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Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China | 
 enlarge | Author: Jen Lin-liu
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $15.58
You Save: $8.42 (35%)
New (22) Used (6) from $15.58
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 33252
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0151012911
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5951
EAN: 9780151012916
ASIN: 0151012911
Publication Date: July 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Product Description
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. In Serve the People, Lin-Liu gives a memorable and mouthwatering cook’s tour of today’s China as she progresses from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant. The characters she meets along the way include 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
An Amazing Culinary and Personal Journey! August 29, 2008
Wow. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I'm absolutely blown away and agree with a previous reviewer that it was hard to put this book down; there were several times when people on the train looked at me while I cackled or exclaimed aloud at what I was reading. Jen Lin-Liu is amazingly straightforward and puts it all out there - some shockers in here! She makes no excuses about her experiences or her own thoughts/actions and poses some interesting, thought-provoking questions.
Her journey is clearly beyond geographic - it's a mix of culinary, cultural, and personal growth. Her description of the different cuisine and her relentless pursuit of their origins translates into her quest for her own identity. The food she discovers and describes had my mouth watering! As a Chinese-American, I find she's hit the nail on the head on many of the personal issues I've worked through as well. It was refreshing (and comforting) to see her journey and they way she went through self-discovery.
I totally want to go enroll in her cooking school myself! And who is this mysterious Craig who has stolen away her heart?! Congratulations to you both and I hope to see more from Jen Lin-Liu!
Amazing book! August 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
Satisfying, great portrait of Beijing August 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Satisfying book that is as much about Beijing as cooking; it captures a sort of mix of optimism and sadness that is contemporary Beijing, through Lin-Liu's writing you really see the city as it is today; especially vibrant if you've lived here for any time.
Jen runs a small cooking school in Beijing where you can learn to cook some of these recipes.
The characters, especially Chairman Wang, grow on you; I also liked the brief appearance of Allison Moore.
Loved this book and the recipes August 14, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
A Chinese-American learns China through its Food August 12, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
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.
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