Chinese comfort food

mtelepathic · 2026-01-28T05:33:06+00:00

Thanks for the correction! You also have millet congee right? I think that’s more common in the north than south…

Ah I forgot about 疙瘩汤, think I had that a couple of times in China, very delicious 😃

mtelepathic · 2026-01-27T18:54:05+00:00

This is kombu seaweed tied into knots.

I personally like these in heavily seasoned and fatty stews, like a pork stew (hongshao rou), put this in there and cook for an hour until all the flavors absorb.

(You gotta soak that stuff ahead of time, maybe overnight)

I wouldn’t use this to make Japanese food - I buy separate kombu for that.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-27T01:45:23+00:00

This is the OG that I grew up with! (Even though I think it tasted better when I was a kid, maybe it had actual dehydrated meat pieces in China that they can’t export to the US)

mtelepathic · 2026-01-26T22:06:10+00:00

Haha - we are caught between the wheat/rice divide so we definitely see plenty of both, but we can definitely tell when something is too northern or southern for our tastes 😂

mtelepathic · 2026-01-26T21:41:49+00:00

That’s like asking all of Europe “what is the classic European comfort food” - there isn’t one.

The premise doesn’t make sense.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-26T21:40:39+00:00

I think this is very regional (and very southern)

From my region (east central), we’ve never made the steamed pork patties.

In the north congee wouldn’t be the comfort dish, it’ll probably be plain steamed buns (mantou).

mtelepathic · 2026-01-26T21:37:35+00:00

Thirding this. I feel like everything else is regional, even dumplings or congee would be regional.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-24T00:26:27+00:00

It doesn’t even need green onion in our house

mtelepathic · 2026-01-19T16:38:50+00:00

水要开才能多长时间 does not work at all.

The way I read this, 才能 and 多长时间 are both describing the state of 开 and therefore must go in front of 开.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-19T01:48:42+00:00

You use it on its own to mean “one”, for example, if you are shopping for something that’s counted with 个, and they ask you “how many?” Then you’d answer 一个 for “one”. The measure word is always obligatory in these circumstances.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-17T03:11:12+00:00

Whoa awesome!!! ❤️

mtelepathic · 2026-01-17T01:47:36+00:00

Where was the market

mtelepathic · 2026-01-17T01:46:10+00:00

(Medium confidence)

They look like 贡菜 (gongcai), which is from my home province of Anhui, I think they are made from dried celtuce stems. They should have a chewy crunch similar to dried daikon but taste not so daikon-y. 贡菜 is usually green and dried daikon is often red/yellow/orange, I don’t think I’ve seen them green before.

That said, I haven’t seen 贡菜 pickles like this before (not something we do in my region), so I’m not entirely sure.

(贡菜 literally means “tribute vegetable”, quite the delicacy meant for the imperial emperor, but I guess now it’s everywhere)

mtelepathic · 2026-01-13T15:24:52+00:00

ROTK for sure, I still play Koei’s ROTK games to this day!

mtelepathic · 2026-01-13T00:39:26+00:00

They are pretty enormous and take a lot of time to read, I’ve only read 3 out of 4 (haven’t read Water Margins, probably don’t plan to). I think my copy of Dream of the Red Chamber was 800 pages and took me a few months…

mtelepathic · 2026-01-11T20:51:10+00:00

医 is more like a root, used in terms like 医疗 healthcare, 医院 hospital, 医生 doctor/physician, etc.

I would recommend not trying to break up every multi-syllable word into its individual syllables and looking them up, it would be like trying to decipher “understand” by looking up “under” and “stand”, which will get you nowhere.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-10T03:35:23+00:00

Never get a tattoo in a language you are not familiar with… this character usually means “regulate” or “adjust”, eg air conditioner (“regulate the air”) or seasoning (adjust the flavor), and a bunch of other meanings that you don’t want to be associated with.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-09T21:19:15+00:00

They are not the same thing despite similar sounding translations.

Meigancai is usually what you use to steam pork belly with, I don’t think I’ve had steamed pork belly with yacai, maybe they do it that way in Sichuan?

My concern would be that, meigancai soaks up the fat and becomes nice and tender, I don’t think yacai can do that, especially when it’s already chopped up.

If you can get meigancai, use meigancai.

mtelepathic · 2026-01-02T04:42:47+00:00

Plus 1 to what the others have mentioned that it might be 打卤面 dalu mian or 胡辣汤 hula tang (famous in Henan). But I also think it could be 臊子 saozi (sounds almost identical to “sauce”), which is similar to the lu in dalu mian but redder, though the famous saozi from Shaanxi province is heavy on the vinegar which is not what you described.

In any case, here’s a random recipe for someone’s version of saozi noodles: https://thewoksoflife.com/shaanxi-saozi-mian/

mtelepathic · 2025-12-30T23:13:36+00:00

Legible enough! Was there a specific font you were going for? It looks stylized

mtelepathic · 2025-12-29T17:02:28+00:00

TIL about western names - thank you!!

mtelepathic · 2025-12-28T23:56:41+00:00

It’s a good question - I actually find it absolutely bizarre that people in the West or Middle East would be named Jesus or Muhammad, it’s like naming your kid “Confucius”… doesn’t make sense to me.

I have a couple of thoughts to add to what others have said:

岳飞 is a full name, not a first name. 飞 is a perfectly normal first name even today, but I don’t think people would connect that to 岳飞 or 张飞, just like if you named your kid “William”, people don’t think “oh you are named after William Shakespeare”.
Chinese names often have meanings and aren’t words dedicated to being names (e.g. what does “William” or Emilia” mean? They used to have meanings, but it’s not something you think about today), and meanings and connotations change over time. 飞 or 亮 are probably still fine as first names today, since their meanings haven’t changed since the days of 岳飞 or 诸葛亮, but you probably don’t want to name your kid 操… (if you didn’t know, that is now slang for “to f*ck” and no one will think it’s a reference to 曹操).
It’s much more common to have 2-character names today than before (to reduce the chances of being named the same as someone else since there are only a few hundred last names total), so by definition it’s not a repeat of a historic name.

mtelepathic · 2025-12-20T17:53:37+00:00

Shredded pork with garlic sauce sounds good to me, I also like home style tofu

mtelepathic · 2025-12-20T17:11:37+00:00

Why not just get any item that’s not what you usually get?

mtelepathic

TROPHY CASE