For several decades, this shop has been situated just off Longcheng Road (龙城路), in the city centre. I have certainly been shopping there for over twenty years. Known to most laowai as “the butter shop”, back then it was the only shop in Liuzhou to sell anything vaguely western: cheese, butter, olives, canned tuna, anchovies, […]
Guilin based brewery, Liquan, producers of the most available beer in Guangxi have issued a premium beer to mark 20 years since then President Bill Clinton made a very brief visit to the city. Spent around 5 minutes in Yangshuo. Oddly, on the rear label, is this supposed quote from Clinton (in his hand-writing?) which […]
A Liuzhou noodle shop owner has been jailed for six months and fined ¥10,000 after being caught adding opium poppy seeds to his Luosifen 螺蛳粉 and Guilin rice noodles 桂林米粉. In December 2016, he heard that adding the seeds would make for more repeat custom, so in July 2017 he bought a two kilogram sack […]
It has always surprised me in one way and not at all in another that there are so few Vietnamese restaurants here in town. After all, we are very near. But what surprises me even more is that the three such places I know all do the same one dish and ignore the wide cuisine […]
This saddens me beyond words. Xinhua, China’s official news agency has announced the opening of a Luosifen (螺蛳粉) Museum last weekend. In the last couple of years around thirty “museums” chronicling everything from a Deer Museum to a Tooth Paste Museum have popped up. These inevitably turn out to merely promotional outlets for some Liuzhou […]
Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week, we are getting shitty. A recent trip to the Dong ethnic minority (侗族) lands in Sanjiang Autonomous County (三江侗族自治縣) in the far north of Liuzhou prefecture, where Guangxi, Guizhou and Hunan meet. […]
Shopping in Liuzhou is a lot better than it used to be, especially for what might be considered “western” requirements, but is still very limited. An improvement on impossible, but only just. Things changed a few years back as online shopping hit China in a big way, especially through Taobao and Tmall. Most things you […]
Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week, we are having fun. Liagfen (凉粉) is a type of noodle made from starch and water. It is sometimes referred to as ‘starch jelly’ and is usually made from mung bean starch […]
Having alluded to this in my last post, I suppose I ought to explain more. I guessed a local had set it up. A few weeks back, as I was returning home from work (the curse of the drinking classes*) I spotted this at the entrance to the neighbourhood semi-compound where I live. I guessed […]
When I read the headline saying “Two Giant Prehistoric Fish Found in South China Waterway” I assumed that someone had been shopping in Bubugao Hypermarket’s crappy seafood section again., but no. It seems that two alligator gar fish were found in Hedong Park (河东公园). These are native to the southern United States and northern Mexico […]