Mmmm... fooooooooooood

I do love to eat. And cook. Mainly eat. This is a book about eating. And cooking. Mainly eating.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China Fuchsia Dunlop

In 1992, Dunlop went to study in Chengdu. There, she fell in looooooove with the food, especially Sichuan Pepper--that's the pink kind that kinda numbs your lips. After she finished her study, she decided to abandon the path that had been laid for her and follow her dreams. She enrolled in cooking school. In China.

Starting with her experiences as a foreigner in 1992, when there weren't that many foreign people in China, especially in the interior, and going up through today, this is a fascinating look at a changing culture.

More than that, this is a love letter to food. A justification and explanation of some of the odder Chinese eating habits--although not mentioned, Ducks Blood Soup, a Nanjing specialty comes to mind. Chairman Mao's favorite dish is discussed, and a recipe provided. It was braised pork fat. The sauce is really yummy, but it takes a different mindset to eat chunks of fat.

Still, man, I was HUNGRY when reading this. Luckily, she includes recipes at the end of every chapter (now, if I only knew of a good Chinese grocery by my house. Hmmmm.)

I love her descriptions of mouth-feel, different flavors, and the art of cutting (ooooo the art of cutting. I wish I had such knife skills). Also, the art of the wok. Seriously cool stuff.

My one complaint is the end. Dunlop gets burned out on China, which I certainly can understand. When it comes to food, she has some very valid complaints about how nasty the water is and the amount of hormones pumped into the meat and the pollution. (And this was published before we found out that there was melamine in the baby formula!) Also, the amount of endangered species that's get eaten. Her guilt over all of it is a little tiresome, especially when compared to the eager vibrancy of the earlier chapters. But... when she gets to the changing face of China, she seems to be longing for the quaint poverty of 15-20 years ago. We all mourn cities and communities we used to know and love. But, these things change. All over the world, they change. They change or they stagnate and die, it's how things work. The problem is that China's doing it on fast-forward. Dunlop doesn't seem to grasp this, or at least it doesn't come across in her writing.

There are a lot of concerns that I have with how fast China is modernizing, least of which is environmental, and also those getting left behind and pushed further down but, I have very little patience with people who want things to stay the same, especially when that thing is poverty. It's very imperialistic--they went to China looking for an exotic backwater and are pissed off when it stops being one sort of thing. Not that I'm saying Dunlop goes as far as all that. Now I'm just ranting.

Anyway, overall, I really liked this book. The second to last chapter just left a very bad taste in my mouth. One that is even worse than stinky tofu. But the rest of the book? Like a perfect bao zi steaming fresh and full of surprises. Or snake. Mmmmm... snake. Sweet and tender.

I got this one from the library, but I'm considering purchasing it because I do want those recipes...

Armchair Traveling

I love to travel, as you probably know. I do it quite often, but still, with time and salary constraints (go go frequent flier miles racked up by someone who loves me) it doesn't happen as much as I'd like.

(The travel photos are, at right, Dan and me in Turkey, were the Bosphorus meets the Black Sea. The land mass to the left is Europe, to the right is Asia. Below is me in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Further into the post is one of me in front of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.)

Which is were some great books can come into play to take you away from it all...

But first, today's song is Guess How Much I Love You by The Lucksmiths. It's my favorite rainy day song. Not that today is rainy, but rather because it fits in well with today's theme. This is cartography for beginners, on map the gap's three fingers but it's more than that, more than that...

Anyway, books. Right.

The Clumsiest People in Europe: Or, Mrs. Mortimer's Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World by Todd Pruzan (and Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer)

Some time ago, Pruzan ran across a copy of The Countries of Europe Described, a sort of Victorian travel-guide to Europe. It contained such gems of advice and knowledge as German women are "not fond of reading useful books. When they read, it is novels about people who have never lived. It would be better to read nothing than such books."

Puzan was hooked. He tracked down other travel guides and books by Mrs. Mortimer (Churchill himself was taught to read with her Reading Without Tears, though he said "it certainly did not justify its title in my case."

In The Clumsiest People in Europe, Puzan has published extracts from Mrs. Mortimer's opinions on all corners of globe (amazing for a woman who never left England). His introductory text explaining current political issues and boundaries is invaluable. Mrs. Mortimer's opinions on the other hand...

This book is hilarious, but you can't admit that and you'll feel rather dirty for laughing at it, though sometimes you're laughing just at the sheer audacity of it. Not that Mrs. Mortimer held any opinions that weren't common to Victorian England...

Some places look pretty at a distance which look very ugly when you come up to them--Lisbon is one of these places.

There are no people as fond of parties as the people of Vienna. Morning, noon, and evening, they are thinking of treats, and holidays, of music and dances. They are fond of eating nice things.

The capital of Malacca is Malacca, and this city belongs to the English; but it is of little use to them, because the harbour is not good.

[In Ireland] potatoes are the food. Potatoes for breakfast, potatoes for dinner, and potatoes for supper.

Of course, sometimes, she hits things right on the head. In her entry on the US she says:

In the Southern States, SLAVERY prevails...

Some people declare, that these slaves are as happy as free labourers.

The slaves show plainly, that they do not think themselves happy, by often running away. Every day there are advertisements in the newspapers for runaway slaves.

And although it starts off odious, her entry on Affghanistan hits some truths that might not have been widely accepted:

The Affghan, though living on fruits, is far from being a harmless and amiable character; on the contrary, he is cruel, covetous, and treacherous. Much British blood has been shed in the valleys of Affghanistan.

We cannot blame the Affghans for defending their own country. It was natural for them to ask, "What right has Britain to interfere with us?"

A British Army was once sent to Affghanistan to force the people to have a king they did not like, instead of one they did like.

And of course:

Poor Poland has no king of her own. She has been torn to pieces by three great countries--Austria, Russia, and Prussia. They have divided Poland between them. This was very wrong.

And, not really a travel book, but a book about a great journey is

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Everyone's read this, and everyone loved it, and everyone wept when it didn't get the Newberry.

Except me. Well, ok, I didn't read it until after Newberry's were announced but... where this is a book for children, much like The Velveteen Rabbit, this is a book to be read to children, not for children to read to themselves--the sentence structure is very complex. The message, too, I think is almost more for adults than for kids.

That said, Edward Tulane is a story of a porcelain rabbit who is very selfish and vain. He expects everyone to love him and, when his heart is broken, is left emotionally shattered and bitter. As he travels, he learns to heal and love again.

What makes this story magical (and it really is) is DiCamillo's prose--beautifully elegant, haunting and soft. After reading, you just want to find someplace quiet for awhile...


Other great travel books:

On the Road Jack Kerouac
13 Little Blue Envelopes Maureen Johnson
Maiden Voyage Tania Aebi and Bernadette Brennan
You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day Mo Willems

And, of course, don't forget Mike's Walkabout, which is a blog by my friend Mike who saved up a bunch of money, quit his job, and is now backpacking around the world.

What are your favorite armchair travel books?

GRAPHIX

So, I was really, really, really looking forward to coming home from class tonight and reading Sons of Empire. But it wasn't waiting for me on my doorstep. Publication is getting pushed back to August. UGH. Don't the good people at Vertigo know that I was counting on that to hold me over until Love Is a Many Trousered Thing comes out in early July? Which was in turn holding me over until THE BIG ONE?

sigh

Well, to commemorate my misery, here's a post of graphic novels and similar...

Jack of Fables Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham

Jack is a new Fables spin-off series. Jack was too big for Fable Town and was living the high life in LA, but now he's been kidnapped and forced into retirement by Mr. Revise-- the head librarian. Mr. Revise doesn't like Fables that are too big for their britches and holds them in his compound until the Mundies forget them, thereby stripping them of their power. This is where Mother Goose now lives. But, we know Jack, and nothing can hold him.

If you like Fables, you'll like Jack. It's along the same lines with the same new spin and smart humor.

I also want to add that I spent the entire book trying to place Sam the maintenance main. It wasn't until the end, when he did his thing with the tigers, that it clicked.

Miki Falls: Spring Mike Crilley

I don't read a lot of manga. It tends to not be my thing, but there was a question about this at work, so I picked it up. Now I can't wait until Miki Falls: Summer

So, it's Miki's first day of her senior year in high school when she meets the new boy in town, Hiro. Hiro pushes everyone away and doesn't want to make friends, or fit in. Miki knows there's something behind his tough exterior and wants in. Slowly, she starts chipping down his walls, only to find a really deep, big secret.

I was kinda blase on this until I found out what the secret was. Which I can't say, because that would totally ruin the book. But it's a really interesting concept that has me enthralled. Definitely on the girly side of things, I'm hooked.

Chicken with Plums Marjane Satrapi

I fell in love with Marjane Satrapi's work this spring. Chicken with Plums is a short book looking at an Iranian musician's final days. After his wife breaks his tar during an arguement, Nasser Ali Khan can not find a new one he likes the sound of. Eventually, being unable to find a new instrument to play, he loses the will to live, and decides to die. In the eight days until his death, Satrapi (his great-niece) chronicles his dreams and hallucinations, illuminating his past and the future of his family.

The same elements that make Satrapi's previous works great are at play here, with the element of mystical realism, and heartbreak. Her art tends to be stark, which adds to the bleakness that Nasser Ali, and the reader, feels as he waits for Death to come to him.

You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day Mo Willems

Those of us who are hep to kidlit best know Mr. Willems from such fantastic titles as Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, and Leonardo, the Terrible Monster. That last one is one of my favorites for storytime-- especially that temper tantrum bit in the middle. I really get into that one.

Anyway, back in the day, before he started writing hilarious children's books that adults enjoy almost as much as children, but on a whole different level, back when Willems was just a recent college grad not entirely sure what to do with this life... he took a trip around the world. Instead of keeping a traditional travel journal, at the end of each day, Willems drew one cartoon. His cartoons tend not to cover the big tourist things, or the splendor of a country, but rather those little moments that make travel so awesome and perfect. Most cartoons had a caption and Willems has added modern day captions and commentary as well.

Some of my favorites were from December 9th, "While ordering lunch, make a mental note to learn the Thai word for 'chicken'" or July 3, "Old enough to smoke, young enough to play hide and seek."

Dave Barry's introduction is also hilarious and sets the book up perfectly.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl Barry Lyga

Donnie's the geeky scrawny kid who's always getting picked on in dodgeball with the gym teacher never noticing, or caring. His best friend is a super-cool jock, so they can't hang out together at school (even though I got the feeling this is mor Donnie's imagining of an unspoken rule that his friend really didn't care about). His mother is pregnant and won't let anyone come over to the house, and he hates his stepdad. The only real comfort he gets is from reading comic books and drawing his own. Then, one day, the goth girl, Kyra enters his life and everything changes.

Boy meets amazing/weird girl who changes everything has been a trend I've noticed a lot in YA books recently. Maybe this is the boy equivelent of the girl story of girl cruches after hott popular guy and never realizes until the end that her best guy friend is her prince charming after all...

I liked this book. Donnie's voice is sharp and authentic. And Lyga's love of comic books shows through, which is why I'm including it in this post, even though it's not a graphic novel.

Also, I have 17 books checked out from the library and another 6 borrowed from other people. So, the first part of my "read what you own, doofus" challenge is to, well, read those 23 titles. I'm halfway through the biggest, slowest going one, Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France.