513705 Mon Apr 28 04:23:37 -0700 2008 12 33 Food Media and News 0 3635557 considering the dust raised by the COTM cooks in the home cooking board during their fuchsia dunlop month, i figure that by now at least a few of you have read fuchsia dunlop's memoir about her food writer's career in china. i just finished it last night and i can't get it out of my head. i own both of her cookbooks, "land of plenty" and "revolutionary chinese..." er, where did it go...the hunan one. i love both of them, and was eager to read this memoir. i thought it would make me hungry, but i didn't expect it to move, disturb, and distract me for days. i'm not going to write an editorial, but if any of you have read this book and have something to say about it, i'd like to hear about it, and have a discussion. i'm sorry that i'm not being more forthright, but my mind is veering towards issues of political and highly sensitive cultural natures, and not my stomach. that's not what i want to talk about. and..well, if you have read the book, i'm thinking about the pig, and the tribute peppers, and that dinner. and where is mr. xie laoban today? and does anyone think that fu xia might have hinted that she is planning on writing a book on the cooking of yangzhou? Mon Apr 28 04:23:38 -0700 2008 27741 augustiner 1 3647344 i came across the book by chance when it first came out and gave it a good skim. (fuschia also came to DC on a book tour.) what was the dust up on COTM or political issues in the book? Thu May 01 12:15:12 -0700 2008 3635557 72351 Minger 2 3651890 I believe augustiner is simply referring to the fact that Fuschia Dunlop's books inspired spirited discussions (about cooking from her cookbooks) and long threads during March. "Dust up" was perhaps not quite the most appropriate term, as there was no controversy, and no discussion of politics. I want to read her memoir, but unfortunately neither of my local library systems has it. We'll see if I buy it or wait... Fri May 02 18:00:38 -0700 2008 3647344 10074 Caitlin McGrath 3 3652553 i didn't mean to imply that there were political controversies raised on the home cooking board when the COTM folk cooked through dunlop's books. sorry if that wasn't clear. reading those threads, i was struck by how enthusiastic the participants were in cooking and posting about these books, and for me it was coincidental that her memoir came to me at about the same time. what i find remarkable about her book is her candid, open talk about how difficult it was to write her two cookbooks, or rather, her last one, the revolutionary chinese cookbook. i don't mean to stress how this book confronts the difficulties in navigating and interpreting very distinct cuisines, because for sure this book makes me hungry, and it's feeding me, too. i guess i'm just trying to say that i appreciate this woman's accomplishments more after reading her memoir. when i picked up revolutionary chinese cookbook, i noticed how different it was in tone from her first book. after reading her memoir, it makes sense to me. after dealing with communist party paranoia, and SARS, and a constant uphill battle for this white, green-eyed barbarian british woman to gift us with these extraordinary english language cookbooks (with really tasty recipes), i'm beginning to think a bit differently about other vaunted cookbooks, and their authors. at one point, fuchsia is askedd by a friend, "isn't it time you wrote a *tuscan* cookbook?" i understand reading beautiful accounts of better food. but i hope that fuchsia dunlop never writes an italian cookbook. i don't want to read precious musings. yet on the other hand, i'm glad that we have a writer out there that won't wax macho about eating..penis. or anything else that, for example, that OTHER odious tv host would eat for spectacle.... anyways i love her honesty, her frustrations, and her triumphs. although i'm beginning to wonder how salty food tends to be in sichuan province, because either i can't read a recipe or sichuanese people go to town with the sodium chloride. and i like salty foods. Sat May 03 05:07:20 -0700 2008 3651890 27741 augustiner 4 3653464 oh. when i wrote "beautiful accounts of better food," i meant to imply food better than average, NOT that italian food is better than chinese food. Sat May 03 13:17:25 -0700 2008 3652553 27741 augustiner 1 3651907 No dust up at all. Just a lively discourse on the ingredients needed, where to find them, how to use them and all that sort. I for one LOVED learning about Sichuan cooking using FD's books. I'll continue to cook from Land of Plenty although I'm not sure I want to get into the politics of it all. Life's hard enough in my own realm. Fri May 02 18:09:41 -0700 2008 3635557 75332 Gio 1 3652622 She was just interviewed re this book on All Things Considered yesterday. