Invitation To A Banquet by Fucshia Dunlop

Fuchsia Dunlop left England and went to Chengdu as a student in 1990 and she basically fell fully and deeply in love with the culture and food of China. She is uniquely suited to telling this story because she is a deeply seasoned outsider who has taken on the task of educating non-Asians about the cuisine of China. She speaks, reads, and writes Mandarin, she is an award winning author of cookbooks of Chinese cuisine that are published not just in the West but also in China, and she has taken scores of western tourists on food tours of China. She starts off by educating us that we very likely have no idea about the cuisine of China. First of all, there’s no such thing as “Chinese” food. China is a country, but it’s the size of a continent, and it boasts a culinary diversity which exceeds that of many actual continents. Second, the dishes you encounter in the average Chinese restaurant over here bear about as much resemblance to real Chinese food--the only way to glimpse the real deal is to eat in restaurants located with high concentrations of Chinese immigrants, where there are things like blood and offal frequenting the menu. Then, if we didn't already know it, we learn that China is a food-obsessed society. People are always talking about their next meal. People talk about it incessantly. The Chinese equivalent of talking about the weather, a way of making polite chitchat with strangers, is to mention a restaurant that you like, or a meal that you’re looking forward to. A standard way of saying “hello” in Mandarin and Cantonese is “have you eaten yet?” and it produces a natural conversational opening to begin immediately discussing food. Perhaps most uncanny to foreigners, Chinese people will sometimes discuss their next meal while they are in the middle of eating a fancy dinner. Dozens of gorgeous little dishes spread around them, chomping or slurping away at exquisite cuisine, and happily chattering about what they plan to eat tomorrow. This I can relate to--what we in the west do not appreciate is the breadth and depth of the Chinese appreciation of food contains. Dunlop helps each and every reader understand why duck tongues and goose feet hold special sway with Chinese diners--they are seeking a balanced array of flavors and textures when they come to the table and all of them are valued. Nothing is too gross--in fact, it is valued. I loved reading about this, I learned a ton, even though I have traveled in China in multiple different regions, and it also made me very clear that I will never reach this level as a food appreciator. I can completely relate to the focus on vegetable dishes, having a balance of food on the table, serving an overabundance of dishes to get the right balance, but that is where it starts for most Chinese and mostly ends for me. This is a bit overly detailed and could have used better editing to weave the chapters better together, but it is the best description of what an outsider sees--and misses--when they look in on this cuisine.