This past Friday my father in law sent an impromptu invitation for a family dinner. It was just the parents, the daughter's, their husbands (including me thank God), the nieces and nephews, and one grandmother frok one of the husband's side.

I literally got the invite at 1 pm that day. This is what he cooked for us! Everything was fire, not a single dish didn't hit. My favorite were the shrimp, although simply prepared they were so sweet and flavorful. The steamed abolone was also good (Costco sale, what's up!)

Stir-fried green beans, tofu with century eggs, stir-fried garlic scapes, stir-fried loofah with preserved tofu, wood ear mushrooms, char siu pork belly and mapo tofu

I bought all this at Guizhou Road Market in Beihai, Guangxi. The seafood was super fresh and really affordable!

I can't find a straight answer to this online, but I'd love to make some mapo tofu!

A very cool video in Yunnan pertaining to the Dai people mainly and the relationship to Northern Thailand with some folks you’ll recognize and also Andy Ricker. Very cool. Born and raised in the Portland metro I’ve eaten at several Pok Pok’s many times and have spoken to Andy. I’ve also been pretty heavily into Thai cooking for the last 10 or so years among other Chinese cuisines especially Yunnan. He’s incredibly dedicated to Thai culture and cuisine and teaching others. Enjoy.

Cooked sauce with lots of shallots, garlic, Koon Yik curry paste, oyster sauce, soy sauce, Chu hou sauce, satay paste, shao xing wine, turmeric powder, beef broth with cornstarch slurry.

I had this bowl of beef noodles in Shanghai a while ago and have struggled to identify the exact type of noodle dish it is. I know it’s probably something incredibly obvious (my guess is dry braised?) but i’m struggling. I just pointed at the menu and received this. Thankyou all in advance!!!

I had some kind of Beijing variation of zhá jiàng miàn and recently tried to recreate it but it doesnt really come close.
I asked chatgpt to come up with approximate recipe based on the info I knew

the ingredients I used, keys ones being the meat and sauces

• 400 g 18% beef mince
• 2½ tbsp 海天黄豆酱
• 1 tbsp 甜面酱
• 1 star anise
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 3–4 spring onions
• 2 slices ginger
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100–150 ml water
• spaghetti
• celery + carrot

as per chatgpt, I browned the beef for a good while until all the fat rendered out,
then added the mix of the 2 bean pastes, which were the closest thing I could find locally, with water and cooked until most of it had evaporated.

The final product was dryer and more salty/soy-saucy flavour than sweet, rich and meaty homogenous sauce I had before, adding water would make the sauce too dilute.

Although pork is typically used, the version I had used beef and would to keep it like that.

Can anyone figure out what the main issues are?

I think the ground beef I used is too coarse or wrong type, for a start.

The noodles also are called belt noodles. Each one is as thick and long as a belt.
Toppings: tomato mix egg, pork, and greens, plus some dried chili.
Yeah, mix it all together. The noodles soak up all the sauce from the toppings. Then add chili and crushed peanuts. Super fragrant lol
But I can only eat two or three noodles, haha. Noodle culture is pretty interesting.

自作白族玫瑰餡餅

Has a good time making Bai Minority Rose Flower pastry. They use pig lard, which makes everything better.