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90135206 Sat May 03 06:00:04 -0700 2008 3635557 11106 tatamagouche 1 3673018 I finished this earlier this week and thought it was interesting read. I particularly liked her self description and growth about her views of China, her people, and the food. I also was fascinated about her total immersion with the language, culture and food of the country. Moreover, it really explained to me the differences between her two cookbooks (Land of Plenty and Revolutionary Chinese Cuisine). LOP is a natural extension of herself while RCC is more of an artificial limb. There are recipes included in the book. Many appear in the two earlier cookbooks. Unfortunately, the measurements are metric so for US readers, it makes it more work to use the recipe. I would be curious to see if she goes back to write a third cookbook (I agree, if she does, it from the Yang Zhou region). It was a worth library read. I've been on the fence about buying RCC and this book still hasn't clarified it for me. But her two experiences in the two regions really were like night and day and it shows in the cookbooks. I guess I'll have to tear myself away from LOP and further explore RCC. Fri May 09 14:59:03 -0700 2008 3635557 10214 beetlebug 2 3678869 Thinking about this book a bit more - in my eyes, this isn't a memoir per se since we never really learn about Dunlop herself. She mentions being lonely, scared, etc while being in China but it's all surfacey. She also talks about how her China experiences changed her. But, it's not clear how, since she never talked about herself, her past, her friends, her family, etc. But, this book is all about the food. It book goes into great depth about her cooking and learning experience which was my primary reason to read the book. Mon May 12 08:58:48 -0700 2008 3673018 10214 beetlebug 3 3679159 Better that than the other style of memoir, including all sorts of tedious maundering about relationships and other woes (e.g. Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch, which the NY Times mystifyingly chose as one of their best books of 2007). I am glad Ms. Dunlop stuck primarily to discussion of her encounter with the food. Mon May 12 10:10:26 -0700 2008 3678869 13709 buttertart 4 3679296 I absolutely agree. Mon May 12 10:34:33 -0700 2008 3679159 10214 beetlebug 3 3726389 [spoiler alert--don't continue on if you haven't read the book and want to find out how it comes out on your own] Actually, it is the classically crafted memoir with the build up of the ethical issues in the later chapters, particularly in the "Of Paw and Bone" chapter and climaxing in the "Scary Crab" chapter, with the crisis being resolved or at least reaching some equilibrium in the "Red Mansions" chapter. The epilogue--where she shows us how she's been fundamentally changed (which is the essence of a memoir or personal essay--showing how the main character/writer is changed by the end of the piece)-- is almost cliche'dly-for-a-memoir named "Caterpillar" (she stopped mercifully short of calling it "Butterfly".) I very much enjoyed this book in spite of its blatantly structured style. I'm glad she addressed the issues of politics in the "Revolution is Not a Dinner Party" chapter and some of the ethical/food safety issues in "Paw and Bone" and "Scary Crab" chapters. And, I think the book serves as an excellent metaphor and warning for what's going on in the world today. Thank you, buttertart, for turning us onto this book and and augustiner for starting this thread. EDIT: now that I've read the memoir, I so badly want to re-new my cooking with LOP & RC and be more mindful of some of the chopping techniques, etc. And I agree with whomever said up-thread that they have even more respect for her work now that I've read her memoir. Nicely done! ~TDQ Wed May 28 05:05:26 -0700 2008 3678869 12005 The Dairy Queen 1 3679671 Saw it, bought it, read it, liked it ALOT.....have passed it on to a co-worker to read. Not sure what people mean about not being clear as to how China changed her. To me, that was the discussion of attitude towards animals, texture in food, attitude towards Mao, etc. When she first came to China, she was a typical westerner---bunnies are cute, chickens are pieces of meat on a styrafoam tray, intestines are something you put in the trash, crunchy is for nuts and popcorn, mao is the dark lord. And after all those trips and all that living there, bunny ears taste good in hotpot, intestines are something to crave, chickens must be looked in the eye before purchase, crunchy is necessary in every good meal, and mao was some percent right as well as some percent wrong. Oh well, maybe was just me. The book did make me very hungry and so, my restaurant of choice for mother's day was a very very good sichuan place. In honor of ms. Dunlop, for our cold appetisers, we ordered crunchy pig and lover's slice aka pigs ear and beef tendon. And you know what, it was REALLY GOOOD.......... Mon May 12 12:00:13 -0700 2008 3635557 10505 jenn