Food to raise the dead
At the Chinese Table. By T. C. Lai. Oxford University Press, 1985. 52 pp. $14.95. (Reviewed by Lorna Buchanan)
More than 2000 years ago, in the Songs of Chu, a Chinese poet listed the delights of the table in an attempt to lure back to earth the souls of the dead. Among the promises were, “Geese cooked in sour sauce, casseroled duck, fried flesh of the great crane; braised chicken, seethed tortoise, high-seasoned, but not to spoil the taste.”
Outside China especially, Chinese food still continues on its delectable way. In China itself the standard of local cooking is improving again after the bleak, tasteless days of Chairman Mao. In Shanghai and Canton, especially, Western visitors will find some of the best Chinese cooking in the world. T. C. Lai has written not a cook book, but a celebration of Chinese
food, attractively illustrated, and rich in the lore of Chinese kitchens. Here are accounts of the five categories of taste, the sensuous response to food. There are discussions on. visual harmony and respect for texture in food, and on methods of cooking. To take two extremes, stewed, dried abalone takes hours of simmering; stir fried sliced kidneys need a few seconds in a wok over a very hot flame.
Not all the dishes are rare or exotic, although bears’ paws with carp tongues, and gorillas’ lips find a place. But there is a word, too, for humble rice. The advice is that rice should be cooked in an earthenware pot over a carefully regulated fire. Add a small spoonful of freshly heated peanut oil and a few drops of oyster or dark soy sauce. The result makes “the queen of cereals the most desirable dish at table.” In all, a delicious little book.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860419.2.116.10
Bibliographic details
Press, 19 April 1986, Page 20
Word Count
299Food to raise the dead Press, 19 April 1986, Page 20
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.