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

by Dunlop, Fuchsia, author.

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

Food habits -- China.

Cooking, Chinese.

Cooking, Chinese -- History.

Gastronomy -- China -- History.

9780393867138 (hardcover)

0393867137 (hardcover)

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

First American edition.

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.

"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.

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