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Fuchsia Dunlop

lines on the record: 87
first: 2023-12-13
most recent: 2023-12-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Get it dried and it looks like little pieces of knobbly amber, and you soak them, and then they sort of swell up into this lovely jelly.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have a peach tree sab. Speaking of Chinese is not huge on dessert. Sometimes, you know, after a full meal of banquet, we just eat some seasonal fruit. It will be a lot of specialty cutting into cute shapes of watermelon or apples, pears, dragon fruits. But today we're having a little tree sap. This is also a modern Chinese dessert. Future can talk a lot more about it. It's funny because I never saw this ingredient, peach tree sap. I never saw it until the last five years or something. And suddenly it's become incredibly trendy. And it's often served in sort of fairy tale soups with things like silver mushrooms and lotus seeds, goji berries, and another of these lovely texture foods, right?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Particular, yeah. Yeah, but one meal that I wrote about in this book, a Chinese meal, was actually cooked, the stir fry chapter. I went to one small Chinese modern restaurant where the Chinese technique and the sort of sensibility and aesthetics were very Chinese. And it was absolutely superb. Yeah. So that was just a little snapshot, but it was a very interesting Chinese food cooked and served at a sort of bar like a sushi counter, actually.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it seems so this is a very superficial impression because I wasn't there for very long, but it seemed to me that Japan also has the old school Chinatown cooking and newer cooking.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd like to go back to Japan. You know, people sometimes think I know about Asian food and I really don't because I've been so concentrated on China. And I went to Japan for the first time in 2018. And I have only dipped my little finger into that particular pie. And so I would love to go in. And it's so interesting because obviously it relates to Chinese food and you see some words and processes and things that have died out in China that are still in Japan express differently. So it's kind of related but fascinatingly different for me.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I did have the advantage of a global pandemic, which meant that I wasn't racing around the world, but I had to stay home.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, being somewhere getting away from being the solitary writer at your computer or at your desk. And sort of that breaks the deadlock. But I have to say, I mean, yeah, I wouldn't put myself up as a model of effective.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I have a writing block and I just am frustrated and I feel I can't possibly do it and I just give up, if I get moving and get on a train, then for some reason my mind starts loosening up and I have a breakthrough. Also sitting in cafes, but just change of scene.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I found this a lot harder than writing a cookbook. Because a cookbook has a slightly obvious structure. So, unless you're going to do something really radical, you have a sort of introduction, you know, you can go into basic techniques and ingredients. Then you have recipes often grouped by ingredient, and each recipe has a headnote. So the structure by now I've done a few cookbooks is fairly straightforward. With a narrative book, it can be anything you want. So I start with a vague idea that I want to talk about some of the great themes of Chinese gastronomy and cuisine. And then it sort of how to organize it. It's a bit frightening because I felt that I was starting with much more of a blank page than with a cookbook. Yeah.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I think one problem, and this maybe comes back to economics again, that in England, for example, I think now the door has opened to massive public interest in regional Chinese food, and people are really open to trying now eating Sichuan, Xi'an food, and so on. But the real problem is that we have very stringent immigration rules. So in order for a chef to come over and work in a restaurant in London, they have to have a certain level of English and a certain income, which is prohibitive for anyone but the big international hotels. And I think it's a shame that we don't have more trained chefs coming in from China to bring different aspects of Chinese.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I hope so. But I mean, I'm spoiled because I eat a lot in China, so you know, I don't feel the need to go and eat Chinese food everywhere else.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, well, I mean, I think, yes, I think that the sort of Cantonese simplified model is in many places, but with slight variation. So like in Sweden, they have something called four little dishes, which is like a standard menu of Chinese takeaway food. Yeah, and I think that it seems to have been a blueprint that worked very well all over the place. Yeah, with sweet taste and fried foods with variations. But I have to say, I mean, I haven't traveled to Peru, for example, where they have, by all accounts, a very interesting local Chinese food and also Calcutta has some very interesting old Chinese dishes and I have yet to go there.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then sometimes what they do is they bring street food into an area a bit like the Singaporean hawker centre idea. But the problem is that they're not individual traders anymore. They're just people working for someone else and it's not really the kind of really good street food.