From time to time, Carrefour and Metro carry hot dogs and sausages, although its erratic for sure. Metro has a separate section for them in the 'cheese' corner. Carrefour sells them along with the bacons and other Chinese hams and hot dogs in the yogurt and cheese refrigerated aisles.
Carrefour sells a lovely whole grain mustard that is great with sausages. Once in a while you get lucky with the taste. All a little expensive but certainly worth it for that periodic taste of home.
If you're looking for a hunk of beef, not for BBQing but for stewing or for Hong Shao Niu Ruo, the beef that's vacuum packed in a green coloured plastic bag is a brand called TianMu and is nice. Don't bother with the Carrefour cuts of beef, they're tough.
No need to use fresh yeast or be worried about the quality of the dry yeast here. I have been using the granulated ANGEL Brand Instant Dry Yeast for years now, making my own bread/dough/buns at least once a week in my bread machine with outstanding success. I do keep the opened package in a sealed, airtight container in the fridge to keep it fresh. Those small packets are the same quality. I buy the 500gram package.
For bread, the Gold Medal (foreign) brand is the only one I use. Tried other Chinese flours but wasn't successful.
For baking/sweets, I like the All Purpose Chinese brand I buy in Carrefour. It's got a little sugar mixed in with the flour but it's reasonably priced and baking comes out yummy delicious!
If you're looking to make egg buns, my recipe is above (and it's tweaked for Kunming altitude).
If you really need cheap you can travel by train to Hong Kong. That you can't book until 21 days before the departure but you could get someone to do it for you.
Stevenismynickname and Kirkpatrick, thanks for the comments.
yankee00, thanks for the good question. Do not soak or cook the beans with salt. Salt tends to harden beans during the water absorption process.
I actually didn't add any salt to this recipe and didn't need to. The soy sauce give the dish enough saltiness to compensate. And I rarely cook with salt, even when boiling pasta, like I used to in the days back in Canada. I try to use enough flavourings like green onion, garlic, ginger and sesame oil to make dishes tasty enough 'cause salt's not good for us anyways!
I've made this dish using the red beans several times and always soaked and then cooked them until they were soft so if you added salt that would likely be the prob.
I never would have thought to add baking soda, danTheMan. Good idea. Thanks for that! I'll try it and let you know.
Yes, it's a hassle for me to go a long way, but the hassle is worth it. The range of foreign products far surpasses any other supermarket/big box store/or whatever you want to call them. And in comparision to the first time I shopped there 2 years ago, I feel the whole store has improved.
If you compare the variety and the store brand products to the drivvel at the other big supermarkets, there is absolutely no comparison.
My list of real foreign quality products is endless and includes:
- beautiful fresh salmon
- tacos
- lovely baked goods
- fine quality white sugar
- flour - all purpose and for bread
- spices
- a huge variety of spices
- olives
- all the pasta making seasonings and sauces you could want
- frozen puff pastry
- a fantastic selection of dairy products inc. Cream Cheese, Mozzarella, Cottage Cheese, Cheddars, Brie and Camembert, whipping cream - all priced fairly and not overpriced.
- popping corn without the bugs
- the Horeca brand of everything is superb, including olive oil, dish soap, at competitive prices
- etc, etc, etc
Face it, we are in no man's land here in KM so a little bit of inconvenience for all these great products is a god-send.
Detailed Kunming metro plans finally unveiled
发布者I found another good map here:
www.seacitymaps.com/china/kunming_metro_map_1.htm
At least for me it shows all the stops on my south route more clearly.
Recipe: Yunnan-style red beans and shiitakes
发布者Stevenismynickname and Kirkpatrick, thanks for the comments.
yankee00, thanks for the good question. Do not soak or cook the beans with salt. Salt tends to harden beans during the water absorption process.
I actually didn't add any salt to this recipe and didn't need to. The soy sauce give the dish enough saltiness to compensate. And I rarely cook with salt, even when boiling pasta, like I used to in the days back in Canada. I try to use enough flavourings like green onion, garlic, ginger and sesame oil to make dishes tasty enough 'cause salt's not good for us anyways!
I've made this dish using the red beans several times and always soaked and then cooked them until they were soft so if you added salt that would likely be the prob.
I never would have thought to add baking soda, danTheMan. Good idea. Thanks for that! I'll try it and let you know.
Recipe: Yunnan-style pork and egg custard
发布者Thanks for the nice comments and let me know how it goes when you try it!
Battered women's shelter opens in Kunming
发布者Sadly I called and got no answer. I wanted to donate Western Ladies clothes and shoes.
Battered women's shelter opens in Kunming
发布者Tallamerican, if that is true then I can certainly understand the pain caused by this problem.