A Chinese Food Book Written by a Foreigner Goes Viral Online!

Today, Puppy is going to introduce a book that was incredibly popular in 2018!

Just how popular was it?

In just one year, this book racked up over 14,000 ratings on Douban,

and directly snagged the #1 spot on Douban’s 2018 Annual Foreign Literature (Non-fiction) list!

It wasn’t just Douban either—

Sina Reading, The Beijing News, Dangdang.com… none of the other major annual lists dared to leave it out!

But this book wasn’t written by any literary master.

It won over readers purely through its “color, aroma, and flavor.”

The book is called Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, documenting a foreigner’s 20-year culinary adventure in China.

The reason this book became so wildly popular is simply because it’s incredibly interesting!

It’s an absolute treasure trove!

Booklist Dog has seen quite a few books written by foreigners about China,

but the food it describes happens to be the most enticing part of Chinese culture!

It’s exceptionally well-written, even more professional than 99% of Chinese people,

and it’s full of flavor.

The flavor here refers, on one hand, to the taste of the food itself—the sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy.

It’s written in such a mouthwatering way that it can totally tease out your cravings, making you itch all over!

On the other hand, it has the flavor of life and culture.

A foreigner learning to cook, wandering markets, visiting the countryside—

fanning out all the lively, smoky atmosphere behind the food!

In short, in one sentence,

This book, it’s seriously delicious!****!!

“I want to give her a Chengdu household registration.”

The author of this book, Fuchsia, is a British girl,

Born in Oxford, studied at Cambridge,

Eats in China.

Chen Xiaoqing, the chief director of the documentary “A Bite of China,” even said,

“She is one of the foreigners I know who understands Chinese cooking the most.”

But you would never guess—she was lured to China by a single dish!

Here’s how it went down:

Back in the 90s, Fuchsia decided to travel to China to see Chinese food for herself.

And the result was—

“Even in the cheapest, most unassuming restaurants, the stir-fries and soups I had were better than anything I’d ever eaten in England.”

Especially at the last stop, Chengdu, she and her friends ordered three dishes—chicken in chili oil, braised carp with scallion sauce, and yu xiang eggplant.

After returning to the UK, she immediately applied for a scholarship to study in China,

and gave up big cities like Shanghai, insisting on going to Sichuan instead!

Because there was only one thought left in her mind—

“If I could only choose one dish to eat for the rest of my life, it would be yu xiang eggplant!”

Her daily life in Chengdu is also written about in the book, so Bookie won’t go into detail.

In the end, she had dug up every hidden food joint in the alleys of Chengdu.

Whenever her name, Fuchsia, comes up, the owners and their wives all know her—

“Oh, this foreigner, she really knows how to eat!”

Just eating wasn’t enough for her—she went ahead and signed up for cooking school.

Keep in mind, this was still the ’90s, and even the teachers at the cooking school had barely seen any foreigners!

But Fuchsia didn’t care. She got herself a chef’s uniform and a cleaver,

and joined over 50 Chinese guys to learn the most authentic Chinese culinary skills, like knife work and heat control.No wonder, on the Douban page for Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper,
the top short review is: “I want to give Fuchsia a Chengdu residency permit.”

**This British girl has,**completely, a Sichuan appetite!

A Foreigner’s Culinary Adventure

Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper is a collection of food notes written by Fuchsia Dunlop over her 20-plus years in China.

The biggest difference between Chinese and Western food is the ingredients!

Many ingredients are things that the West either doesn’t have or can’t even imagine.

For example, she still remembers the first time she tried century egg—

“Those two halves of century egg seemed to be staring at me, like demonic eyes from a nightmare, dark and deep, glowing with a threatening light.”

Of course, her Chinese friend didn’t let her off easy, firing back at the Western cheese that many people love—

“Cheese is the slime excreted from a cow’s stomach, slowly rotting and fermenting.”

From then on, Fuchsia Dunlop let go of her inhibitions. No matter what food was placed in front of her, she could just “steel herself, shut her eyes, and take a bite.” This finally helped her grasp the “thrill” of Chinese cuisine! For instance, when she tried brain curd, she said, “The texture was like milk pudding—soft, smooth, and richly layered, a truly dangerous temptation.” When she went to the market, she saw “fish leaping, eels wriggling, and ducks and chickens in cages protesting loudly.” Eating, for her, was all about savoring the lively and flavorful experience!This trip also came with its biggest challenge—

“An Englishwoman vowed to eat her way through Chinese cuisine within a year,

but three years later, she’s still hanging out in Chengdu, eating and drinking…”

China has way too much delicious food!

The grand and majestic Lu cuisine of the north, the fragrant and delicate Jiangzhe Huaiyang cuisine, the ultra-fresh Cantonese cuisine of the south—

all of them are her favorites.

Of course, what she loves most is Sichuan cuisine.

What most of us think of when it comes to Sichuan food is just one word: “spicy.”

But Fuchsia doesn’t see it that way. She thinks Sichuan cuisine is “one dish, one style; a hundred dishes, a hundred flavors,”

much like the laid-back Sichuan people, who always have a sweet, thoughtful charm.Honestly, before reading this book, I had never really thought about what makes Chinese food special—I had just taken it for granted.

After listening to this British girl, it suddenly hit me,

Yes, that’s exactly it!

Actually, food is really one of the best carriers of culture.

The old man Wang Zengqi, whom I really like, was someone who could see Zen in food.

And this British girl, Fuchsia, burst into the world of Chinese cuisine from another dimension,

writing food stories that 90% of Chinese people don’t even know.

Flip through a couple of pages, and you’ll feel like you’ve learned so much!**▲ Weibo Booklist Dog spent three days reading this book during the time before sleep every night,

laughing at the words before dozing off, only to wake up with drool all over the blanket,

both humorous and touching, a complete feast for the senses.

This wildly popular food essay,

Booklist Dog believes, is something no food lover should ever miss!**▲ Weibo ——— Precisely 1,788 characters dividing line ———Originally priced at 48 yuan for Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, we managed to get a 50% discount, so now you can buy it for just 24 yuan!

Scan the QR code below to get your copy!Click Read More to start a culinary journey!