I’m pleased to see that an American blog has picked up on the term ‘grapple factor’ - a term invented by my father to describe foods which are very complicated to eat, like tiny birds and shell-on prawns. I find it an invaluable term, myself. What about you?
And have any of you invented any useful words or phrases that you use for food or cookery?
I’m quite chuffed to read this thread on a Chinese web discussion board about Gong Bao chicken (apologies to those of you who can’t read Chinese). The poster said she’d tried more than ten different recipes without any success - until she tried mine from Land of Plenty/Sichuan Cookery, which she said produced as good as dish as one in a good Sichuanese restaurant!
There’s an interesting, and at times hilarious, thread on Chinese cooking tradition on Chowhound - lwong’s dryly witty comment had me laughing out loud:
‘We see that the posters here on the “Home Cooking” Forum are a very tough bunch. Especially when 1400 years for the technique of “stir fry cooking in a wok” is not considered a sufficient time to have passed the “long test of time” in terms being considered a classic cooking technique, nor the introduction of the New World foods, which would only be in the neighborhood of a mere 700 years.’
It reminded me of the fact that many of the professional Chinese cooking manuals I have encountered in my work begin their introductions with an account of the discovery of fire, the moment when human beings ceased being savages who 茹毛饮血 (literally ‘ate feathers and drank blood, i.e. ate birds and animals raw), and embarked on the path of civilisation by cooking their food. It also reminded me of the late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai who, when asked for his assessment of the 1789 French Revolution, supposedly replied that it was ‘too early to say’. Continue reading…
Sometimes I just have to draw, like today (although it’s the first time in ages). More than anything, I like drawing faces, and so, when like today I am working at home alone, I have little choice but to draw myself in the mirror. So here it is, another quick self-portrait to add to the hundreds I’ve produced since I was about seventeen!
I don’t know why, but it’s put me in a really good mood.
I’ve been discussing camel cookery with my friend Anissa Helou, an expert on Middle Eastern food, and Charles Perry, an expert on Medieval Arabic food, on Anissa’s blog. I would love to post a picture of a dead camel here, but unfortunately it’s from my pre-digital period and I don’t have a scanner!
You can read about my recent eating adventures in Singapore in today’s Financial Times.
In the print edition, there’s also a little list of Chinese New Year traditions by me, but I can’t seem to find it online.
And, did you see the news that Ferran Adria says El Bulli is actually to close permanently, after 2012?
Last night I went to a press screening of Food Inc, Robert Kenner’s film about the corporate takeover of the American (and global) agricultural and food industries. For anyone who has read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, or Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, many of the issues, and even the characters, will be familiar - Pollan and Schlosser both appear in the film - but that doesn’t make it any less chilling. Most shocking was its account of the bullying tactics used by big agro-food corporations to silence their critics, and of the cosy relationship they have with those in power. Continue reading…
One thing I never thought I’d be is an agony aunt for people struggling to cook ox penises!
The Party Secretarys Wifes version
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, a local government in Hunan is issuing precise instructions for making Mao’s favourite dish, Red-Braised Pork (hong shao rou 红烧肉), in an attempt to stem the flood of imitations. They are also attempting to standardise recipes for other dishes enjoyed by Mao, including stir-fried pork with peppers (nong jia chao rou 农家炒肉) and steamed fishhead with chillies (duojiao zheng yutou 剁椒蒸鱼头).
I was particularly amused by this because in the course of research for my Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook I was shown two different versions of this in Mao’s home village Shaoshan alone: one, made by the wife of the local Communist Party Secretary, was a simple dish of braised pork belly, cooked in lard with dark soy sauce to give colour, a dash of vinegar and a little sugar; the other, made in the kitchens of the Shaoshan Guesthouse, where I’d just had lunch with Mao’s nephew, was a more sophisticated dish, coloured with caramelised sugar (糖色), spiced with dried red
The Shaoshan Guesthouse version
chillies, star anise and ginger, and enhanced by some juices of fermented beancurd. Who can say which is truer to Mao’s own tastes? Continue reading…
According to reports in various newspapers (such as the Guardian in the UK), legal experts in China are proposing that a new law to prevent the abuse of animals should include a ban on the consumption of cats and dogs. As anyone who lives in China knows, eating these animals is rather unusual, and generally limited to a few regions. Moreover, eating dog meat, though it dates back to ancient times, is a seasonal delicacy, suitable only for very cold weather because of its heating qualities. Looking at Western discussions of Chinese food, however, you’d never know that it was a minority pursuit. Westerners, as I argued in this op-ed piece in the New York Times a couple of years ago, have been obsessed with Chinese dog-eating since the time of Marco Polo. It’s something they just love to get outraged about. Continue reading…
