Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China [Paperback]

Jen Lin-Liu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 22, 2009

A memorable and mouthwatering cook’s tour of today’s China

 

As a freelance journalist and food writer living in Beijing, Jen Lin-Liu already had a ringside seat for China’s exploding food scene. When she decided to enroll in a local cooking school—held in an unheated classroom with nary a measuring cup in sight—she jumped into the ring herself. Progressing from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant, she finds poor young men and women streaming in from the provinces in search of a “rice bowl” (living wage); a burgeoning urban middle class hungry for luxury after decades of turmoil and privation; and the mentors who take her in hand in the kitchen and beyond. Together they present an unforgettable slice of contemporary China in the full swing of social and economic transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chinese-American journalist Lin-Liu's delightful mixture of memoir and cookbook records her years living and working in Shanghai and Beijing, when she attended a vocational cooking school and discovered a passion for Chinese cooking and culture. Growing up in the U.S. to Taiwan-born parents, the author admits feeling alienated from her heritage when she first moved to China in 2000; a graduate of an American journalism school, she eventually became the food editor at TimeOut Beijing. Moving between Shanghai and Beijing, she begins her account with her frustrating yet ultimately rewarding study at the Hualian Cooking School in Beijing, where she apprenticed to one of the school's instructors, Chairman Wang, an old-style cook raised during the Cultural Revolution, who taught the author the rudiments of chopping, shopping and how to pass the cooking exam. Despite the flimsy certificate, bias against women working in professional kitchens and the reluctance to hire foreigners, Lin-Liu found work at Chef Zhang's noodle stall serving migrant workers and at the popular dumpling house Xian'r Lao Man; she later snagged a plum internship at Jereme Leung's upscale Shanghai restaurant, Whampoa Club. Incorporating stories of many of the Chinese she worked alongside (and their recipes), as well as trips to the MSG factory in Henan or to the rice-growing Guangxi province, Lin-Liu offers a thoroughgoing, spirited celebration of overcoming cultural barriers. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Lin-Liu is a charming guide to modern China and its kaleidoscopic cuisine."--People

"Serve the People is light fare, a delicately crafted steamed dumpling of a book. It's peppered with delicious descriptions, authentic recipes, humorous anecdotes and all the goodness of a young woman who finds her way in life, and even falls in love."--International Herald Tribune

"A mouthwatering tale of the thriving culinary scene in today's China--top rated by Zagat."--Nina and Tim Zagat, co-Founders and co-Chairs of Zagat Survey

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (May 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156033747
• ISBN-13: 978-0156033749
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chinese-American learns China through its Food, August 12, 2008

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China (Hardcover)

A Chinese American whose family fled to Taiwan (and later the US) after the revolution, journalist, food-writer and now cooking school owner, Lin-Liu knew little about cooking when she came to China in 2000. She soon realized that food was such an integral part of Chinese life, she would better understand the culture if she understood the food.

Enrolling in a Beijing vocational cooking school teaches her just how alien and American she is. The other students are male, they question nothing in class and do the minimum to get by. She, in contrast, seems loud, pushy and rich.

Humorous and energetic, her account of getting through school (with much help and great difficulty) and then apprenticing first at a noodle stall and later, in Shanghai, at a fancy restaurant, illuminates much about everyday life in China's cities. Staffed by migrants from China's rural provinces, restaurants offer diverse cuisines and backbreaking labor, perfectionalism and cut corners.

Lin-Liu learns stories about the Cultural Revolution while cooking, finds a long history of hardship in "exotic" ingredients like eyeballs and jellyfish, discovers China's cultural diversity in its many cuisines, and Chinese provincialism in tourists' unwillingness to eat anything but their own foods.

Her enthusiastic culinary tour of the culture is peppered with recipes for dumpling fillings, noodles and traditional favorites like Drunken Chicken and Fish Fragrant Pork Shreds as well as the (mostly difficult) stories of the individuals she meets.

Entertaining and eye-opening, Lin-Liu's portrait of modern China reflects its changing trends and attitudes and its timeless cuisine.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book!, August 20, 2008

By 

V. Foster (TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China (Hardcover)

Once I starting reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It is the story about a Chinese-American who goes to China on a Fulbright scholarship as part of her journalism career and ends up riding her bike down a narrow street to take cooking classes. The story (both humorous and touching) is told through her quest to learn about authentic Chinese cuisine both past and present, home cooking and high end restaurants. One of the many compelling things about the book are the Chinese people we are privileged to meet. It is a very personal portrait of Chinese people of all ages and classes. One memorable moment is when Chairman Wang finally tells about the Cultural Revolution and how it affected her and the people around her. It is heartbreaking to hear about it, but amazing to see how the Chinese people survived and continued their lives. And of course there are the mouth watering recipes peppered through out the book -- favorite recipes from people the author meets along the way -- Beijing-Style Noodles, "The Best" Mapo Tofu, Tea-Infused Eggs, Smashed Cucumbers, Drunken Chicken, Lamb-and-Pumpkin Dumpling Filling -- the list goes on and on. The recipes are why I bought the book, but got so much more. This is a book that I will keep, cherish and use as a cookbook forever.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book and the recipes, August 14, 2008

By 

Mark Satlof (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China (Hardcover)

Between this wonderful book and another I'd also highly recommend, Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories, I have become immersed in Chinese food culture recently, to the point that my kids tease me about becoming Chinese. Luckily I live in NYC and have a few Chinatowns to choose from, so it's been congee on the way to work for a couple of months now.

Jen's personal search to learn Chinese cooking (and to practice it) is inspiring...telling about her travels and travails through a China in a tug of war between its culinary past and its current rush towards modernization.

I could tell just by looking at them that the dozen or 20 recipes, relating to each chapter of Jen's journey, would be delicious and the few I've tried so far more than live up to their promise.