews is an American innovation.

 

Gongbao Jiding

 

Then we also get peanut shoots. These are the peanut version of bean sprouts. After all, peanuts are beans, so why not?

 

Peanut Shoots

 

So I leave you with this oddity. Black peanuts. A local cultivar.

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

There are two things with ‘nut’ in their popular names which are found here, but are so un-nut-like that I don’t feel they belong here. I have mentioned them before at the links below.

 

Nutmeg 肉豆蔻 (ròu dòu kòu), Myristica fragrans Houtt, while nut-like is not used as a nut*, but ground as a spice, so gets disqualified.

 

Fox nuts 芡实 (qiàn shí), Euryale ferox are totally misnamed. Which nut thought they were nuts?

 

* Other than by aging relics from the 1960s looking for a high!

 

 

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

敦煌市 (dūn huáng shì), Dunhuang is an oasis city in Gansu Province. It lies in the southern section of the silk road and the Great Wall passes by. It is probably the most important Buddhist site in China, with over 700 temples in caves, particularly the 莫搞窟 (mò gǎo kū), Mogao Caves which are highly decorated with Buddhist images, and which contained priceless Buddhist texts. A very important religious and cultural crossroads between east and west and the road from Tibet to Mongolia.

 

Buddhist image dated to c475 CE,  Mogao Caves

 

“But what’s this got to do with my dinner?”, you rightly ask.

 

Well, there is an ingredient which I never associated with Chinese cuisine and which none of my Chinese friends has heard of. 小扁豆* (xiǎo biǎn dòu), literally ‘small, flat beans’, are Vicia lens, lentils and they are grown in the Dunhuang area.

 

The lentil originated in the Middle East and travelled to South and SE Asia and to Africa before extending its range to Europe, then the Americas. I’m guessing they migrated east along the Silk Road to Dunhuang.

 

These are a small greenish-brown variety.

 

Dunhuang Lentils

 

The few that are eaten in China mainly seem to go into porridge mixes with other grains and seeds. Of course I use them in more traditional western dishes such as lentil soup and stews and curries.

 

My friends are baffled by red lentils and, although I can source them, so far as I can tell, they are all imported from India, Pakistan or most frequently, Turkey.

 

Turkish Red Lentils

 

* You have to be careful with this name. 小便 is also xiǎo biàn but the tone on the second character is different – this means ‘urine’. A slip of tone and you might order ‘urine soup’.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2024 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

 

The recent Dried Beans topic got me more thinking about beans in China. Although fresh beans are considerably easier to find, China of course also does them dried. I’ve always shied away from dealing with them here for one main reason – nomenclature.

 

Many beans have multiple names in Chinese. I know three names for ‘broad beans’, Vicia faba, ‘蚕豆' (cán dòu), '胡豆' (hú dòu) or '罗汉豆' (luó hàn dòu), but then I also know three English names ‘broad beans’, ‘fava beans’ or ‘faba beans’. Chickpeas aka garbanzo beans, Cicer arietinum, also has two names in Chinese, '鹰嘴豆' (yīng zuǐ dòu) and 埃及都 (āi jí dū). In any one market, different vendors may use one or the other or even names from their dialect or any of China’s 600 languages!

 

More troublesome, however, is that often one Chinese name refers to what most westerners consider to be several different beans. I’ve pretty much given up asking for ‘kidney beans’ by any of the two Chinese names I know, as I never know what I’ll be given.

 

However, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and have a stab at trying to make some sense of the dried beans other than lentils in China. I’ll start tomorrow probably with what is by miles the most important bean, maybe not only in China but the world.

 

 

Edited January 7 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Quote

Glycine max, one of the great staple foods of the world, ranks with wheat and rice in importance and outstrips both in the richness of nourishment it provides.

