Invitation to a banquet : the story of Chinese food / Fuchsia Dunlop.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dunlop, Fuchsia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food habits--China.

Food habits.

Cooking, Chinese.

Cooking, Chinese--History.

Gastronomy--China--History.

Gastronomy.

Genre:

Travel writing.

Physical Description:

[ix], 466 pages : 1 map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.

Summary:

"Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world's best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication--but today that is beginning to change. In Invitation to a Banquet, award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy, and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. In each chapter, she examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a distinctive aspect of Chinese gastronomy, whether it's the importance of the soybean, the lure of exotic ingredients, or the history of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Meeting food producers, chefs, gourmets, and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites readers to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is cooked, eaten, and considered in its homeland. Weaving together history, mouthwatering descriptions of food, and on-the-ground research conducted over the course of three decades, Invitation to a Banquet is a lively, landmark tribute to the pleasures and mysteries of Chinese cuisine"--Dust jacket flap.

Contents:

PROLOGUE: A kind of Chinese food : sweet-and-sour pork balls

HEARTH: THE ORIGINS OF CHINESE FOOD

Naked flame: cha siu pork

Sacred grain: steamed rice

The harmonious geng: Mrs Song's fish stew

The nourishment of life: bitter melon and pork rib soup

FARM: CHOOSING INGREDIENTS

Farm to chopsticks: Anji bamboo shoots with Jinhua ham

The joy of vegetables: stir-fried Chinese broccoli with ginger

Farming the water: sliced perch and water shield soup

The miraculous bean: mapo tofu

The whole pig: Dongpo pork

Food without borders: rinsed mutton hotpot

The marvels of qu: drunken crabs

What is an ingredient? Braised pomelo pith with shrimp eggs

Tongue and teeth: "catfish basking in honours"

The lure of the exotic: "surpassing bear's paw"

KITCHEN: CULINARY TECHNIQUES

Tasting the invisible: "top-ranking pot"

The bold and the bland: sweet-and-sour Yellow River carp

The subtle knife: shunde raw sliced fish

The power of steam: steamed reeves shad

Fire and time: stir-fried "jade" shrimps

A vocabulary of methods: Shandong guota tofu

Transforming dough: knife-scraped noodles

Kindling the spirits: steamed "soup" dumplings

TABLE: FOOD AND IDEAS

There is no dessert: Chaozhou "mother duck" twists

The impossible map: Chongqing chicken in a pile of chillies

Food without a meal: dry-fired "eels"

Rural idylls: stir-fried sweet potato leaves

Cultural appropriation, Chinese-style: "Russian soup"

Food and the heart: loving mother's red-braised pork

EPILOGUE: Past and future : chop suey.

Notes:

"First published in 2023 in Great Britain by Penguin UK"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-414) and index.

ISBN:

9780393867138

0393867137

OCLC:

1362866260