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, in the north, I went to Kaifeng, the old Song Dynasty northern capital, and this is some years ago, but they had the most incredible night market with all kinds of food on. That was just amazing and delicious. And then I've had good, I mean, I think the problem is that, you know, with China's modernization, there's been this big effort to clean up the streets and they've seen sort of street food as being old-fashioned and something undesirable. And so when I lived in Sichuan in the beginning, there were actually quite a lot of street traders doing really nice food and it's harder to find them. But actually, if you go to Chengdu, go to the Wen Shu Monastery and in the streets around there there are people serving some traditional snats. These little pancakes stuffed with hawk or sweet things, yeah, these lovely. So I would go there. There are certain areas where it's tolerated and where you can have really lovely.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think in Germany, I think it's, I don't know if it's a certain region, they have met, which is raw pork. But when you eat this, there are all kinds of rules and regulations for the temperature which it's kept and how it's served and so on. Whereas in Dali, I mean, it was very, very kind of easy. But the fact is that local people of this particular group eat it all the time. And I was always asking people if they had any problems. And most people said, oh, it's fine. They check the pork. It's fine.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I mean, historical prejudice. So in ancient China, the Chinese defined themselves as people who ate cooked food and barbarians beyond the borders of the empire ate raw food. And so there is this idea that a very ancient idea going back to the book of rites, Li Ji, one of the classic texts, that civilization began when people learnt how to harness fire to cook their food and they left behind the era of drinking blood and eating feathers and having all the diseases from raw food. So there is a sort of idea that I remember when I took a Hunanese friend out for dinner in London and she was served a rare pigeon breast. You know her initial reaction was anxiety is this going to be a bit dangerous. So it's a sort of health concerns coupled with an ancient tradition of eating cooked food.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Drunken crabs twice, yeah, and they're sort of pickled in rice wine and seasonings. And it's just like you just fly to heaven when you eat one. And I've been eating these for years with great delight. And then a couple of years ago, a few years ago, the Shanghai authorities, where they're a great delicacy, they banned raw drunken crabs. And so I started sort of looking at why this was. And it turns out that they can carry parasites.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I did in Yunnan, actually. I did eat some. There's a very special dish in one particular region, which is raw pork, like a sort of terta pork, shengpi, dali, shengpi. And I ate that because I was, you know, local people rave about it in Easter all the time. And I was aware that there are health issues with eating raw pork, but I really wanted to try it. And so I had it with some local friends. It was really delicious, but I had this terrible panic afterwards. And I kept, you know, and I probably wouldn't do that again. But I think it's a really hard thing. Like I want to eat with people and I want to be totally open-minded and non-judgmental. Yeah. So I suppose it's just the only thing that will restrain me are possibly sort of health concerns like that and then also sort of ethical issues. But I have a real dilemma with Harry Krabs. So this is one of the great delicacies of the Jiangnan region. And one of the best ways to eat them is that.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Waiting staff, particularly in the West, but also in China, are a little wary of upsetting foreigners and also they just want people to have a nice time. So you have to battle against that stereotype if you really want to eat the good food. But I think things are changing. But I think just looking at what other people are eating is incredibly useful. And then also showing your appreciation when you do eat something unusual because I have a, you know, I should imagine that all the restaurants where I've been with groups of foreigners eating unusual things with gusto, that afterwards they thought, well, you know, it is possible for foreigners to eat this sort of thing.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, so without the language, or yeah, I mean, I suppose that one of the best ways is to look at what other people are eating. But it is difficult. And even when I go to China and I order for a group in good mandarin, knowledgeably, and I know the names of the dishes, it's so often happens that the waiter will say, if I'm with foreigners, he'll say, oh, they can't possibly eat that. So there's the sort of assumption that foreigners won't be able to handle certain foods. And I sometimes have to have an argument and just say, look, we will eat it. And we have gone around proving that we can eat sea cucumbers and stuff on many occasions. But I think, and it's quite understandable because I think a lot of foreigners have a habit of ordering something that they can't handle and then being rude and obnoxious and just complaining or they think that there's a bone in the chicken. So that's a problem. It's not a problem. It's meant to be like that. So I think that Chinese...”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So my mother taught English as a foreign language, so she had a huge food influence on me. So she's a great cook and we always had lots of foreign friends in our home. So I had a very unusual gastronomic outbringing. And my father was in sort of the first generation of IT people.