Zao Fan: Breakfast of China

Breakfast in China, though usually simple, is as diverse as the cooking in the rest of the country. This evocative work documents a host of dishes–some from home kitchens, others purchased from street vendors–which often receive little attention in books devoted to lunch and dinner foods.

In chapters on noodles, breads and doughs, rice and other grains, soy and tofu, eggs and some meats, dumplings, tea, soups, sauces and pickles, and the breakfast specialities of the Xibonese people in the northeastern Jiin Province along the North Korean border, Michael Zee introduces us to aspects of morning life in China, from bustling cities to remote villages.

A third-generation member of a family which has run Chinese restaurants in Britain, Zee asks readers to do things as they are done in China. Making steamed oil buns from Xianjing requires alkali water, which is also used in many noodles. For juntun guo kui, or numbing meat pies from Chengdu, “Imagine that instead of laminating a croissant with butter you did it with pork and heavily seasoned it with a comical amount of numbing Sichuan pepper. It is crunchy, rich, and comforting, with a soft center, but then suddenly…electrifying.”

Zao Fan is a welcome and fresh perspective.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.