Scott, I understand they have a drink that makes moonshine taste like vodka.
Or so I have been told by colleagues at work who have been to Chengdu on business at our plant there.
Or so I have been told by colleagues at work who have been to Chengdu on business at our plant there.
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That would be the supermarket baijiu sold in 100ml bottles for a dollar or so (up to 130 proof). I have a picture of "PBR" in Chengdu at 23 cents a can. I also saw a bottle of Mautai (I don't get this stuff) for $40,000 in Beijing.
We were in Chengdu during the coldest winter in 100yr., you should have seen a bunch of average Americans trying to find warm cloths that fit. XXXL skivvies were like speedos for an average 18yr. old. 🙂
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Me, perhaps a score or so, but we removed ourselves from China 8 years ago. I must say we were feted to some great meals, but when we visited the cafeteria of one facility of a US transplant our minder told us "don't eat anything, maybe some rice and tea, but nothing else."
Saw "Song of the South" circa 1955 with my cousins. Roll forward 30 years I took my 3 boys. #2 son (now with 3 offspring) was very emotionally touched by the movie, a movie now on the "index liborum prohibitorum". I was sharply criticized by my boss when I traded bonds for referring to one competitor's new issue as a "tar baby".
Wow, take a couple of days off, and this thread has more traffic than the last month! Everybody stuck home and bored or something? 🙂
Bill S.: I had to look up "maslin" I guess it's this unit Maslin Pan - Lee Valley Tools
Looks nice. I don't do jam, only marmalade, so no shorts, Seville oranges are only available here in Feb or thereabouts. BTW the peel makes the BEST Old Fashioned with some good Canadian whisky (bourbon is too sweet).
Re: spices (jeera etc) and where to buy them, in Halifax there is a little store called "The Indian Grocery" which is fantastic. They clearly import their spices in bulk and repackage them in smaller sealed bags, no labels except maybe a price tag. I have yet to find a shop as good in Montreal, though I am certain there is one here somewhere.
I did find a nice little shop not far from here where I saw saffron at what I thought was a good price, but didn't realize the package was much smaller than the usual (and the "usual" is 0.5g!). The interesting part is that most saffron we get is Spanish, but this was Iranian. I don't know that I could taste a difference blindfolded, but it seemed a little different to me and was very nice.
Now Easter cooking was interesting, I wanted to do something nice even though I am completely alone. The local shop was offering a couple of things on sale, one was whole lamb leg (vacuum packed Australian, oh well) and the other was whole beef tenderloin. I bought one of each. I cut up the lamb, froze the shank for later, and cut up the leg and used the "topside" for my Easter dinner. The other two big muscled I cut one up and froze for stew or curry (who am I kidding, curry, preferably korma!) and the other froze whole to decide later. Similarly the tenderloin, I did (for once) a good job trimming it, removed all the silverskin etc, cut a bunch of nice steaks and kept the Chateaubriand (middle part) whole, and roasted it last night. It was perfect.
Chinese cuisine: I have never been to that vast country, but when I was in university in Toronto about 4 million years ago, a new Chinese restaurant with a good rep had opened up (called Arc Court) and one night about a dozen of us showed up there. They had one English menu and about 3 forks. We passed the menu around a few times, then just turned to the waiter and said "feed us". He smiled and went away, then came back and tried to explain what he was going to bring us (2 orders of this, 1-2/3 orders of that, etc) and we just said "Fine!". The food was excellent, and included things I had never seen before, like "beef in a basket", which was beef in a thick (bean?) sauce, in a basket made of shredded yams, which looked like a little wicker basket but you eat the basket. I also remember a platter with steamed celery and carrot on the bottom, heaped with steamed shrimp and scallops. We had about 9 courses and it cost about $13/head, which was amazing. Best Chinese food I ever ate.
Last night's dinner:
Bill S.: I had to look up "maslin" I guess it's this unit Maslin Pan - Lee Valley Tools
Looks nice. I don't do jam, only marmalade, so no shorts, Seville oranges are only available here in Feb or thereabouts. BTW the peel makes the BEST Old Fashioned with some good Canadian whisky (bourbon is too sweet).
Re: spices (jeera etc) and where to buy them, in Halifax there is a little store called "The Indian Grocery" which is fantastic. They clearly import their spices in bulk and repackage them in smaller sealed bags, no labels except maybe a price tag. I have yet to find a shop as good in Montreal, though I am certain there is one here somewhere.
