maria, there are many chinese dialects, so many that it is almost impossible to count. However there are 7 main dialects. The pronunciation is different for each dialect, the main dialect for the educated chinese is mandarin…However, despite difference in pronunciation, the script ( written characters are the same), So, if one is educated and thus speak mandarin, one can communicate with another chinese who speaks a different dialect by written characters.
My grandparents were from Southern China, province of Fujien , City of Xia Men . T&hat is pronunciation in mandarin but in my dialect, it is pronounced as Hokien province , Eh Meng city . There are 7 dialects in Fujien Province alone
Because of these, my parents sent me to mandarin school for 8 years, 4 hours a day but since I have not been using it , my mandarin is almost very basic, and the characters are even worse.
Believe it or not, I had a carpenter who comes from Fujien Province, from the city of Fujou. . His dialect is completely different from mine, whereas I can communicate with Taiwanese people with just a little bit of difference in accent .My carpenter did not speak English but instead of communicating in our dialects, we try to communicate with drawings as he worked for me for 3 years. Sometimes, I can communicate with Chinese characters but that is rare .
Hope that explains a bit why Peking, Beijing, and Bak Kia are the same
thank you for your kind explanation, but no it does not! i’m totally baffled. I’m very uneducated when it comes to China and it’s dialects, although i knew there were many, many, many. i had just never heard Peking being where Tianenmen Square was, but it kind of makes sense to me now, from what Presunto said, as they actually sound similar - Beijing/Peking. Anyway, thanks for your attempt to educate me!
drool-worthy…
It’s a problem.
Chopped instead of sliced because i just didn’t want to wash the mandolin and my cut proof glove. But somehow not the same, i prefer the thin slices. Most of this was a late afternoon snack, the rest i muched while chopping.
Dinner was All the Random Things Go In the Pot. A few onions, olive oil, lots of garlic, a lonely wedge of cabbage, half a head of cauliflower, two carrots, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, soy sauce, caraway seeds, lots of black pepper, two handfuls of some lonely barley that decided to stick to the bottom of the pan… certainly not much to look at but turned out tasty! Most will end up in my freezer which was running low on soups and stews
Your boudins looked great.
The white version is more challenging than the black one. I rarely ate a white one that was satisfying, while I had some some amazing “noir”, especially the ones that comes from Carlotti in Lot-et-Garonne, the champion of Boudin Noir in France in 2016.
More here:
Officially it is called Beijing in Mandarin, enforced by China 70’s. But in French, it is still common to use Pékin. @ccj has explained on the dialect difference. I suspect also the PRC wanted a change in image, the name Peking (in Pinyin) , maybe too related to the government of Cheng Ka Shek or the imperialist’s China before the world wars.
A comparison of Beijing and Paris, the data for March, but there are times, they are more or less the same:
https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/compare_cities.jsp?country1=China&city1=Beijing&country2=France&city2=Paris
Unless you can slide with knife like you can with a mandolin, which some chefs can, the sizes really matter and change the taste.
Great Wall is very long, you can always choose the remote part with few people visiting. I have heard the part near Mutianyu is breath taking, even now.
A few plates from last days.
Curly lettuce soup - whole lettuce (!) with horseradish, colza oil, milk and butter.
Pâté de tête - head cheese with pickles, great with the soup.
Cod with XO sauce and radish cooked in chicken broth.
Steak with fermented black peppers and salad.
Mango with razor clams. Rarely had a mango so good, I think they were coming from Brazil.
Paella with the remaining razor clams, squids, chicken black ink tomato sauce rice.
Rack of lamb - mushrooms, carrots, onions, thyme, cooked with beef broth and white wine. Seared the meat with a pan, and finished off with oven, with a layer of mustard on the top of the meat. The quality of this meat was amazing, it melted in mouth, had to say it was better than sous-vide cooking.
A like just doesn’t cover it naf
Stellar as always
I love what you did…simple familiar flavors and textures, turned out to be a winner!..I frequently do the same.
This was the result of some beef chuck, which I browned , added onion, garlic, turmeric, celery, carrots,
barley, s&p, some EVOO and water with some white wine. I let it cook down for something between a stew, and a soup.
Thanks for that information!
SV lamb shank with “giant beans” and chard. I don’t have any huge pot or pan to accommodate the full meal. Don’t know what these “giant beans” are, probably lima. The name on the tin reads in German “white giant beans”, literally. My winter rosemary still looks pathetic but the plant will come to life again soon when it warms up.
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And to keep Great Wall on topic… Great Wall meets Great Wall wine.
I am not sure of the details, but the US government, in its great wisdom, used to refer to the capital of China in official documents as Peiping. I think that this went on until Nixon visited China.
Thanks! I’m usually a bit more deliberate when making a soup/stew so i was a bit skeptical it would turn out… i need to use barley more often, it absorbed all the delicious flavors and still had that nice chewy texture
Very cool with the barley. Have you tried farro in your cooking ?
I’ve tried farro a few times and it’s just not as easy to find- and much more expensive- I certainly liked it, i made a “farroto” at some point. I guess i just don’t appreciate the nuances enough compared to other easily accessible grains… i’ll have to see if my WF has it in the bulk section, i’m overdue to give it another go.
I ended up at union square today and was excited to go to the farmers market, thinking all the best vendors would be there with the approaching holiday weekend. I found… lots of baked goods, flowers, eggs, more baked goods, $5/lb little potatoes, fancy organic sprouts, more baked goods, and the apples and cider guy. Harumph. Bought a few apples and had to let go of my spring salad fantasy of sugar snap peas and radishes.
Pre-dinner drink inspired by @LindaWhit ! I saw these packs of sparkling rose and they’re perfect for a single glass of bubbly
And also pack a 10% alcohol level- whoahza.
Dinner was a repeat from last night’s stew, a little thicker and even better today. I’ll spare you a photo.
Kombucha as dessert , i have been so thrilled with this last batch that was in the bottle so long for the second ferment, each bottle has been crazy carbonated! This one was pomegranate/ginger/lemon
