Shark Fin Soup and Sichuan Pepper by Fucshia Dunlop

This book was recommended by my nephew.  The author came to China in the 1990's when she was right out of college.  She wan't quite sure what it was that she wanted to do, and when she drifted into Chengdu first as a correspondent for the BBC and then as a student, she was ill prepared for what was about to happen.  She fell in love with Chinese food, the real China, and she ended up in a cooking school and forgetting a lot about her Western roots.
I really relate to her first impressions of how the Chinese eat, which is the ultimate snout to tail cuisine.  She, as am I, was squeamish about the intestine and brain and offal that her Chinese dining companions would drop into her bowl and then looks at her expectantly, feeling like they had bestowed pearls upon her and she was polite about it but not quite getting it.  I am about there, even now.  When my nephew took me for the Hunan delicacy of fish head, I was, well, I took a deep breath and dug in.  The head was so enormous, at least a foot long, and where to start.  Well he showed me the way and in the end, I reall loved it and wondered where and when I would have a fish head quite this good again.  I was unable to get to that level of rapture when he friend in Nanjing took us to a noodle house where the lunch dish was teeming with organ meat.  I have a ways to go, but the author got there, went beyond, and learned to cook it.  Fascinating read, especially if you love food.