 

Alan Davidson - The Oxford Companion to Food

2nd Edition 2006 ed. Tom Jaine

 

 

Glycine max, known in English as soy bean, soybean or soya bean is native to eastern Asia, probably China where it is believed to have been domesticated in the 3rd millennium BCE, before spreading to Japan and SE Asia. So important is it in those countries that it doesn’t even really have a name of its own, being referred to simply as 大豆 (Mandarin: dà dòu; Japanese: daizu), meaning ‘big bean’. The beans come in various colours ranging from near white, through yellow and green to black. The most common are often described as 黄豆 (huáng dòu), yellow bean, 青豆 (qīng dòu), green bean, or black bean, 黑大豆 (hēi dà dòu) etc.

 

黑大豆 - Black Soybeans

 

The name ‘soy’ came into English (and most other languages) from a colloquial version the Japanese しょうゆ (shōyu, also written 醤油), meaning ‘soy sauce’, although the Japanese was borrowed from a now obsolete Chinese term, shi-yu. Yes, the bean and plant is named after the sauce, not the other way round as often assumed.

 

Today, soy beans are a major crop around the world, with the top five producers in descending order being Brazil, United States, Argentina, China and India. World production in 2020 was 353 million tonnes. 77% of the total go to animal feed, feeding the animals that feed us, mostly poultry feed followed by pig feed. Only 19.2% is used in direct human food, most of that in the form of cooking oil. The remaining 2.8% goes to industrial uses. See chart for fuller breakdown.

 

 

You will note there is no mention of people directly eating the beans. The Oxford Companion boldly states that “In eastern countries, however, they do not eat soya beans in their natural state” which will come as a huge surprise to my neighbours who often eat them in the form of crunchy snacks but also boiled and served in a common dish, 黄豆酸笋焖鱼仔 (huáng dòu suān sǔn mèn yú zǎi), soy beans, pickled bamboo and stewed paddy fish, which I’ve posted here before. However the number eaten is tiny on a global scale and subsumed into the ‘other’ category in the chart.

 

 

The main reasons so few are eaten directly is that they are difficult to cook to palatable softness but also, despite their protein level of 35% being higher than any other plant, that protein is difficult for humans to digest and mostly passes straight through the body. Other processing methods are required to make the protein available, mainly fermentation and extraction.

 

However young, immature beans in the pod are popular. Known as 毛豆 (máo dòu), literally ‘hairy bean’ in Chinese, these are better known in the west by the Japanese names えだまめ or 枝豆 (edamame), literally 'twig beans', often eaten as つまみもの 摘まみ物 ( tsumamimono), meaning ‘food eaten with alcohol’. What I call ‘beer food’, although in Japan it can be beer, sake, shōchū or other spirits.

 

Edamame

 

Next, I’ll look at some of the fermentation and extraction techniques; for now I’m off for some つまみもの 摘まみ物!

 

 

[liuzhou]

One way of extracting the protein from soybeans in human-digestible form is to make tofu aka bean curd. However, to do so, there is another product you require first, also from the soybeans.

 

Soybean milk.

 

豆浆 (dòu jiāng)

 

This was traditionally made by grinding fresh or rehydrated dried beans with water, boiling the resulting mixture and straining it. This method is still used to make what is known as 豆浆 (dòu jiāng, literally ‘bean broth’). However it does not look, taste or smell like dairy milk. Still, the term is usually translated as ‘soy milk’. Many non-Chinese find the watery texture, yellowish appearance, taste and smell disturbing, but then they are probably expecting something more like cow’s milk. The Chinese have no such expectations, historically not being used to a dairy food culture. They have been enjoying this since ancient times.

 

This type is sometimes sweetened or otherwise flavoured. Coconut juice (椰汁 - yē zhī) is a common addition.

 

Coconut Soy Broth

 

In more recent times, with advances in technology and changes in food culture, more dairy-like ‘milks’ are being mass produced industrially. These are sold as 豆奶 (dòu nǎi) which does literally translate as ‘bean milk’.

