
Chengdu chef Lan Guijun: the new emperor of Chinese gastronomy - quantisan
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/20f3d64e-27f5-11e4-ae44-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3BDnS03bj
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poutine
The author of this article Fuchsia Dunlop, has written a couple of fantastic
cooking books that bring mainland chinese cuisine to a western audience. If
you're at all interested in preparing some fantastic authentic Chinese food I
heartily recommend picking up "Every Grain of Rice", available on Amazon.

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contingencies
New Yorkers: 5 star reviews

Ethnic Chinese person: _a very ordinary Chinese Cookbook trading on the
talents and titles of earlier authors_
[http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Y6HWI3APK3CD/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Y6HWI3APK3CD/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0393089045)

My feeling after living in China for a decade and comparing her review with
the photo evidence: similarly unimpressed.

Her other books get comments like "Repetitive, disjointed and boastful",
"trite anecdotes and sweeping cliches, all exclaimed wide-eyed and
breathlessly", "The recipes are different from the traditional Chinese
recipes", "Her excuses for eating fancy food and endangered species were
bogus". The ones you can _Look Inside!_ contain mentions of Mencius and Marco
Polo, and describe 白酒 ( _baijiu_ ; a critically important class of alcohols in
Chinese banquet culture _and_ cooking) as simply 'rice vodka'.

Fail.

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contingencies
Bah. Sounds like simple food with overdone presentation for profit. I've been
to a few of those places.

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, a wealthy province that has been part of
China since the Han Dynasty (~0; ±200years).

I live just next door in the next province to the south, Yunnan, which is far
more geographically diverse, as well as culturally - as for the most part it
avoided Chinese hegemony for another thousand to fifteen hundred years. As
you'd imagine, frankly our general food standard is _far_ better than that of
Sichuan: the population is lower, ingredients are more numerous, fresher and
less likely to be adulterated, and we still have dozens of concurrent culinary
traditions. There's a far greater appreciation on wild or non market-supplied
ingredients. The flip side to this is that we perhaps have less ultra-rich,
and therefore the market for showy restaurants is less developed.

If anyone is seriously in to Chinese food and/or considering visiting this
restaurant, give me a holler in Yunnan and I'll show you some local culinary
masterpieces at a fraction of the expense. To be honest, I like the food so
much, I'm considering opening a restaurant myself: bitcoin appreciated! :)

(Note: 14 years as a vegetarian, many of which were in Yunnan, so I came to
love and know intimately the variety of fresh cuisine. Fern, bamboo shoots,
wild shrooms, marijuana seeds, mountain goat cheese, loads of weird fruits,
etc... _yum!_ )

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creamyhorror
It's nice to see a Chinese chef marrying traditional cooking with elements of
international haute cuisine. Hopefully this will become a trend, and Ms Dunlop
is the perfect person to observe it.

\- I managed to find some low-res photos of his dishes on this review site:
[http://www.dianping.com/shop/5423060](http://www.dianping.com/shop/5423060)

The 3 reviews are actually all positive despite one of them giving low
ratings. They praise the place's traditional & intimate ambiance, intricate
presentation and plating, and of course the taste of the food. Price per
person is about RMB450, or US$73 - very high for China, as the article notes.

\- I couldn't find evidence via Google that Japanese people are discussing the
restaurant online, but maybe it's spreading via non-public word of mouth.

\- After sharing this article on Facebook, I have friends interested in
visiting Chengdu. Let's see if this becomes a small phenomenon among the
international gastronomic crowd.

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contingencies
Good job tracking down the dianping reviews. There's 102 photos, with
[http://www.dianping.com/photos/23523792](http://www.dianping.com/photos/23523792)
the only one showing a fully set table. It looks like there's a strategy of
using slightly uncommon ingredients for the southwest ( _okra_ for example)
and, predictably, the time-honored strategy of serving everything in tiny
portions (very rare in China; generally the opposite is true), with perhaps
slightly uncommon but not necessarily expensive Jingdezhen (景德镇) porcelain (FT
author was clearly confused here). Silken tofu in whatever sauce is still
silken tofu, pure and simple. I would have been more impressed to see hand-
made tofu products, which Sichuan has significant history in, including famous
derived sauces. I see at least two references to Yunnan cuisine: the banana
leaf wrapped meat and vegetables (frankly doesn't appeal, Southeast Asia and
Yunnan's _Tai_ (傣; _dai_ ) of 西双版纳 ( _xishuangbanna_ ; my home for 2.5 years)
and 德宏 ( _dehong_ ) do it better), then some dragon fruit (火龙果; _huolongguo_
). I feel the reliance on imported seafood shows the chef's strategy is more a
poorly masked play to popular taste and business than a truly local tradition
driven culinary exploration, as FT has presented it.

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rayray
Hey, that's my hometown! Never thought I'd see it mentioned here, and about
food, no less! Chengdu is almost regarded as synonymous with awesome food, and
laid-back vibe in China. Oh and Pandas.

I'm going back there next week after two years, and I can't wait to get me
some delicious, delicious Szechuan cuisine.

