Jen Lin-Liu

The second book by Jen Lin-Liu takes us along the ancient Silk Road as she attempts to discover the origin and path of pasta/noodles. The author is married now, has opened a cooking school in Beijing and spends part of her time in the US for her husband's career/education. She is struggling with being newly married and no longer independent, able to travel, or not, as she pleases. Her travels takes her through a culinary and cultural journey that is as much about societal issues and politics as it about food. It is the food that really kept me reading, even though I am a vegetarian and much of what she eats and cooks would not work for me, the writing is so good that I was seriously tempted to make an exception for some of her dishes.
… (plus d'informations)

The authors Silk Road journey to discover the origin of the noodle...where very little about noodles is actually discovered but so very much more is. This was fascinating and so educational, I learned so much about the different cultures in that area, some cultures I hardly knew existed except maybe in passing in a news story and then usually in a political way not a cultural way.

The book is well written, engaging and informative without being overly preachy though I did find it a bit hard to believe the author was as naive as she came across about the way women are treated in that part of the world.
The overall balance in the book between the cultures, their history and her personal experience was handled quite well and she never spent to much time on one or the other that I lost interest.
I really enjoyed this and I am definitely going to be checking out her other book.… (plus d'informations)