Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China

by Fuchsia Dunlop, Bee Wilson (Foreword by)

Overview

The modern classic that redefined the travel food memoir, with a new foreword from Bee Wilson.

Fuchsia Dunlop, the first Westerner to train at the prestigious Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, “has done more to explain real Chinese cooking to non-Chinese cooks than anyone” (Julia Moskin, New York Times). In Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Dunlop recalls her rapturous encounters with China’s culinary riches, alongside her brushes with corruption, environmental degradation, and greed. The resulting memoir is a vibrant portrait of Chinese culinary culture, from the remote Gansu countryside to the enchanting old city of Yangzhou. The most talked-about travel narrative when it was published a decade ago, this reissue of Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper remains a thrilling adventure that you won’t be able to put down.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393357745
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	641,090
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fuchsia Dunlop is the author of Land of Fish and Rice, among other books. She has won four James Beard awards for her writing and lives in London.

Table of Contents

Foreword Bee Wilson 6

Prologue: The Chinese Eat Everything 8

1 Mouths That Love Eating 15

2 Dan Dan Noodles! 34

3 First Kill Your Fish 47

4 Only Barbarians Eat Salad 60

5 The Cutting Edge 76

6 The Root of Tastes 93

7 The Hungry Dead 114

8 The Rubber Factor 133

9 Sickness Enters Through the Mouth 150

10 Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party 173

11 Chanel and Chickens' Feet 185

12 Feeding the Emperor 199

13 Guilt and Pepper 217

14 Journey to the West 236

15 Of Paw and Bone 255

16 Scary Crabs 273

17 A Dream of Red Mansions 291

Epilogue: The Caterpillar 309

List of the Main Chinese Dynasties 313

Acknowledgements 315

Permissions 317

Index 319

Editorial Reviews

"What makes it a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy is its demonstration . . . that food is not a mere reflection of culture but a potent shaper of cultural identity."

New York Times Sunday Book Review

"After devouring Dunlop's deep dive into the techniques of Chinese cuisine, you will never look at a cleaver the same way again."

Entertainment Weekly

An insightful, entertaining, scrupulously reported exploration of China’s foodways and a swashbuckling memoir…What makes it a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy is its demonstration…that food is not a mere reflection of culture but a potent shaper of cultural identity.

Dawn Drzal - New York Times

Destined, I think, to become a classic of travel writing.

Paul Levy - The Observer

I didn’t realize what a self-satisfied, Western-hemisphere food snob I was until I read Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper. . . . This is not just a smart memoir about cross-cultural eating but one of the most engaging books of any kind I’ve read in years.”

Celia Barbour - O

An insightful, entertaining, scrupulously reported exploration of China’s foodways and a swashbuckling memoir. . . . What makes it a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy is its demonstration . . . that food is not a mere reflection of culture but a potent shaper of cultural identity.— Dawn Drzal

New York Times

Read More