Do you know Chinese breakfasts? A gastronomic and societal chronicle by François Guilbert
This is a very original way of approaching Chinese cuisine. Michael Zee, who for almost ten years has been a promoter of simple-to-prepare dishes, decided in his third manuscript to provide an overview devoted to the morning meal alone (Zao Fan). Not just any one, the one that is practiced on a daily basis in the four corners of the Middle Kingdom and is accessible to all budgets.
The author is also obsessed with nourishing this key moment of the day and the family sharing that it induces. This book is the second that he devotes to it. In 2016, published by Bantam Presshe had already successfully completed a remarkable manuscript on breakfast dishes around the world (Symmetrybreakfast).
Here, it was a question of reporting on Chinese breakfasts.
To do this, the Briton did not endeavor to depict the customs and customs of each region. He chose to build his work around ten chapters focused on basic products (eggs, meats, soy, rice), certain dishes (breads, pastas, pickles, sauces, soups, tofus, steams) and even drinks. (tea). His choices focused on plates that were simple and inexpensive to make. Those that we taste or swallow in street stalls in the provinces. We thus move from one recipe to another, from one corner of the country to another; with one exception, however: an entire chapter was devoted to the menus of the Xibe, a population of several tens of thousands of people present in the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Xinjiang.
Mr. Zee invites you to share his wanderings, his immense curiosity nourished by numerous trips to the People’s Republic, a long stay in Shanghai and the experience of a family whose grandfather came from Zhoushan Island and settled in Liverpool and opened a restaurant there in the early 1950s. The proposed gastronomic walk not only has taste but is very visual.
The book is richly illustrated. Not only do we find the narrator’s photographs, recounting his dishes, restaurateurs and urban life, but also short films showcasing the achievements on site of many of the recipes proposed. To access these images, it will be up to you to use the QR Code arranged alongside the names of the dishes and their transcription in Mandarin.
This is a book that is not only pleasant and intimate due to its many anecdotes but also very educational, thanks to its glossary, its index and its repertoire intended for vegans, vegetarians and consumers avoiding gluten.
Michel Zee : Zao Fan. Breakfast of China, Bloomsburry PublishingLondon, 2024, 304 p, €37.9
François Guilbert
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