Tag Archives: cooking

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”

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”

立秋 Li qiu (Beginning of Autumn)

How to eat in China’s 13th season Summer’s been brutal. Crazy heat, lots of travel, plus of course all of the activity surrounding the publication of China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History. But summer’s now officially over. At least it is in Beijing, where we just marked the season of li qiu 立秋, the Beginning of Autumn. MostContinue reading “立秋 Li qiu (Beginning of Autumn)”