Tag Archives: China

Lixia 立夏, Summer begins

China’s traditional agricultural calendar is a marvel.  Perfectly timed to the movements of the sun, the calendar breaks down four cardinal seasons into twenty-four cycles (节期). Big moments like the summer solstice hit precisely in the middle of the season, with three, two-week cycles on either side.  It’s all quite tidy. This is a calendarContinue reading “Lixia 立夏, Summer begins”

Cuisine along China’s Grand Canal

A couple of years back, a good friend, or more precisely her publisher, suggested that she and I collaborate on a book about the cuisines of China’s Grand Canal. The Grand Canal is exactly what the name describes. It is indeed a canal and at just over 1800 kilometers long, makes a pretty solid caseContinue reading “Cuisine along China’s Grand Canal”

Xian 苋, The tasty surprise lurking in your garden

Any gardener who knows the herculean effort needed to keep aggressive weeds from choking out their dainty heirloom lettuces has at some point asked “why don’t I just eat these instead?” It turns out that you can, at least sometimes. For three years, we farmed a little plot of land about an hour outside ofContinue reading “Xian 苋, The tasty surprise lurking in your garden”

Celery and crab roe

—a love letter to umami Chinese food has exactly five flavors. That’s not just my opinion, it’s a formulation that appears in at least 2,500 years of Chinese food writing. The five flavors—sweet, salty, sour, spicy and bitter—are the essential, indivisible components of cuisine. Actually that 2,500 years is just the point that the fiveContinue reading “Celery and crab roe”

Chinese beef balls 牛肉丸

Ah the humble beef ball.  Subject of countless dirty jokes, smutty nicknames, and at least one trashy Hong Kong movie that makes liberal use of both. More than their lesser-known pork cousins, beef balls command a cache that makes them culturally iconic. That’s in part because they are scarce, at least the good ones.  ProperContinue reading “Chinese beef balls 牛肉丸”

Dine like a poet

Structuralism and the successful dinner party FEB 01, 2025 China is one of the world’s great and oldest literary civilizations. It is also one of the great culinary civilizations. Put those together, and you get a truly vast body of Chinese food writing.  China’s earliest known food texts date back about 2500 years, and theseContinue reading “Dine like a poet”

No, New York Times, I don’t want your kung-pao tofu

a treatise on culinary disrespect  DEC 11, 2024 I hadn’t written to my sister for a few days. All the while, she goaded me with bits of news, open-ended questions, and threats both veiled and traditional. Fed up with receiving little more than the occasional proof-of-life grunt, she brought out the big guns. Being theContinue reading “No, New York Times, I don’t want your kung-pao tofu”

Hanlu 寒露 and these drying times

China’s fourth season of Autumn (October 8-23) The fourth season of autumn is called Hanlu. Meaning “cold dew,” the name strikes a tone significantly more ominous than the season of “white dew” just a few weeks back. White dew sounds like it could be a refreshing dessert. Cold dew is nothing less than a portentContinue reading “Hanlu 寒露 and these drying times”