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I mean, I suppose I've always written. I mean, you know, I had a certain training for how to think about language and trying to be very fair and thinking how it will be understood in different cultures. But I think more of it is just practice, just writing, having a notebook, writing your impressions. And it's just a craft that you develop through use.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, thank you very much. I don't know how, I mean, it's just instinct and trying to, I mean, I suppose what I've been trying to do all this time is find ways of describing the intricacies of Chinese food to make it illuminating and delightful for people who didn't grow up with it. And so trying to find ways, things like texture, which is a quite difficult subject in the sense that many of our texture words in English are a bit disgusting, slimy, gristly, but trying to write sort of playfully and engagingly so that people can both sort of acknowledge these unfamiliar textures, but also see how they might be delicious. You know, I did a degree in English literature, so I read lots of good books, which is the best training for any writer. But I think also I just try to have fun with it, to just be playful and have a laugh. And also, I just, I love eating. And I have, since I was a teenager, I've always kept.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I think also it's just, yeah, it's about not repetition, right? That's the key thing. So if you have a dish with one ingredient or one style, you just want to make sure the other ones are as contrasting as possible.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, mainly I've learnt through just constant eating. But yeah, I think, I mean, I try to write about this, really. And the idea that, you know, a well-planned Chinese menu, it's not just about delicious tastes. And I think if you think about going out for a classic French meal, you think about having lots of rich food pudding, cheese, and feeling quite heavy afterwards. With a well-planned Chinese meal, you can have dozens of dishes and still feel comfortable. But I think it's just, you know, as a foreigner, once you start considering that the light and delicate dishes are just as important as the Razzle Dazzle exciting dishes, then you're on the way to be able to plan a nice meal, right?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have a nomination? Well, so for me, I love the pork and I love that soup with the fishballs. But for me, the reason this is such a lovely meal is that it's such a well-planned menu. And this is the thing that I think foreigners have the most difficulty with with Chinese food is how to assemble a menu. And you've really thought about different cooking methods, different ingredients, textures, some wet. And that's what makes it not only delicious but also shufu comfortable because we have this something very sizzly and then a lovely light refreshing soup. So the pleasure of the meal is sort of physical as well as just, I mean, yeah.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is my favorite dish so far, this and the numbing beef. But Fuchsia, would you comment on this? I was just thinking this is the first time. So this thing when you marinate the pork belly and you coat it in rice crumbs and you steam it is a very classic Chinese country dish. It's the first time I've had it fried like this and it's delicious. It's a sort of like a new version of hoi goro back in the twice cooked pork.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think having a Chinese audience is a good sign, but I like everything. And I sometimes like to go to beautiful places with amazing service and beautiful China and elegant presentation. And sometimes I like to go and have street food. And that's the joy of eating and of Chinese food that you have something at every level. Yeah, and I think also just this thing about classics versus innovation. You know, all the classics are actually the product of innovation. Somebody was saying to me the other day, you know, Ma Pofu, it's only 100 years old. You know, it's not an ancient dish. The Sichuanese didn't have chilies until a couple of hundred years ago. And so I think you can't be too conservative, really. I like it when the diners are grumpy, when they're too happy. I start to get suspicious. Like, why are they here? They're here to have a good time. There's something about food. You mentioned sex earlier. When you film people doing it, that don't necessarily...”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Spicy ons. Yeah, Guizhou is also, and that's not an elitist cuisine. I think that the people writing about food are no longer the sort of Confucian gentleman scholars, are they?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Took a fresh look at it, they would include. And also in the eight great cuisines, Hunan cuisine is one of them, but they're talking about elitist Hunan food and not the wonderful spicy home cooking. So, I mean, I think in terms of what people actually want to eat, it's not elitist, right? So the cuisines that are most popular now, Sichuan. Else Kunan”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think so, the first thing to say is the eight great cuisines is a very recent scheme. People talk about it as if it was something really old, but I think it only, I've said in my book, but I think it only goes back to about 1980 or something. So there are many different ways of trying to express the regional diversity of Chinese food, all of them totally inadequate because it's a sort of intricate patchwork. But I think already, as you said, Jiangnan, which is the food of the eastern sort of region around Shanghai, very elitist, fine Cantonese food is very elitist. But Sichuanese already has a reputation for being a sort of hearty folk cuisine, right? So it is represented. But I think that, yeah, I mean, I don't, the aid-grade cuisines incorporates like An Hui, which is not regarded as a very great culinary region now. And I think the categorization of that scheme is actually quite irrelevant and it doesn't, I think if people...”