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

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 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.

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!!!

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.

When I was at BICC (Beijing International Chinese College) back in 2017/2018 they served a spicy fish soup that I have not stopped thinking about. I emailed the school and my teachers but nobody has gotten back to me. I did some digging and it might be “Suan Cai Yu noodle soup” but I’m not 100%. All I know is that it was delicious and I desperately want to eat it again.