The MSG controversy
If you’re paranoid about eating MSG, or just interested in the subject, you might like to listen to this American PRI discussion in which Dr Katharine…
The MSG controversy
This article ‘Breaking Bland’, by John Mahoney, is the most lucid, informative and interesting I’ve read on the whole MSG controversy. It goes into great detail…
Eating kangaroo – reprise
My piece on the Australian relationship with eating kangaroo meat seems to have stirred up a lot of interest and emotion! It was one of the…
Fast food, Yunnan style
This is the signboard for a little restaurant/takeaway in the backstreets of Jianshui, in southern Yunnan Province. It says ‘The sisters’ fast food shop’. You might…
In praise of hong cai tai (and other Chinese greens)
I’m back in Changsha, where I lived for a few months while researching my Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, for the first time in five years. It’s wonderful…
Of salt and sodium
A blog reader called Tom emailed me recently to say that he was enjoying cooking from my books, but: I am trying to figure out whether…
Chinese food slurred again
I’ve just written a guest post for the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog, which you can read here.
Brown rice
A study in the US is suggesting that replacing white rice with brown rice could cut the risk of diabetes – findings that might provoke some…
Rapeseed oil and grass-fed beef
When cooking Chinese food, I have been in the habit of using groundnut oil, which is neutral in flavour, stable at high temperatures and relatively easily…
The wrong kind of recycling
The China Daily reports that one in ten meals in China may be made with old, recycled and potentially carcinogenic cooking oil. The State Food and…