Fuchsia Dunlop on Chinese Food, Culture, and Travel

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2016

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For centuries, China has treated its cuisine with a reverence and delight that is only just starting to emerge with Western “foodie” culture. No one understands this better than Fuchsia Dunlop, who has spent her career learning about the fantastic diversity in Chinese food, and who is one of Tyler’s favorite writers on any subject.

She joined Tyler over dinner at one of his favorite restaurants in DC to talk about all aspects of how to truly enjoy Chinese food, including where to visit, how to order, the few key ingredients to keep in your pantry, her favorite Chinese dishes, what Chinese chefs think about Western food, and why you should really learn to love sea cucumbers.

For this conversation, Tyler was also joined by Ezra Klein, past CWT guest and editor-in-chief of Vox.com, chef and super-taster Mark Miller, journalist Megan McArdle, and Eva Summer, a graduate student from Shandong province. Their comments can be found in the Q&A near the end of the chat.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.5	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:25.5	Before we get to today's conversation, I'd like to let you know of several upcoming
0:29.8	live dates with other guests, including Jimpola Heary, Rabbi David Wolpy, and Malcolm Gladwell.
0:37.4	All of these will be held in the DC area and they're free to attend.
0:41.3	For dates and for more information, just visit ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:48.1	Hello, welcome to this installment of Conversations With Tyler sponsored by the Mercatus Center.
0:57.1	We're here at Pandegormay Restaurant, my favorite restaurant in Washington, DC.
1:02.0	And we're eating with the group.
1:03.5	The star of the group is Fuchsia Dunlop, who in my opinion is the foremost exponent of
1:08.2	Chinese cookery and the writer of the best Chinese cookbooks ever in the English language.
1:13.7	We have a very famous and well-known group of questioners, including Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief
1:19.3	Avox, Mark Miller, who is just a food person extraordinaire, Megan McCartle of Bloomberg, and
1:25.9	one of the world's leading cookery experts, and Ava from Shandong Province, China.
1:31.2	If I think of how to present Fuchsia, there are two passages that spring immediately to
1:35.1	mind.
1:36.1	One is from her 1999 notebook entry, and I quote,
1:40.0	In the last three days, I have eaten snails, frogs, snakes, sparrow gizzard, duck tongues,
1:47.0	fishheads, duck carts, tripe.
	...

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