Foodfreak hat uns eingeladen, zur Feier des chinesischen Neujahrs etwas Chinesisches zu kochen und damit das Jahr des Hundes zu begrüßen. Dem komme ich natürlich sehr gerne nach, da ich damit wahrscheinlich auch unserem neuen Austauschschüler Bo e…

I would most be interested in a cultural exchange sort of program, rather than a standard tourist thing. Zak’s family has business interests in China, or had them, anyway, and so, there are some connections there, in some smaller cities.

Culinary cultural exchange would be the best, though calligraphy does sound interesting, too.

Rose, you are right–the young folks of many ethnicities spurn the culinary and other traditions of their native lands for the newer ideas of their adopted country. It happens with all ethnic groups when they move to a new place. It is natural, I suppose.

What I find most interesting, of course, is when folks from different ethnicities interact, and how cuisines change with the intersections between cultures.

Brett–thank you! I hope you and yours have a happy holiday, too! And I am glad you are enjoying my blog so much. That means a lot.

I would love to go to China and travel about and just learn to cook from people from all around, and maybe teach them some American food that isn’t McDonald’s. (Because I don’t like the thought of folks thinking that American food is all fast food. Ugh.)

Oh, and of course, Hong Kong and Taiwan! I am a big movie geek, so I would have to visit Hong Kong! Besides, the dim sum chef who taught me some stuff was from Hong Kong….

Well, I have to go to bed. The creme part of the creme brulee should be cool enough to go in the fridge, and Morganna tells us that she will wake us up between seven and eight tomorrow….

Night all, and Merry Christmas!

I want to wish you and your family a happy holiday season. I love your blog and look forward to reading more informative posts in the new year! Also, have fun cooking in your new kitchen!

Having spent a lot of time in China, I have to agree with the assesment of of the articles you’ve read, mainland chinese are quickly trying to drum out tradition with all modern and new. It’s not just culinary–it’s everything. Architcture is particularly hit bad as well. When I went back to my old neighborhood in Beijing after only 3 years, I didn’t recognize a single street.

It is sad, but I view it from a different perspective as well. The chinese are a particularly proud people (I can see this in my own family)and their desire (and drive) to catch up is due in large part to their pride. They associate tradition and older customs with the troubled history of the last 50 years–they were once a great empire and fell lightyears behind. I don’t agree that they should turn their backs on all their traditional culture, but I do understand why they feel this way.

When I was in Taiwan over the summer I breezed through a couple of (chinese language) magazines that discussed the emergence of high end chinese restaurants in mainland china that are trying to “research” and develop traditional cuisine. My language ablities as such, I could only glean a bit of what they were discussing, but it seems to be at least a step in the right direction.

I’m lucky enough to live in NYC, a place culturally rich and diverse. But I’ve noticed so many young people of other ethnic groups spurn their own culinary traditions for convienent foods as well. I’m constantly bugging my korean friends how to make certain dishes and they just shrug having no clue how to do it themselves(“Go ask my mom” one of them replied–I would except their mom lives in LA). In this day in age, when are time is limited by so many external factors (80+ hour work weeks, children), food is often the last thing on their minds. A sad aspect of pursing the american dream I suppose.

I’m more than happy to have you on my tour! I’m curious what you can tell me of the food you eat in Chinatown. I’ll be giving the tours officially from April through the end of August, but then I am leaving the US to go back to Asia However, if you come before then, I can always arrange a tour.

Jaqueline Newman is the founder of Flavor and Fortune, btw–I have yet to meet her, or speak to her, but I suspect I probably should.

There are a few books on Chinese food in China, that emphasize history and sociology that you would probably like. I have a couple of them: The Food of China, by E.N. Anderson is an excellent work by an anthropologist which looks at the history of food, food in present day (as of 1988, as that is when the book was published) and how food has been shaped by the regional variations of climate and geography. It is quite a good introduction to the idea of food in China–not food in the Chinese diaspora, which is a completely different thing.

In 2004, Jaqueline Newman came out with Food Culture in China, which is part of the Food Culture Around the World series put out by Greenwood Press. This book is bloody expensive, as it is intended for libraries and schools, but it is quite a thorough look at Chinese food in history and in the world today. It covers many subjects, though somewhat shallowly, as the book is meant as an overview and is written with the late high school to early college student in mind.

There is also Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropoligical and Historical Perspective. by K C Chang–this one is out of print and beastly expensive, so I don’t own a copy, though I have borrowed it from the library and read it. It is, as I recall, more about the development of Chinese food in history, than in the present.

One of the things that I keep reading about in the newspapers–usually English language editions from Mainland China or Taiwan, and I hear from Chinese Americans who have visited China, is that the Chinese, in their push for modernization, are turning away in droves from their culinary heritage, and they are instead embracing Western style fast foods, and convenience items.

This saddens me immeasurably, for many reasons. The culture of China is one of the most ancient in the world, with a great and fascinating history, and any of it that is lost is a loss of the richness of past human experience to the world. In addition, there is much to admire from a health perspective from the traditional eating patterns of various Chinese regional cuisines, and to turn from a foodway that is healthful and life-giving to one that is dangerous to one’s health is a bad choice, not only for an individual, but for an entire society.

It also makes me sad, because I do not believe that just because something is ancient means it is good, nor is it true that because something is old, it is old-fashioned and thus bad. There is good to be had in old ways and new ways–why, in the rush to modernize and become a great nation among great nations in a technological and economic competition, must all things which are older be left behind? Why spurn tradition blindly, in favor of the glitter of the new in all realms?

Rose–you don’t know how many Chinese American people I have actually taught how to cook Chinese food. I find this to be very, very odd, and at first, I was scared to death, because I thought that I was an outsider (as I am!) and thus was arrogant to set myself up to teach others.

But I heard from my students the very same thing that you say when you tell me that you took your mother’s home cooking for granted and refused to learn it. Luckily, you changed your mind and set to rectify that situation while your mother yet lived. Some of my students told me that they were not interested in learning their grandmother’s recipes or mother’s special dishes until long after they died and then it was too late. And so, they ended up taking my classes, and from a stranger who had done intensive research, they could recover some of the lost threads of thier own past.

It touched me to hear these things, and it filled me with a sense of responsibility, I suppose. I felt honor-bound, then to learn as much as I could and preserve the knowledge of Chinese cookery, and pass it on to any who would learn it. That is why, too, when I speak to young Chinese Americans, I always tell them to look to their culture and hold on to it, and learn their mothers’ dishes and pass them on as a legacy to their children.

Some of them even listen.

Well, I should stop jabbering–I have to go and do errands and do some baking, and custard making, and meat trimming and the like in preparation for the feast tomorrow.

And wrap presents, and clean the house…so on and so on.

When I am in New York next, I would very much like to take one of your tours. I don’t know when we will visit again, but we go not too infrequently. Not as frequently as we did when we lived in Providence or Baltimore, but still, we do like to visit.