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It makes you sweat. So you have to, because it's humid, you have this unhealthy dampness in your body. So you have to have ginger chilies, peppercorns, peppercorns to make you sweat. And that drives out the unhealthy humidity and restores a lovely equilibrium. But the funny thing about that is a little inconsistent is that the Cantonese South is also pretty humid, it seems to me, and yet Chile's are not advised there. But sweet water is. Oh, yes, that's true. Yes, you do other things for the Is a lovely texture too with the sort of slithery crisp woody mushrooms”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was trying to think sort of so Chinese walk cooking does create a lot of smoke and so on, but I mean, in lots of Chinese modern apartments, they would have a kitchen that's almost like a balcony where you can open all the windows so you don't actually influence the place where people are sitting and eating, but it's adjacent, right? But I suppose in the north Dongbei North, you have lots of hearty stews and soups. Maybe to an extent very questioning”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, that's again the diversity of Chinese cuisine that you don't only have the sort of branches of classical Chinese gastronomy, but also you said in Yunnan, you have food that is like Vietnamese, Thai, Laoshan, and then in the northeast Korean, Russian. I mean, it's very extraordinary. Mongolian.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have never been to Jiangxi province Also, one place I really want to go is Heilong Jiang in the Dongbei northeast because there it's sort of bordering Russia and that's going to be a whole other lot of local ingredients and traditions and a bit of Russian influence.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally in China. I mean, everyone's on their phones, like maniacs, like people everywhere else. And yes, and certainly very visually exciting food. And that's one problem, actually, with Sichuanese food, that I think it's the real drama dishes, like, you know, this sort of lad's a chicken normally, which are great, but they're just one facet of a very diverse cuisine. Again, I think maybe they encourage restaurants, not just in China, but everywhere. But it's the same pressures of social media.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's one issue with it, but they have got better also at recognizing even small noodle shops in Chengdu, and I think they're trying to be closer to the pulse of what people actually want to eat. But the downside is that I know a lot of Chinese chefs I know are a little bit preoccupied with Michel. And I think that when, and it's the problem in the West too, but when people start aiming at Michelin stars, then it has certain implications for Chinese cuisine, like a sort of pushing people towards individual plating rather than this style, which there's nothing wrong with, but this is lovely eating like this too. So I sort of hope that it doesn't sort of distort the way that Chinese chefs are actually cooking and presenting their food.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think they do identify some of the very best restaurants in Shanghai, in Chengdu, and it's helpful for people who don't know Chinese to have some kind of guide. But the downside is that I think although, I mean, the classic Michelin methodology is to send a single inspector to a restaurant to have a meal. And that means that eating like this, which is more typical of many very excellent Chinese restaurants, is a little impractical. I did interview someone from Michelin recently, and they said that on occasion they do allow inspectors to go out in groups, which, but certainly with the early Michelin guide to Shanghai, for example, they did pick lots of excellent restaurants, but they missed some that were equally good, but that did not have tasting menus suitable for individual diners. And I'm guessing that may be partly why places where you have to book a private room and have a big dinner. So I would say...”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't see why not. I think they'd be a very popular if they could export. And I think that this sort of technical innovation in Chinese food is something that's going to be more and more of. Like we mentioned, you know, the pre-prepared dishes, which is something that is not necessarily a good thing. But also, I met a... So, I don't know whether they're dropping the real artisanal, high skilled aspects so that they can standardize and expand it. But that's a bit of a shame because it was lovely when it started that they were showcasing one of the amazing sort of handcrafting noodle arts of Shanxi.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because apart from the technical aspects of cutting, you have to cut, I mean, the practical aspects, you have to cut to eat with chopsticks, the technical ones, even as for stir frying. There's also the aesthetic aspects. And there's this whole other thing like the French sugar arts of completely frivolous artistry with vegetable cutting.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's rather lovely. Do you see the garnish, these very deftly, intricately cut cucumbers? And that's something that you hardly see these days. So it's a real sort of classic old school Chinese cooking, but it's labor-intensive. Most people, did your father do it himself or one of his shows?