Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop

Award-winning food writer Fuchsia Dunlop went to live in China in 1994, and from the very beginning vowed to eat everything she was offered, no matter how alien and bizarre it seemed to her as a Westerner. In this extraordinary memoir, Fuchsia recalls her evolving relationship with China and its food, from her first rapturous encounter with the delicious cuisine of Sichuan Province, to brushes with corruption, environmental degradation and greed. In the course of this fascinating journey, Fuchsia undergoes an apprenticeship at the Sichuan cooking school, where she is the only foreign student in a class of nearly fifty young Chinese men; she attempts, hilariously, to persuade Chinese people that 'Western food' is neither 'simple' nor 'bland'; and samples a multitude of exotic ingredients, including dogmeat, civet cats, scorpions, 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 Oxfordshire kitchen, Fuchsia is forced to put this to the test. From the vibrant markets of Sichuan to the bleached landscape of northern Gansu Province, from the desert oases of Xinjiang to the enchanting old city of Yangzhou, this is a unique and evocative account of a culture and cuisine that is a world away from most Westerners' experiences.

"Britain's most informed Sichuan food expert" -- Terry Durack * Independent *
"The best writer in the West - and perhaps in the world - on Chinese food" -- Bee Wilson * Sunday Telegraph *
"I, for one, am grateful to be living in an era when I can read Fuchsia Dunlop's erudite writingHer latest, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper is filled with personal and humorous observations that make for fascinating reading. It is not only a memoir about food but also of culture from one of the world's oldest civilisations." -- Ken Hom
"Fuchsia Dunlop is not just one of the world's experts on Chinese regional food, but a beautiful writer too. You can almost smell the Sichuan pepper and fish fragrant aubergines wafting off every page. She captures Sichuan life with a keen eye and elegant pen, at a time where China was on the cusp of opening up to the West. It's as evocative and eloquent picture of Chinese food and culture as you'll ever read, quietly erudite yet utterly addictive." -- Tom Parker Bowles
"Fuchsia has a rare ability to convey an encyclopaedic knowledge of Chinese cuisine in a compelling and totally delicious way; this is a great book" -- Heston Blumenthal

Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train as a chef at China's leading cooking school, the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she has been researching Chinese culinary culture for more than a decade. She is the author of two acclaimed cookery books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province and Sichuan Cookery, which won the Jeremy Round Award for Best First Book in 2002. Fuchsia writes for numerous publications including Gourmet, Saveur, The Financial Times and Time Out Magazine, and appears as a guest chef and Chinese food expert on radio and television. In 2006 she was named 'Food Journalist of the Year' by the British Guild of Food Writers. She currently lives in London, where she is a consultant for the popular Bar Shu Sichuanese restaurant.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780091926427
ISBN 10	0091926424
Title	Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper
Author	Fuchsia Dunlop
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Ebury Publishing
Year published	2008-03-06
Number of pages	320
Prizes	Winner of Guild of Food Writers Awards: Kate Whiteman Award for Work on Food and Travel 2009
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable