Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop, W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. 

Chengdu

A colorfully written memoir of an Englishwoman learning the art of Chinese cooking in Chengdu. Chengdu is the capital of the province of Sichuan, in the interior of China. She also spent time in Chongqing, which is the eastern neighbor of Sichuan. At the time of the author’s visit, in the 1990s, Westerners were rare in Sichuan. Dunlop writes very entertainingly. What stood out in her description was the varieties of different ways of cutting the food with the knife. Dunlop describes how she gradually learned to enjoy some unusual foods. The Chinese eat everything, and as time passes, so does the author. 

Some of the Recipes:

• Dan Dan noodles

• Twice-cooked pork

• Stuffed squid in black pepper sauce

• Gansu New Year dumplings

• Chairman Mao’s red-braised pork

• Steamed chicken’s feet

• Qingxi red-braised beef hot pot

• Kashgar lamb kebabs

• Stewed bear’s paw

• Yangzhou fried rice