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[Prologue] Introducing Chinese Cuisine Abroad: Sweet and Sour Pork Balls

Fire: The Origin of Chinese Cuisine

Civilization began with roasting: Char Siu Pork with Honey Soup
Xiaomi and Dami, the centerpieces of the dining table: White rice
Finely chop and simmer: Song Buin's Fish Soup
A nutritious dish that has permeated our daily lives: Yeoju Pork Rib Soup

Farm Heaven and Earth: Choosing Ingredients

Local seasonal ingredients: Anji bamboo shoots and Jinhwa ham
The illusion that vegetables are supporting roles: Stir-fried ginger and mustard greens
Gangnam Suhyang's Ingredients: Sunchae Sea Bass Stew??
Amazing Treasure Chest Beans: Mapo Tofu
Pork, the meat of meats: Dongpo Pork
Chinese Cuisine: A Multicultural Melting Pot: Shuyangrou?
The Magic of Fermented Food: Drunken Crab
Infinite Challenge of Ingredients: Steamed Yuzu Peel with Shrimp Roe
Texture is as important as taste: Catfish that enjoys honor, Tobo Noryem?
Culinary Extremes, Exotic Ingredients: Surpassing Bear's Paw

Kitchen?: The Art of Cooking

Broth Culture Hidden by MSG: Yipinguo
The ever-changing combination of the five flavors: Tangsuyuk Huanghe Carp in Sweet and Sour Sauce
Chinese Chef's Knife Skills: Shunde's Sashimi
It all started with steaming: steamed fish
Just a moment: Shrimp Stir-fry Cheong?Da-Yu
Cooking term: braised tofu
Everything Made with Dough: Knife-Cut Noodles
The Birth of Dim Sum: Xiaolongbao

Table food?: Food and thoughts

Are there desserts in Chinese cuisine? : Mother Duck Dumplings
The distinction between the four major cuisines and the eight major cuisines: Chongqing chicken in a pile of chili peppers?
Deep-rooted Vegetarian Tradition: Stir-fried Dried Eel
Organic from the Peach Blossom Land: Stir-fried Sweet Potato Stems
Sinicized Western Food: Russian Soup
A dish that shares the heart: A loving mother's braised pork

[Epilogue] Past and Future: Chop Sui

A partial and highly subjective chronicle of Chinese food culture

Acknowledgements
Americas
Translator's Note
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Korean Jjajangmyeon, British Tangsu Meatballs

The translators of this book say:
If you were asked to pick the national food of Korea, Jjajangmyeon would be in the top five.
This dish is clearly Chinese, but it is not well known in mainland China outside of Shandong and Beijing, and it has only been in Korea for about a century.
There are many reasons why Jjajangmyeon has captured the taste buds of Koreans.
Above all, Shandong cuisine was boldly modified several times to suit our tastes, and due to excessive regulations, the restaurant industry became the only means of livelihood for overseas Chinese, spreading throughout the country.
There was a time when it was classified as a price-controlled item and had to become synonymous with common people's food, and Chinese restaurants also took the lead in delivery culture, dramatically increasing accessibility.
These days, mala tang is taking over that spot.

All food cultures evolve, but Chinese cuisine's adaptability is truly remarkable.
In the 1980s in England, when author Fuchsia Dunlop was growing up, tangsuyuk (more precisely, tangsu meatballs) was said to have a similar status to Korea's jajangmyeon.
In the United States, chop suey and zao zhong tang jie are synonymous with Chinese food and are universally loved, while in Japan, ramen and fried dumplings are the same.
Behind countless localized Chinese dishes around the world, there's a backstory just as long as Korea's Jajangmyeon.
What they have in common is that they are dishes that arose from contact between different cultures.

It's not just Chinese cuisine overseas that's like this.
The reason why Chinese cuisine is so diverse within China is not only because the landmass is so vast, with climates and soils varying greatly from region to region, but also because there has been an unusually high level of contact between different cultures.
In her book, Fusha Dunlop tells of the Han Dynasty, where noodles and noodle dishes were born after the introduction of millstones from Central Asia, and of the cosmopolitan culture of the Tang Dynasty, when exchanges with the West were at their peak, which explains why Muslim restaurants still exist in every major Chinese city.
He says that the 13th century Song Dynasty, when the capital was moved from Kaifeng in the north to Hangzhou in the south due to the Mongol invasion and the northern and southern cultures were beautifully fused, was the golden age of Chinese food culture that makes you want to go back in time. He also mentions that the Qing Emperor Qianlong was fascinated by Jiangnan cuisine and actively incorporated it into the Manchu court cuisine.
There are also stories of exotic Chinese cuisines, such as the aforementioned Jjajangmyeon, that were adapted to local cultures by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Europe, and the improved style of "Xichan" that emerged a century ago when Shanghai was the "Paris of Asia" and is still alive today.

Food that touches, conflicts, and embraces

When different cultures come into unexpected contact and ultimately embrace each other, something wonderful is born.
At first, they may feel unfamiliar and experience conflict due to each other's stereotypes, but eventually they will realize that there is a point where compromise is possible, and then something unexpected and third will emerge.
For example, Fusha Dunlop speculates that although the Central Plains Chinese did not accept the dairy products consumed by the northern 'barbarians', they probably copied the process by which they made milk into cheese, solidifying the soybean water ground on a millstone to create tofu.
Doesn't every culture evolve through a process of contact, conflict, and inclusion?
Conversely, a culture that has no contact with the outside world and fears diversity stagnates or degenerates.
That is why the Korean subtitle of this book is ‘Chinese Gastronomic Anthropology.’

Author Fusha Dunlop became fascinated with Chinese cuisine while attending a local cooking school in Chengdu, Sichuan, during a year-long stay in the mid-1990s.
And I spent over ten years studying and exploring cuisines from all over China.
The 2008 book, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, which summarized the adventures, also became a hot topic in China's expat community at the time.
Before and after that, he published several bestselling recipe books covering Sichuan, Hunan, and Jiangnan cuisines, and he also constantly organized gourmet tours to introduce Chinese cuisine to Westerners.

The translators say:
The 1990s and 2000s were a time when the fruits of China's reform and opening-up policy were reaching their peak.
As China's economy grew at a breakneck pace and its doors opened wide to attract investment, countless foreigners flocked to the country.
Looking back, China at that time was a place where different cultures clashed noisily.
There were many misunderstandings and conflicts, but unlike today, it was a time when efforts to get along and accept each other were the prerequisite.
I think that the fact that Fusha Dunlop was able to freely explore the food cultures of all of China was largely due to the open atmosphere of the time, in addition to the fact that she was a Westerner.
This book is the culmination of the author's 30 years of dedication to Chinese food.