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Foodbytes

This blog is a great way to learn about the diverse regional foods around China and their offspring “the Chinese food outside the mainland: Portuguese-accented Macanese, Peruvian chifa, Indian-Chinese, and a myriad of other hyphenated Chinese cuisines.” It’s also the perfect way to vicariously experience a food adventure. “I had always been curious about fugu, the Japanese blowfish delicacy that is potentially lethal if incorrectly prepared. The scene in my head plays out like this: a Tokyo insider brings me to a secret hideaway for fugu prepared by a renowned chef. I am excited; I will blog about it. But the chef has an off night. Back in my Lonely Planet-recommended ryokan, three hours after the meal, tetrodotoxin paralyzes me and I fall over. Death by gourmandism is a noble death, but still a death... And the brightly lit, white tableclothed dining room of Lei Garden, being surrounded by chitchatting relatives, seemed to be an unlikely set-up for the last minutes of my life. So when passed the plate of dried fugu with what looked like a honey sheen, I thought nothing of plopping a few strips into my mouth. It tasted like the dried cuttlefish snacks, the kind you get in any ordinary Chinese market. But chewier, meatier, and sweet... If a plate did not cost over 20 US dollars, I could easily have brought home a kilo for late-night snacking.”

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