Sichuan chilli bean paste
I spent yesterday experimenting in my kitchen with Zhang Xiaozhong, the head chef of Barshu restaurant, where I work as consultant. A few people have emailed…
China’s artisanal foods
There’s an article of mine in the Financial Times Weekend today, about the dilemmas facing China’s artisanal food producers. The picture on the right was taken…
A pearl in my tooth
On the Scottish island, a friend and I picked our way across slippery seaweed-strewn beaches, through bogs and heather bushes, and finally down a rocky cliff,…
Lady Mackerelbeth
The island holiday in Scotland turned into a wonderful adventure, and I caught my first mackerel! Two of them, in fact. (I was pretty impressed until I…
Suckling pigs
You can hear me on BBC Radio Four’s The Food Programme, talking about suckling pigs in Chinese culinary culture. Â The programme went out yesterday, and will…
Hairy crabs in London!
Imagine my surprise to find that hairy crabs, that legendary Chinese delicacy of the autumn, eulogised by the seventeenth century Chinese playwright (and erotic novelist) Li…
More bad news about sharks
A new report says that many shark species are facing extinction, mainly because of overfishing. It’s not just the Chinese love of shark’s fin soup that…
Bamboo bliss
Fresh bamboo shoots are one of life’s great pleasures – and one of which the tinned version gives you absolutely no possible inkling. I had some…
Cheese for Chinese
Apparently the makers of Stilton, that delicious blue-veined English cheese, are to start exporting it to China! As is widely known, the Chinese traditionally have little…
Goji berries, a.k.a. gouqizi or Chinese wolfberries
I’m quoted in Wednesday’s Boston Globe, on the culinary uses of trendy ‘superfood’ goji berries, otherwise known as 枸 æžÂ å  , gouqizi, or Chinese wolfberries. The…