Competition time! – [Competition now closed – winner to be announced shortly!]
Well it’s the May bank holiday weekend and the sun is shining here in Duncannon, Co. Wexford. Today our grandson Dermot Gao O’Neill is 3 months old. I’ve just been speaking to him in Beijing on FaceTime or, rather, he has been staring in some bemusement at me on the screen of an iPad…
Now I’m in the mood for a long walk down by Loftus Hall and Hook Head Lighthouse where there are lots of fun things going on this weekend. I’m also feeling too lazy to cook today so instead it’s time to have a bit of fun on the blog too and to give something away to one of my lovely followers.
When I was in Beijing to meet Dermot in March I picked up a spare hard-back copy of Serve the People – A stir-fried journey through China. The book is written by Jen Lin-Liu, a Chinese American journalist and food writer who decided to enrol in cooking school in Beijing. She went on to found Black Sesame Kitchen, one of the two cookery schools I attended while I was there.
Her book is a mouth-watering tale of her exploration of Chinese food and culture and paints a wonderfully vivid picture of Chinese society and it cuisine. It is a good-humoured insight into life in China and what its like for a la0 wai (outsider – literally old strange), even one with Chinese parents, to break into that world and live like a local. There are lots of recipes dotted through the book to whet your appetite further. And it has been signed by noodle master Chef Zhang who features as one of the fascinating host of characters in the book and now teaches at Black Sesame Kitchen.
To be in with a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment on the blog identifying as many as possible of the 10 ingredients pictured below. It would be great if you can also suggest a recipe each ingredient can be used in but that’s not essential.
The competition will close at midnight on Saturday next 11th May and I will post the book to the winner.
Who am I and what am I used for?
I brought all of these food items back from Beijing but most are available in Asian markets here in Ireland although the brand names may be different.
(Hint: I’ve used all but two of them in recipes on the blog and many can be used in more than one dish.)
If there isn’t an outright winner, I will draw the winner at random from those who get the most right answers with my decision being final as to what’s a correct answer. Ooh the power 🙂
The competition was prompted by my daughter Claire sending me the same question with photos of some of these ingredients which she had taken back to Australia from Beijing – and no you cant enter this time Claire because you already know the answers!!
So have fun and learn a bit along the way.
Oh wow!!! You are making us work hard 🙂 will need time to research that & crazy GAA weekend going on here.
Will get back to you in few days.
Love all the colours of ingredients. X
That’s why I’ve given you a week to do your homework 🙂
I feel like it would be cheating if I put in my answers this time round!
Good luck people!
Likewise, it would probably be cheating if I dug out the market shopping list from when you were in Beijing? Good luck everyone. It’s a great prize.
What a test. Giving it my best shot so here goes.
1.
That kept me busy since the Dawn Chorus, Julie. And it was fun recognising ingredients that until your blog ad recipes, I would not have recognised.
Marie
Thanks Marie, saying nothing for now 🙂
E-mail with my answers coming… great blog idea .I may steal it sometime 🙂
You are very welcome to the idea and I’ve a variation with some unusual spices for a noodle soup but I’m thinking I will have to make that one multiple choice 🙂
Great idea for a competition Julie, few tricky ones so will drop back when I have more time for googling! Adrienne
Can we email answers?
Actually probably better fun here than email! Ok here goes:
1.
So now tomorrow night I’m going to have cook something Sichuan after all that & get my fix of Sichuan Pepper.
I second Marie in that I wouldn’t have known these wonderful ingredients before I started following your blog, what a difference a year makes eh?
I bet dudara will beat this if Marie Mc hasn’t already!
Elaine, I removed your answers and other answers for now as they are close to being right although not 10 out of 10. I’ve discovered from replies that one of the ingredients is not what I thought it was myself so I’m learning too 🙂
Marie, I removed your answers and other answers for now as some of them are close to being right although not 10 out of 10. I’ve discovered from replies that one of the ingredients is not what I thought it was myself so I’m learning too 🙂
I’ve emailed my entries through – some little stinkers in there Julie!
Ingredient 1
oops pressed enter by mistake when scrolling up & down, rest of my answers are-