Mapping the Myriad Tastes of the ‘Other China’

[lsanderson]

BOOK REVIEW
Mapping the Myriad Tastes of the ‘Other China’
By ANNE MENDELSON

TWENTY-FIVE or 30 years ago fans of Chinese food flocked to large groundbreaking books by authors like Irene Kuo and Barbara Tropp. Generally, the food was the cuisine of the dominant ethnic majority, the Han people.

But now Westerners are beginning to realize that China is far more complex than they might have once thought. This spring’s vexed journey of the Olympic torch through unfriendly territories within China’s own borders has awakened millions to the contradictions inherent in modern nations formed from sprawling ancient empires.

If you doubt that food has anything to do with all this, take a look at Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s “Beyond the Great Wall” (Artisan, $40), the sixth and perhaps most remarkable of the unorthodox travel cookbooks written by this husband and wife team. More