 

So, it can be confusing when both types are translated as soy milk. Carefully check which you are picking up at your local store. And don’t rely on the labelling, if any. Mis-labelling is common. Use your eyes to look at the product; not the packaging!

 

This is a common brand of 豆奶 soy milk. Sold in supermarkets.

 

Most soy milk (of either kind) is drunk for breakfast, usually accompanied by 油条 (yóu tiáo, literally ‘oil stick’), deep fried dough sticks or crullers.

 

 

Breakfast - Soy Broth with Dough Sticks

 

Soy milk of the 豆奶 variety is occasionally made into yogurt and other preparations. I tried soy milk cheese once and survived – just Not recommended.

 

Having acquired our 'milk', we're ready to make tofu. Maybe.

 

Coming soon. 

 

 

Edited January 9 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

 

And so with our soy milk at the ready, we can go on to make our tofu but first we have to prepare a couple of things.

 

Before we do that, let’s clarify what we are making. The English use of the word ‘tofu’ was borrowed from the Japanese, but as with so many Japanese terms they got it from Chinese. Indeed, they got the product from China, too. In Mandarin, it is 豆腐 (dòu fu), with 豆 meaning ‘bean’ and 腐 meaning ‘rotten’, which will no doubt delight the tofu haters., of which there are many. This migrated to Japan, carried by Buddhist monks probably in the 12th Century CE where it became tōfu. Japanese still uses the Chinese characters 豆腐 in their Kanji script, although, less often, in Hiragana script it is とうふ. The name alternative English name ‘bean curd’ is more used in American English than in other varieties.

 

Whatever you call it, the process of making it is very similar to that of making cheese, to the extent that some sources say it was derived from cheese making, which the Chinese learned from the Mongols. However that is an unlikely minority view. Te first real mentions of tofu in the Chinese literature is in the 10th century CE, making it a relatively recent development in food history terms.

 

Basically, where as rennet is used in traditional cheesemaking, when making tofu by modern production methods, the coagulant is normally 石膏 (shí gāo) which is calcium chloride aka gypsum. Traditionally, Japan used 苦汁 / にがり(nigari) which is bittern, but today has largely switched to chemical means. Calcium chloride, calcium sulphate or magnesium sulphate all do the job. The resulting curds are drained and pressed and hey presto, you have tofu.

 

The muslin I buy for various kitchen tasks is sold as 豆腐布 (dòu fu bù), ‘tofu cloth’ in the same way as cheesecloth is in the west. Alternatively, one can buy woven bamboo trays to drain your curds.

 

In the west, people generally only know the tofu as the white wobbly stuff, albeit in different degrees of firmness, but in China and Japan there are dozens of types available. It is dried, smoked, fermented in different ways and with flavourings. I have detailed many of them in this dedicated topic.

 

Tofu here in China is made in huge factories as well as small enterprises. Some supermarkets make it in-house. A few make it at home, especially in rural areas. There are tutorials aplenty on the interwebs.

 

 

[liuzhou]

More soybean ‘extractions’.

 

At around 20% in dried beans, soy beans contain more oil than any other beans and this too is extracted to make 大豆油 (dà dòu yóu), soybean oil for cooking, but also has industrial uses. Although I can buy it easily, it is not the oil of choice in this part of China, where the locals prefer peanut oil. However, soy oil is the world’s most common cooking oil, with most of it being in otherwise unidentified ‘vegetable oil’ or ‘salad oil’.

 

Soybean Oil

 

The extraction process has led to a particular by-product polluting not the earth, although it does that too, but the minds and bodies of the unwary!

 

In the 1960s, in cooperation with big agriculture interests, the huge scandal-ridden American agribusiness outfit, Archer-Daniel-Midland Company, commonly known as ADM, invented a new product which they patented and trademarked as TVP® which stands for ‘Toxic Vegan Plague’! They pretend it stands for ‘Textured Vegetable Protein®’, to fool the unsuspecting. Don’t believe them! Terrible Vegetarian Propaganda! It was initially tested on kids in school meals and prisons raising all sorts of moral issues.

