What to read over my mapo tofu dinner
October 19, 2014 9:47 PM Subscribe
What are your favorite pieces of Chinese-food writing out there? (That is, English-language works about Chinese food)
Any length is fine, though long-form journalism and book-length stuff especially welcome. I'm pretty interested in most anything related to Chinese cuisine: travel writing (aka "eating around China"); pieces on Chinese restaurants or Chinese cooks; writing about cookware/woks; writing about diaspora Chinese food, etc., just to name some examples.
To give some examples, I've read Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Jen Lin-Liu's Serve the People, Michael Pollan's Cooked and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. The last two are obviously not about Chinese food, but I wanted to give an example of the breadth of food writing I'm interested in.
With regards to cookbooks, I'm interested if they are particularly well-written, have significant narrative content, or offer an interesting regional/historical take; I'm not particularly looking for straight-up lists of recipes, such as anything along the lines of Easy and Quick Chinese Recipes!-type stuff, unless there's something more to it. For instance, Grace Young's Breath of a Wok and Dunlop's Land of Plenty/Sichuan Cookery have long narrative sections discussing wok culture and the underpinnings of Sichuan cooking, respectively. I have no idea if The Cultural Revolution Cookbook is actually good but it'd be good for the purposes of this question.
Any length is fine, though long-form journalism and book-length stuff especially welcome. I'm pretty interested in most anything related to Chinese cuisine: travel writing (aka "eating around China"); pieces on Chinese restaurants or Chinese cooks; writing about cookware/woks; writing about diaspora Chinese food, etc., just to name some examples.
To give some examples, I've read Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Jen Lin-Liu's Serve the People, Michael Pollan's Cooked and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. The last two are obviously not about Chinese food, but I wanted to give an example of the breadth of food writing I'm interested in.
With regards to cookbooks, I'm interested if they are particularly well-written, have significant narrative content, or offer an interesting regional/historical take; I'm not particularly looking for straight-up lists of recipes, such as anything along the lines of Easy and Quick Chinese Recipes!-type stuff, unless there's something more to it. For instance, Grace Young's Breath of a Wok and Dunlop's Land of Plenty/Sichuan Cookery have long narrative sections discussing wok culture and the underpinnings of Sichuan cooking, respectively. I have no idea if The Cultural Revolution Cookbook is actually good but it'd be good for the purposes of this question.
Response by poster: I just realize I only listed books as examples in my question and wanted to make clear I'm also open to shorter pieces -- book titles are just easier to remember/find so they're what came to mind!
posted by andrewesque at 9:55 PM on October 19, 2014
posted by andrewesque at 9:55 PM on October 19, 2014
You might be interested in Kylie Kwong's cookbooks. She's a third generation Chinese Australian chef and if her books are like her tv show, they would talk not just about food but also about culture.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 9:58 PM on October 19, 2014
posted by kinddieserzeit at 9:58 PM on October 19, 2014
Eating Chinese: Culture on the Menu in Small Town Canada
posted by pised at 10:20 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by pised at 10:20 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
Not books, but you may want to check out on YouTube an English dubbed or subbed Chinese tv series called Bite of China. It is a beautifully shot and mouthwatering documentary series that take in many aspects of Chinese cuisine.
posted by Pantalaimon at 11:01 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Pantalaimon at 11:01 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]
James McCawley's The Eater's Guide To Chinese Characters. This is a thorough little tutorial by a professional linguist; after working through this book you will be able to read the Chinese-only side of Chinese menus. (This is without learning how to speak Chinese in the slightest.) It teaches a very sensible system of character stroke order that I think is better than the traditional one used in Chinese dictionaries. Using the knowledge in this book, my girlfriend and I were able to determine that one pointedly-not-in-English dish was a kind of stuffed intestine ("Chinese haggis!" quoth she).
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:21 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:21 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm a lover of food non-fiction, but I did particularly enjoy Nicole Mones' The Last Chinese Chef, which is fiction.
posted by sarajane at 4:46 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by sarajane at 4:46 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
It's not primarily writing (there's a lot of gorgeous photography, and it's also a cookbook), but Beyond the Great Wall by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford is really cool.
posted by quaking fajita at 5:27 AM on October 20, 2014
posted by quaking fajita at 5:27 AM on October 20, 2014
Swallowing Clouds is an absolute delight, especially if you're interested in language.
I liked My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen as well.
posted by hellomiss at 5:48 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I liked My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen as well.
posted by hellomiss at 5:48 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: These are great, keep 'em coming!
FYI, I don't think this should make much of a difference, but in case it does I do read Mandarin. (I'm a heritage speaker and so I don't read it very fast, which means that my leisure reading is all in English.)
posted by andrewesque at 6:36 AM on October 20, 2014
FYI, I don't think this should make much of a difference, but in case it does I do read Mandarin. (I'm a heritage speaker and so I don't read it very fast, which means that my leisure reading is all in English.)
posted by andrewesque at 6:36 AM on October 20, 2014
I enjoyed this article from the New York Times Magazine:
"Hunan Resources"
posted by akk2014 at 6:45 AM on October 20, 2014
"Hunan Resources"
posted by akk2014 at 6:45 AM on October 20, 2014
There was a very interesting article in last week's New Yorker on the staff of American Chinese restaurants.
posted by raisindebt at 6:58 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by raisindebt at 6:58 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Matthew Amster-Burton's Child Octopus: Edible Adventures in Hong Kong is a quick, fun read.
posted by dire at 9:31 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by dire at 9:31 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]
I recently reread the Lucky Peach Chinatown issue, which might be of interest. Lucky Peach is a food writing journal edited by David Chang; this issue explores Chinese food from a number of different angles.
posted by rebekah at 10:00 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by rebekah at 10:00 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]
Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States by Andrew Coe is an interesting read, even if chop suey is not terribly fashionable nowadays.
posted by sukeban at 1:50 PM on October 20, 2014
posted by sukeban at 1:50 PM on October 20, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Carius at 9:53 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]