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You find them at all levels of the market, but it is a bit of a plague, nice in moderation. By the way, I had to say the technique of this dish is fantastic. Well, so you've got an assembly of all different ingredients, and as you said, they're cooked separately. So these fish balls have a lovely light, delicate texture, but they're not flat, they're not completely flaccid, they have a bit of liveliness to them, a bit of scallop in mind, sort of juiciness. The prawn is beautifully silky and also a bit crisp. And you have the vegetables that are crisp and not overcooked. So that shows you that they've all been cooked separately to the peak, then combined together, and then you have the lovely contrast between the crisp crunch of the gourba, the rice crust, and the liquid. And so there's a lot that has gone into that, technically, right?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I think it's partly that Hotpot is very popular and partly for economic reasons, that it's actually just a lot easier from the point of view of the restaurateur, right? But yeah, I support, particularly with Sichuan. I mean, Sichuan has such amazingly diverse and exciting food, and Hotpot is a poor reflection of all that.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I totally agree with you, and I call it the hotpotization of the Chinese restaurant scene. And it's just, you know, hot pot is great fun. It's a really convivial, lively, inexpensive, it can be very inexpensive way to eat and to share food with your friends. But in terms of cooking technique, it's definitely low skilled. And that, of course, makes it hugely appealing for restaurateurs. I mean, you know how difficult it is to get good chefs, right? Walk chefs especially. It's a nightmare because it's so difficult to do. With hot pot, you just need a good soup base. You can even buy it in. And then you just need staff to slice up bits of food. And your customers cook it themselves.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they're quite unusual, and some of them are imported as well, and some of them are wild. And then, of course, you know, one of the problems that China has is also with an illegal trade in wildlife. But that's under the table that's not in the open, so you're unlikely to find these things on sale in markets. Yeah, most people would never eat any wild food because it's expensive and scarce. Yeah. So when I was saying about things like the de attendance, I mean, that's a grand old imperial delicacy and not something common at all. And then some ingredients are imported. So like, well, bird's nest is farmed. A lot of it's farmed in Malaysia, right?”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sichuanese cooking because the flavorings and the techniques are there. So I think that with Sichuanese cook just needs a sort of small battery of key ingredients, etc. and pepper, dried chilies, pickled chilies, dough banjang, pickled chili paste, soy sauce, vinegar. And then you can cook whatever's to hand. So I think for that reason, it's quite accessible and transportable as a sort of concept and a practice.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that Sichuanese food travels really well. So there are some cuisines like the food of the Jiangnan region, or Yunnan, we already said. There are so many really unique local ingredients that you can't get elsewhere. And when you think about Yunnan food, you think about these extraordinary ingredients. But Sichuan food, the heart and soul of Sichuanese cooking is in the artful combination of flavors. So not just mala, numbing and hot, but also yu xiang, which is a bit of sweet and sour pickled chili ginger garlic, spring onion. All these wonderful combinations of flavors. And I think that if you have, because this sort of identity of Sichuanese food is in the flavors, you can apply a Sichuanese fish fragrance sauce to the kind of fish that you can get, say, in England. It doesn't have to be a local carp. It'll still feel like...”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're just doing it correctly. And it's a kind of miracle when it turns out right. And yes, I found that sometimes when chefs have been explaining even their own personal classic dishes to me, their preferred method is to stand by the walk and get a younger apprentice to cook. And people have said that's because, you know, the elder chefs have more of a management role. They're not cooking every day. So like a martial artist or a dancer, they're not they don't have that fluidity and sharp instinct that you have when you're doing it.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh well that's because, and this is something that several people have told me that stir frying is perhaps the most difficult of all cooking methods in any cuisine because it's so fast. There's no room for manoeuvre. There's no margin for error. So if you have food that's finally cut and that is sensitive to heat, so like, I don't know, stirrified scallops, for example. So if you overcook them, it's a complete disaster. So you have to cook very quickly and you have to add your seasonings absolutely correctly because you can't, it's not like making a Hollanda sauce when you can have a taste and then add a bit more lemon juice or whatever. You have to just have this instinct. So it's like Wu Shu. It's like martial arts. You have to be on the top of your game. And it's an incredible thing when you see a really accomplished chef with a professional cooker stir frying. It is so fast and is so instinctive. There's no measured thought.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's just if you're stir frying something that's cut into slivers or slices, the whole point of stir frying is meant to be very fast. And the reason that it's effective is that if the food is cut finally and evenly, then everything will be perfectly done at the same moment. And if the cutting is clunky and uneven, then some pieces of food will be overcooked while others are still raw. So I think that's maybe something that people don't necessarily realize that it's not just aesthetically important, it's also technically important in China.”
2023-12-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Fuchsia Dunlop on the Story of Chinese Food · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source