Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China

Like other reviewers I adore this book, and found it utterly unputdownable. I am one of those strange folk who does not eat meat, but despite this and some initial squeamishness about some of the ingredients Fuschia consumed in her journeyings around China, I became totally absorbed in her mission to try whatever foods came her way. She is a passionate adventurer, and one who never loses her capacity to challenge herself, and to reflect on her experiences. She is a beautiful and engaging writer, and the perfect armchair travel companion. I look forward to her next outing, in China or elsewhere.

only just begun ... (1/1 people found this helpful)

I've just received my copy of Shark's Fin & Sichuan Pepper. I live in a tiny, isolated hamlet in south-west France and the postman arrives shortly before lunch. Although I was keen to look at the book, I had first to prepare lunch. Coincidentally, I had decided on a Chinese omelette and a stir-fried beef dish for a quick Monday meal. Afterwards I opened the book and read the first 20 pages. It's fantastic. Fuschia Dunlop writes well; she writes as though she is chatting to you, and the subject matter is fascinating. I whole-heartedly recommend it.

Sheer magic - impossible to put down! (6/6 people found this helpful)

I loved reading this book so much that I found myself avoiding colleagues on the train in the morning just so I could keep reading. And then continuing to read in every snatched moment during the week. And when can you last remember feeling that way about a non-fiction book? Fuchsia Dunlop's book is a thoughtful and informed evocation of a nation's relationship with its food. It is also an absorbing but never self-indulgent journey through Fuchsia's own relationship with China and its people. It is written in unassuming, delicious, elegant prose and manages to also be, occasionally, laugh-out loud funny. Genuinely marvellous!

A wonderful insight into eating in China (2/2 people found this helpful)

This is not just a Chinese cookery book - though it does include several recipes. Nor is it just another Chinese travel book - though it does provide an excellent insight into Szechuan (Sichuan) and other Chinese regions; nor is it simply an autobiographical account of living and eating in China. It is all of these things and more.

In "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper" Fuchsia Dunlop provides a factual but fascinating and entertaining insight into experiences that most of us lack the linguistic and culinary skills and courage to contemplate undertaking first-hand - for example as the only non-Chinese person and almost the only woman on a Sichuan cookery course.

Fuchsia Dunlop writes beautiful prose. Her style of writing, skill with words, content and structure, combined with her enthusiasm for Chinese cookery, create that rare commodity, an un-put-downable non-fiction work. She writes in a compelling way, enabling the reader to see the people and places she visits and taste the dishes she describes.

No one who has read the book could accuse the author of eating anything and everything without a qualm. She absorbs herself in and embraces the regional language, culture and cuisine of different parts of China and describes these sympathetically but not uncritically. She looks at her own eating behaviour dispassionately but critically, seeing herself through both Chinese and Western eyes.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever eaten a meal with Chinese people or who is planning a visit to China.

A new way to see China. (9/10 people found this helpful)

I thought this would just be about Chinese food. Even if it was it would have been fascinating - as it was it was like reading a thoughtful travel book infused with superior food writing. The reviewer who knocks it for being unethical cannot have read it - it raises so many difficult questions that the author's journalistic as well as foodie background shines through. Recommended, and I thought the end was the cutest I've read for a long time.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China

Fuchsia Dunlop

Reader Reviews:

Fin-tastic Fuschia! (0/0 people found this helpful)

only just begun ... (1/1 people found this helpful)

Sheer magic - impossible to put down! (6/6 people found this helpful)

A wonderful insight into eating in China (2/2 people found this helpful)

A new way to see China. (9/10 people found this helpful)

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