I did find a nice little shop not far from here where I saw saffron at what I thought was a good price, but didn't realize the package was much smaller than the usual (and the "usual" is 0.5g!). The interesting part is that most saffron we get is Spanish, but this was Iranian. I don't know that I could taste a difference blindfolded, but it seemed a little different to me and was very nice.
Now Easter cooking was interesting, I wanted to do something nice even though I am completely alone. The local shop was offering a couple of things on sale, one was whole lamb leg (vacuum packed Australian, oh well) and the other was whole beef tenderloin. I bought one of each. I cut up the lamb, froze the shank for later, and cut up the leg and used the "topside" for my Easter dinner. The other two big muscled I cut one up and froze for stew or curry (who am I kidding, curry, preferably korma!) and the other froze whole to decide later. Similarly the tenderloin, I did (for once) a good job trimming it, removed all the silverskin etc, cut a bunch of nice steaks and kept the Chateaubriand (middle part) whole, and roasted it last night. It was perfect.
Chinese cuisine: I have never been to that vast country, but when I was in university in Toronto about 4 million years ago, a new Chinese restaurant with a good rep had opened up (called Arc Court) and one night about a dozen of us showed up there. They had one English menu and about 3 forks. We passed the menu around a few times, then just turned to the waiter and said "feed us". He smiled and went away, then came back and tried to explain what he was going to bring us (2 orders of this, 1-2/3 orders of that, etc) and we just said "Fine!". The food was excellent, and included things I had never seen before, like "beef in a basket", which was beef in a thick (bean?) sauce, in a basket made of shredded yams, which looked like a little wicker basket but you eat the basket. I also remember a platter with steamed celery and carrot on the bottom, heaped with steamed shrimp and scallops. We had about 9 courses and it cost about $13/head, which was amazing. Best Chinese food I ever ate.
Last night's dinner:
We worked shoulder to shoulder with guys that laid bricks in Chengdu and when they took us out to dinner it was a challenge. You can see a Szechuan hot pot but the meat is Spam (upper right), cocktail franks, and some mystery baloney. Not shown here is the real mystery meat it was introduced as lamb. On site we ate military mess style, I really wanted to steal one of the Chinese Army mess kits they issued but I thought better of it. Notice the help ahead of the times, I won't show my pics of the wet markets truly not pretty. Every thing being said this was a great experience and reality is not as simple as it seems.
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On the topic of pots and pans and steel, at home my wife and I have a wok, which was originally bought when she and a girlfriend shared an apartment, in fact I think it might have been the other girl's but we somehow inherited it. It is one of those mild steel woks, but with a flat bottom, which works OK on an electric range.
When I came to Montreal I headed to Chinatown and bought a wok (round bottom), a cleaver, and a few other things. Then I moved into a new apartment and bought a new stove, but one of those glass/ceramic top units. They don't get that hot, and the wok just radiates away what heat it manages to absorb.
So I got thinking (always dangerous) and remembered those single-burner propane camp stoves. Lots of restaurants use them, and they are very popular with Asian families. So I did a little googling and saw Canadian Tire had them for about 15 bucks, some other shops for quite a bit more. However, the two CT stores nearest me were out of stock, but there was one in Cotes des Neiges, a few subway stops away, that had 3 in stock per their web page. So I set out, Green line to Lionel Groulx, then Orange line to Snowdon (I had never been on that part of the Orange line before), then Blue line (never been on Blue line at all before!) one stop to Cotes des Neiges, then about a 2 Km walk to the oddest little mall. I say little because it looked and felt small, but it had a Canadian Tire, a Walmart, a movie theatre, and a huge Asian marked called Marche Fu Tai.
So I go in the CT and look around and can't find the stoves, though I certainly found the right part of the right aisle. I even found a bit of cardboard wrapper for a stove that wasn't there. I accosted a young man who worked there, who explained that 1. they had 3 in stock but 2. they were all "missing". "Missing?" Yeah, they are supposed to be there but nobody can find them. So I left empty handed, but thought I might as well check out the Asian market next door -- amazing. Best fish selection I have seen, many not even cleaned. The meat section had trays of pig's snouts and beef stomach etc. I found a couple of little things to buy, then was walking down an aisle where there were various pots and pans, and I thought "Hey, these guys might have those little stoves!" I didn't see any at first, then near the end of an aisle saw a stack of the butane cylinders, and around the corner... tadaa! Big pile of butane single-burner stoves <$20. So I snagged one, and it gets the wok hot! (Also got a six-pack of butane.) The instructions that came with the stove are wonderful Chenglish.
