Snake Fang salad
Australian free lance photographer Greg Elms was contracted by The Lonely Planet Guide to photograph a number of Chinese dishes to be used as illustrations for a book, already written, on dining in China.
The assignment took six weeks during which he covered much of the country, mostly well away from the major cities. He shot off 196 rolls of film in many cases, along with those of the requested foods, taking scenes which appealed to him as a photographer. Having completed the contract Greg thought back over his adventures realising that there was ample material for a book.
Having no knowledge of the Chinese language he was given a list with a description of the foods to be photographed. Alongside each was it’s name in Chinese characters allowing Greg to point and explain, as best he could, that this was what he was looking for. Many proved to be quite rare resulting in many frustrating, often unsuccessful, side trips.
There was indeed plenty to write about. The resulting narrative is an interesting amalgam of adventure story, travelogue and Chinese food guide.
Eating what was on offer as he went around was an adventure in itself. Chinese eat every single part of an animal, hence the title of the book. Deep fried pig sinews proved near enough inedible, and yak butter tea in South China he declared ‘horrible’. On the other hand there were many meals that he found delicious.
Guangzhou has the reputation of being the most adventurous eaters of all. It was laughingly claimed by its neighbours that the people of Guangzhou ‘eat everything on land except cars, everything on water except boats and everything in the air except aeroplanes’.
The writing is straight forward – an easy read. Greg gives good descriptions of the people and the things they are doing, being particularly impressed with the heavy manual labour which was the norm for most right up to an old age. .
Along with the text is a good selection of photos he had taken, he is clearly a photographer with an eye for the interesting shot. The majority of these are taken of ordinary people going about their daily routines.
A well recommended book. I understand that the book was donated to the library by the purchaser who after having read it passed it on for others to enjoy. What a wonderful idea, books are to be read not parked on shelves. So many thanks to that thoughtful person.
Mike Beckett