 

It is basically the dregs of the oil production process, but would be more accurately described as textured soy protein (TSP) as TVP® is also made from plants other than soy, such as peanuts.

 

Whatever the source, it is widely used in processed ‘foods’ and fake ‘meats’ for people who refuse to eat meat but like to pretend they are eating meat. It is still used in prisons and schools to save money feeding the captives who would prefer to eat real meat!

 

 

[liuzhou]

One 'nut' I forgot! Except it's not a nut but another drupe.

 

椰子 (yē zi) does grow hereabouts, but most are from Hainan, China's southernmost island province.

 

I'm talking 🥥, Cocos nucifera, the coconut. Sold in supermarkets, fruit stores and by itinerant street vendors. They come in various forms.

 

 

 

 

 

The street vendors usually have this type which they sell chilled and drilled to insert a straw to get to the coconut water.

 

 

Also, hugely popular across China is this coconut drink. It is sold everywhere from mon n pop stores to being served at state banquets.

 

 

Various brands of coconut milk / cream are also available so I get my SE Asian fix. This is the most common.

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:51 AM by liuzhou (log)

[Smithy]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

The street vendors usually have this type which they sell chilled and drilled to insert a straw to get to the coconut water.

 

 

What do most people do with the meat, so nicely carved clean, after they finish the coconut milk? Do they take it home and eat it (chopped or slivered, I presume)? 

[liuzhou]

10 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

What do most people do with the meat, so nicely carved clean, after they finish the coconut milk? Do they take it home and eat it (chopped or slivered, I presume)? 

 

That is a question to which I've never worked out the answer. Coconut doesn't feature in much Chinese cooking. A little in a few ethnic minority areas, but not like that of our southern neighbours.

 

I guess they just eat it. I'll ask.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:41 AM by liuzhou (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

The liquid from the Fresh coconuts is a very popular drink in Costa Rica. They sell them along the roadsides with just a straw stuck in a hole. They also sell it bottled in the grocery stores. It is called agua de pipa. It's supposed to be very good for your urinary system and helps prevent kidney stones. I've had a kidney stone a few times and they gave it to me to drink. Horrible stuff, as far as I am concerned. But my housemate Carlos is almost addicted to them. Every Saturday we buy three pipas, as they are called here. He first drinks the liquid and then he eats the raw coconut.

Edited Monday at 02:40 PM by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Katie Meadow]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

What do most people do with the meat, so nicely carved clean, after they finish the coconut milk? Do they take it home and eat it (chopped or slivered, I presume)? 

All you need is a hammer, a nail and a coconut and you can live another day. My mother, whose food habits were surprising, had a thing for fresh coconut milk.  She hammered three holes, tipped the coconut over a glass and drained out the liquid.. Delicious.Then she would split it open (yes, with the hammer) and we gnawed away at the flesh, and most likely tossed the rest when we got bored with it. Looking back it seems to me you could soak the coconut meat in water and produce another drink. Not as yummy, but maybe good? When split a fresh coconut is like a snow geode. Lovely. 

[KennethT]

Just an FYI to the recent few posts for clarity of nomenclature - the liquid inside a coconut that you can drain or drink with a straw is coconut water.  Coconut cream is made from shredding the white coconut meat and squeezing.  Coconut milk is made by adding some hot water to the already once squeezed coconut meat and squeezing again.

[Smithy]

3 hours ago, KennethT said:

Just an FYI to the recent few posts for clarity of nomenclature - the liquid inside a coconut that you can drain or drink with a straw is coconut water.  Coconut cream is made from shredding the white coconut meat and squeezing.  Coconut milk is made by adding some hot water to the already once squeezed coconut meat and squeezing again.

 

I stand corrected on the terminology. Thank you!