Winner of the Jane Grigson Award (2009) and the Kate Whiteman Award for Work on Food and Travel (2009). Shortlisted for the James Beard Writing and Literature Award
An extraordinary memoir of an Englishwoman’s attempt to immerse herself in Chinese food and Chinese culinary culture. In the course of her decade-long journey, Fuchsia undergoes an apprenticeship at a Sichuanese cooking school, where she is the only foreign student in a class of nearly fifty young Chinese men; attempts, hilariously, to persuade Chinese people that ‘Western food’ is neither ‘simple’ nor ‘bland’; and samples a multitude of exotic ingredients, including sea cucumber, civet cat, scorpion, rabbit-heads and the ovarian fat of the snow frog. But is it possible for a Westerner to become a true convert to the Chinese way of eating? In an encounter with a caterpillar in an Oxford kitchen, Fuchsia is forced to put this to the test.
���Not just a smart memoir about cross-cultural eating but one of the most engaging books of any kind I’ve read in years’  O Magazine
‘Insightful, entertaining, scrupulously reported… and a swashbuckling memoir studded with recipes… a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy’  New York Times
‘Destined… to become a classic of travel writing’  The Observer (UK)
‘Marvellous and mesmerising’  The Daily Mail (UK)
‘Delightful’  Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue
4 Responses to “Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper”
[…] couple months ago I read Fuchsia Dunlop’s book Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper. It was an excellent read simply from a travel book standpoint (and you all know how I feel about […]
[…] be known as just Fuchsia or just Dunlop) is a Chinese food phenomenon. Author of the best-selling Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, the book outlines her deep love for Chinese cookery which began as a student at Cambridge, […]
Out on the Kindle in the US – can’t wait to read it tonight!
sharks fin… this is one of popular book i have ever read..you won’t miss it