E. N. Anderson

This is not a cookbook, nor is it one of those armchair cookbooks, but rather a scholarly journal through the story of food in China from the first known agriculture (millet, in the north, approx. 6500-6000 BCE) to the appearance of rice (in the Yangtze Delta approx. 5000 BCE) through the discoveries and cultivation of the other most important crops...as well as seafood, animals, and as the Chinese themselves say, anything and everything the Chinese have ever found edible. And not only does it cover the discovery and growth of food production in a manner that is virtually page-turning, but because it also links these stories into the most interesting details of Chinese culture and history, it is much more than just a book about food. Author Anderson has scoured ancient texts to extract references to food (and medicine), meals and agriculture in his research, and thus you learn of the food described by the Japanese monk Ennin who visited China in the 840's, and how tea was an exotic drink from the Indian-Burma border regions that probably was introduced to China by Buddhist monks, to name just two examples. Original and secondary sources are referred to in the text itself making additional reading and research tantalizingly easy. My only problem now is the list of about thirty books I want to read culled from this amazing volume. Anyone with a serious interest in China will enjoy reading this book -- and yes, it does close with some very good chapters that include a fascinating survey of "Dinner at the Ngs".… (meer)