A taste of Xi’an in North London
Though the Chinese city of Xi’an is best known for its terracotta soldiers, it also has some notable culinary specialities, including ‘soaked flatbread with beef or…
Happy Chinese New Year! æ–°å¹´å¿«ä¹ï¼é©¬å¹´å‰ç¥¥ï¼
With all good wishes for the Year of the Horse, here’s a picture of New Year’s Day feasting in rural Hunan, 2004. A table of plenty,…
The world’s most amazing food museum?
You can read my piece about the incredible Hangzhou Cuisine Museum (ä¸å›½æ帮èœåšç‰©é¦†) on the BBC website here, or listen to me talking about it on From…
Christmas greetings!
I’ve always rather admired those incredible Chinese cold-cut platters 冷盘, in which auspicious scenes are recreated in a collage of little slices of food. Sometimes they…
El Bulli: Ferran Adria and the art of food
Last week I went to the opening of this new exhibition at Somerset House. It’s a peculiar idea, an exhibition about a restaurant without anything to…
Why do Americans think ice is so nice?
The first time I went to America, I couldn’t understand why, whenever I checked into a hotel, the first thing the bell boy told me was…
Year of the Snake
Bizarrely, I spent this Chinese New Year’s Eve teaching cookery in Houston, and then eating Tex-Mex! (Molten cheese with tortilla chips; a San Antonio ‘puffy taco’…
Every Grain of Rice US edition now out!
The US edition of Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, is out today, published, like the American editions of all my books, by W.W.Norton.…
The lonely life of the Chinese chef
Recently I went with the head chef of Barshu, Zhang Xiaozhong, to give some presentations at the Worlds of Flavour conference at the Culinary Institute of…
Fuchsia and the giant peach
Driving through the countryside near Beijing on the way back from the Great Wall, we passed through a fruit-growing region, which advertised its wares through this…