Noodle Man

One of the best places to eat in Food Alley in Jindezhen is at the Noodle Man's place. This gentle noodle maker, his wife and two beautiful little girls run this little restaurant. He makes the BEST noodles. He makes them all from scratch. You can have them as soup or stir fried. They are spicy and tasty. Here is a video of the noodle making. You can catch glimpses of his wife and girls, too.

Eating in Jingdezhen

We are here in Jingdezhen, China after having traveled from Lexington to Cincinnati to San Francisco to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Jingdezhen.  Whew, a long trip.  Thankfully it wasn't all at once!  This morning we went in search of breakfast and found a street near the food market with stalls selling all kinds of steamed dumplings.  We ate a few from this one and then a few from that one.  They were beyond wonderful.  Tender dough pockets filled with various fillings - some meat some vegetable.  Savory.  Spicy.  Mmmmmmm!    The bamboo steamer baskets are stacked high over woks of boiling water keeping them all piping hot.  

After stuffing ourselves on the dim sum we wandered through the food market.  It was bustling. They were selling anything imaginable that could be cooked.  Piles of incredible produce; tanks of fish, turtles, eels, and frogs; a huge variety of peppers and other spices; meat of all varieties; cages of ducks, chickens, pigeons; eggs of many colors and sizes.  

I guess the culinary tour of China has officially begun.  With a vengeance.

Ladylocks

Last weekend at the family feast day one of the relatives brought a big tray of some tiny cream horn like things called Ladylocks. They were so good and I thought they would be a good thing to make for parties or potlucks - whatever. I was surfing for recipes on the internet and thought I would look for the recipe for ladylocks. I founds numerous versions – some with a cooked filling and some with an uncooked filling. I found one recipe that made 500 (!!!!) of them. It turns out one of the primary ingredient for these delicacies is Crisco....that right, Crisco!!!!! This recipe for 500 of the little tidbits calls for 20 cups of Crisco! Once I got over the shock I looked at the whole page and the ad that came up at the bottom said “How I lost 90 pounds” I laughed out loud. I thought to myself - “you didn’t do it by eating ladylocks!” Maybe the message is that anyone that makes 500 ladylocks and eats them will have at least 90 pounds to lose. Yikes. I am including the link to the recipe (for fewer than 500) if you want to make them. Don't offer me any if you do.
Ladylocks recipe