When I came to Montreal I headed to Chinatown and bought a wok (round bottom), a cleaver, and a few other things. Then I moved into a new apartment and bought a new stove, but one of those glass/ceramic top units. They don't get that hot, and the wok just radiates away what heat it manages to absorb.
So I got thinking (always dangerous) and remembered those single-burner propane camp stoves. Lots of restaurants use them, and they are very popular with Asian families. So I did a little googling and saw Canadian Tire had them for about 15 bucks, some other shops for quite a bit more. However, the two CT stores nearest me were out of stock, but there was one in Cotes des Neiges, a few subway stops away, that had 3 in stock per their web page. So I set out, Green line to Lionel Groulx, then Orange line to Snowdon (I had never been on that part of the Orange line before), then Blue line (never been on Blue line at all before!) one stop to Cotes des Neiges, then about a 2 Km walk to the oddest little mall. I say little because it looked and felt small, but it had a Canadian Tire, a Walmart, a movie theatre, and a huge Asian marked called Marche Fu Tai.
So I go in the CT and look around and can't find the stoves, though I certainly found the right part of the right aisle. I even found a bit of cardboard wrapper for a stove that wasn't there. I accosted a young man who worked there, who explained that 1. they had 3 in stock but 2. they were all "missing". "Missing?" Yeah, they are supposed to be there but nobody can find them. So I left empty handed, but thought I might as well check out the Asian market next door -- amazing. Best fish selection I have seen, many not even cleaned. The meat section had trays of pig's snouts and beef stomach etc. I found a couple of little things to buy, then was walking down an aisle where there were various pots and pans, and I thought "Hey, these guys might have those little stoves!" I didn't see any at first, then near the end of an aisle saw a stack of the butane cylinders, and around the corner... tadaa! Big pile of butane single-burner stoves <$20. So I snagged one, and it gets the wok hot! (Also got a six-pack of butane.) The instructions that came with the stove are wonderful Chenglish.
I know Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah as had it on a disney record as a kid, but yet to watch the movie (which I do have a copy of).
That's exactly like mine. I've never done marmalade, mainly as my mum always makes too much, but I should try it sometime.
Speaking of marmalade, I just planted a calamondin orange tree last week.....Mandarin/kumquat hybrid, supposed to make the best marmalade ever!
Looking for some Meyers lemons next but having a hard time, nurseries are empty from everyone being home bound and gardening!
Calamondin
Looking for some Meyers lemons next but having a hard time, nurseries are empty from everyone being home bound and gardening!
Calamondin
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It must be marmalade day in the universe, today we bought a jar of Robertsons Golden Shred for the first time in years😱
Wintermute,
The turtle was cut lengthwise then across to make four pieces. It came in a large bowl that was intended for four. The broth was best described as stagnant pond water.
The turtle was cut lengthwise then across to make four pieces. It came in a large bowl that was intended for four. The broth was best described as stagnant pond water.
There are a lot of things considered medicinal and or aphrodisiacal especially in China and Japan, snake bile for instance or raw squid gonads. I had snapping turtle soup in the Keys, nothing bad or particularly wonderful.
snapping turtle makes for a hellacious meatloaf....grind the red meat only (not the clear gooey stuff)
make it into any meatloaf recipe you want ....best you'll ever have! they're a real pain to clean though, you must scrub the whole thing with a bleach solution then take a skilsaw to em down the middle.
the hardest part is even hours later after beheading they still squirm around as your cleaning it!
make it into any meatloaf recipe you want ....best you'll ever have! they're a real pain to clean though, you must scrub the whole thing with a bleach solution then take a skilsaw to em down the middle.
the hardest part is even hours later after beheading they still squirm around as your cleaning it!
Long ago my friend and I would catch turtles
in the river where we swam. We would build
a fire and throw them in ..... Then ( when they
started to char ) pull them open and eat the
meat and BEST of all the eggs : )
in the river where we swam. We would build
a fire and throw them in ..... Then ( when they
started to char ) pull them open and eat the
meat and BEST of all the eggs : )
Improvise. I never had a "wok spatula", just an assortment of large steel utensils.
Please don't mention this to my wife. It might change things around here.
Other than that, I'd love to have dinner at your place, like so many of the others around here.
Since I do some cooking I have the Pro 600 in chrome. I bought it used and had to source some knobs. The thing is awesome.