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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
The history of Chinese food actually starts in China in the 1700's. Of more interest to cooks and historians than the general reader.
Andrew Coe, Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in America (Oxford, 2009)
As someone who both was born in 1968 and is a lover of Chinese food, I actually lived through much of the last chapter of Andrew Coe's book, and I was somehow entirely unaware of it all. So as he was writing about the way Chinese restaurants in America have changed over the past twenty or so years, I kept saying “yeah, just like that” in my head, but I had somehow not noticed what really are major changes in the way American perceive, and eat, Chinese food. But what I've lived through was nothing compared to what happened in the two hundred years before that, and that's what the bulk of this book focuses on. That doesn't stop me from having said “yeah, just like that” in my head many, many times while reading it.
Coe starts his book off in the late eighteenth century, with the first Americans coming to China, sharing the revulsion for Chinese food that was held by the European countries who were already trading with the Chinese. (Considering that much of what the French, English, and Americans, among others, found distasteful about the food was the pervasive presence of onions and garlic, no wonder that Coe does not report on what the Italians thought.) He then, after a brief diversion about the various parts of China and the differences in the cuisine to be found among them, heads for America, where the Chinese started heading during the nineteenth-century gold rush. From there, it's your basic story of cultural assimilation, American flavor.
I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who loves to try new things, and it did cross my mind more than once that those who don't have the same mindset (which is basically everyone else in my family, and most of my wife's family, for starters) would not have the same reaction to this book that I did. I read about bird's nest soup and shark's fin and sea cucumbers and think “man, this sounds great.” Others may find the squick factor too much to overcome; those are some of the less alien things Coe writes about in the Chinese diet. What no one will be able to argue with, however, is that Coe is one heck of a storyteller. My rating does reflect some personal preference in that I'd have liked to see a bit more about the food, but if you're interested in food, history, or combinations of the two, this is one to check out. *** ½
As someone who both was born in 1968 and is a lover of Chinese food, I actually lived through much of the last chapter of Andrew Coe's book, and I was somehow entirely unaware of it all. So as he was writing about the way Chinese restaurants in America have changed over the past twenty or so years, I kept saying “yeah, just like that” in my head, but I had somehow not noticed what really are major changes in the way American perceive, and eat, Chinese food. But what I've lived through was nothing compared to what happened in the two hundred years before that, and that's what the bulk of this book focuses on. That doesn't stop me from having said “yeah, just like that” in my head many, many times while reading it.
Coe starts his book off in the late eighteenth century, with the first Americans coming to China, sharing the revulsion for Chinese food that was held by the European countries who were already trading with the Chinese. (Considering that much of what the French, English, and Americans, among others, found distasteful about the food was the pervasive presence of onions and garlic, no wonder that Coe does not report on what the Italians thought.) He then, after a brief diversion about the various parts of China and the differences in the cuisine to be found among them, heads for America, where the Chinese started heading during the nineteenth-century gold rush. From there, it's your basic story of cultural assimilation, American flavor.
I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who loves to try new things, and it did cross my mind more than once that those who don't have the same mindset (which is basically everyone else in my family, and most of my wife's family, for starters) would not have the same reaction to this book that I did. I read about bird's nest soup and shark's fin and sea cucumbers and think “man, this sounds great.” Others may find the squick factor too much to overcome; those are some of the less alien things Coe writes about in the Chinese diet. What no one will be able to argue with, however, is that Coe is one heck of a storyteller. My rating does reflect some personal preference in that I'd have liked to see a bit more about the food, but if you're interested in food, history, or combinations of the two, this is one to check out. *** ½