EP 61 How to Cook and Eat in Chinese: Dishing up Culture

As We Eat

Today we’ll journey through a fascinating cookbook whose purpose was to inform, educate and break through ingrained stereotypes. How to Cook and Eat in Chinese is a cultural road map into Chinese culture through its food and culinary traditions with some humorous and personal twists and turns along the way.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, Kim and Leigh discuss the political and social constructs that informed the creation of, if they do say so themselves, a spectacular piece of culinary literature.

How to Cook and Eat in Chinese is so, so, so much more than a book filled with recipes for Peking duck, spring rolls, and congee. It’s guide book through Chinese culture and tradition.

Written in Chinese by a Tokyo-educated female women’s doctor, translated by her English-speaking daughter, and edited by her Boxer-Indemnity-Scholarship educated husband, this book, as you might expect, is rife with multi-generational and cultural perspectives. And in the case of the footnotes, familial banter.

Buwei and crew brilliantly set the table to aid in understanding a culture through the lens of its food. As Mrs. Chao reminds us, “a little thinking and and little willingness to experiment will go very far.” Oh, what wise words!

Resources we found helpful for this episode

How to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao

Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey by Anne Mendelson

Autobiography of a Chinese Woman by Buwei Yang Chao

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), National Archives

Boxer Rebellion, History

Red-Cooked Meat and Table Manners: Decoding How to Cook and Eat in Chinese

Books we think you should read

How to Cook and Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao

Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey by Anne Mendelson

Autobiography of a Chinese Woman by Buwei Yang Chao

Episodes We Think You’ll Like

EP 59: Bon Appétit! How Julia Child Made America Fall in Love with French Food

Episode 60 Coq au Whatever: Mastering an Iconic French Provincial Dish

Episode 33 How to Be A Good Host: Don’t do These Seven Things, Horses and Good Manners, and the Death of Vocabulary

Episode 41 Brothers in Spoons: Odd Intersections of Food, Military, and War

As a member of affiliate programs, we earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you. This helps us to continue to bring you stories, history, and personal musings about food, cuisines, traditions, and recipes

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/as-we-eat8938/donations