Thank you for my earc of this book. This was such an interesting read and one that would make a great gift!

3.75 - Academic and leaves you hungry

This made my mouth water and my mind whirl.

In the briefest words, this is a book where Dunlop takes the time and care to really dissect every dish she covers.

Her writing is often very evocative and sensory. This is a woman who clearly loves her food.

If there is a complaint to be made, it's the lack of recipes and occasionally the pacing can be a little too sluggish for its own good. This is a pretty anthropological text, don't come here if you want something simple.

I'd recommend this if you like to understand the history of Chinese Dishes and don't mind a author who does love to ramble!

I thought this book was really interesting! Full of iconic Chinese dishes and the stories behind both them and the cultural practices surrounding them. I love to cook and this gave me such a great insight into the Chinese food culture. I would recommend this to any other foodies or people interested in Chinese culture!

This was a great non-fiction book. It is a love letter to the Chinese Cuisine, and it is well researched and well written. Sadly my book expired in the middle of reading, and I couldn't continue reading. I could not renew, even though there was an option. Then I found out that the book had been archived. I won't give a full review until I purchase it for myself and read the whole thing.

The author is clearly passionate about Chinese food and they bring these dishes to life, your mouth will water- you won't learn recipes but you will gain an invaluable understanding of where Chinese food comes from, how it evolved and how it was influenced by socio-economic factors.

The author has an impressive amount of knowledge and you can feel their enthusiasm through the pages, they write in a way that will suck you in in the best way- amazing commentary on the difference between Easter and Wester views on food as well

A lovely written book about 30 recipes of the Chinese cuisine. Next to greatly described dishes and ingredients you also get to know about the history, philosophies of China's ancient culinary culture.
For me the book didn't match what I expected, even though I must say, I didn't really know what to expect in the first place. Still I enjoyed reading it. The author did great research about the topic and you can feel how passionate she is about the history of China's cuisine.

This is an engaging and comprehensive study of Chinese cuisine, layered with history and cultural insights. It is the perfect gift for a foodie friend who reads. I found the focus on a "Western" audience a little too prominent and it distracted me from the study of the food and understanding new things. The "meat and two veg are so boring" narrative got especially tedious with some classicist components in the styling of the "average" Britain. The comparision-as-illustration device said more about the author than the reader. It kept foregrounding her assumptions about who might be reading and not the amazing depth of understanding she was offering.

I loved Fuchsia's memoir "Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper" in which she described the Chinese food she ate when in China so well. Her talent is to bring alive flavours and describe very clearly dishes that to me were totally unknown. Although that book was a memoir, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I did feel at the time that I could have done with a bit more of the food. This book is all about the food. Fuchsia Dunlop has such a depth of knowledge, and writes so well, that a book that could in other hands be very boring, brings the food of China alive. A delicious page turner that will have you salivating and will give you a depth of knowledge previously only enjoyed by an elite few.

The cover of the book is nice but it really isn't my cup of tea. I expected something entirely different and some actual recipes and not just food history and culture.

It initially felt a bit disappointing that this wasn't an "own voices" book, i.e. Dunlop is solidly White British and her introduction to Chinese food was, like for many of us, sweet and sour pork balls from the local takeaway. However, she has studied Chinese cookery at a Chinese cookery school, is fluent in at least one language and now runs tasting tours, having spent three decades loving this cuisine, writing cookery books, etc. So if anyone non-Chinese is eligible to write this, it's probably her. She also gives her mentors and predecessors their dues, whether that's the restaurateur she works with who has set up a farm to provide traditional food ingredients, previous writers or the legions of people who settled in the West and did what they could to adapt their food to local tastes.

The book is structured around different meals or ingredients, or groups (like noodles) which allows an in-depth look a an area, food technique, farming tradition, history or all of those. I did have to speed through the "mouthfeel" section which included all sorts of textures this pretty-well-vegetarian European woman is not too keen on. She also addresses the issues around the idea that the Chinese will eat anything out of poverty or muckiness and explains it as above, and she talks about the taste for "exotic" products which she partook in earlier and now knows isn't right, and the way people are working to make alternative versions.

A very detailed book which has a panoply of information; I was struck by various bits of information about different parts of Chinese cuisine we never see here, though I had in fact heard about some of them through the book on the Silk Road I read recently. She includes lists of cooking techniques and different tastes, and has notes, a bibliography and an index, so a good resource.

My blog review will be out on 17 November

I am a fan of all books written by Fuchsia Dunlop - this is not a recipe book per se however it is a fantastic delve into the culture and cuisine of China. I have mixed heritage and brought up with the customs and dishes of Hong Kong. The book gives me background to my lived experience of being part Chinese, the mannerisms, the dishes, the complex hierarchies and holistic way in which food is viewed in Chinese culture. Food is a fundamental of life - a common greeting in Hong Kong is sik farn la? or have you eaten yet? This for me encapsulates the Chinese view of food and life.
The authors depth of knowledge and descriptions, of food, traditions and landscapes are evocative and send me heading to the kitchen to try out recipes from her other works.
A must read for those who want to know more of the food tapestry that is woven throughout the culture of China.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing access to this ARC, all views are my own.

In a world where OwnVoices are too often drowned out by self-styled experts holding forth on the cultures of others, Fuchsia Dunlop is the real deal. While not Chinese herself, her expertise with regard to Chinese cooking and cultural aspects relating to the cuisine(s) of this vast nation are amply demonstrated in this book. As is her love of China. In this respect, Dunlop also displays an admirable degree of cultural sensitivity.

The reader is introduced to all kinds of interesting things about China and its culinary culture, including the spiritual dimension of food and the value of using food as an offering to the spirits.

The Chinese view that what separates civilized human beings from savages is basically also about whether food is cooked or not was fascinating to learn more about.

The way that the consumption of Chinese food spread around the world, and the fact that it has for so long been the case that a simplified form of Cantonese cooking has been used as a kind of universal representation of the many and diverse forms of Chinese food is as maddening as it is obvious to anyone who knows anything at all about Chinese cooking! Hopefully, this book will make that clear to any reader who is still ignorant of this rather important fact...

Dunlop's use of various key dishes to tell the story of Chinese cuisine is an inspired framework on which to hang her stories and history.

This is a terrific book - just don't read it on an empty stomach!

As somebody that was raised at a Chinese takeaway shop in England, I loved the sound of this book. In it, James Beard award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores and ruminates everything from the history of Chinese food to the philosophies and techniques. The book is cleverly divided into chapters that each focus on a classic dish, each further diving into specific aspects of Chinese gastronomy.

Dunlop writes in an assured manner, beautifully bringing the cuisine and country to life. There are some wonderful passages where she meets local food producers, chefs and even home cooks, discussing at length the dishes and techniques and table manners of Chinese food. If I’m honest, I was at first wary that this was written by a non-Chinese author, but a few pages in and I was already thoroughly enamoured by Dunlop’s breadth of knowledge and experience. Invitation to a Banquet is a gorgeous celebration and introduction to Chinese cuisine, and it truly made me feel so nostalgic for many dishes that I ate growing up.