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Writer traces the origins of Chinese cuisine.
10,000 km journey in search of the origins and evolution of Chinese cuisine.

Beijing, China – November 15 2006 – When Stephen Jack arrives in Beijing this November, he will have more on his mind than sightseeing. The food writer will be in China's capital to inquire into the dietary habits of a famous former resident; one who lived around half a million years ago: Peking Man. It will be just the first step in a year-long exploration tracing the origins and evolution of Chinese cuisine.

Jack, an Australian based in Taiwan, has spent five years researching Chinese cuisine.

"If measured by its range of ingredients, preparation methods, and dishes, Chinese is the world's most sophisticated cuisine. I want to know how that came to be," said Jack,

Not only does Chinese food sustain 1.3 billion people in its homeland, it is probably the most popular ethnic cuisine on the planet – there are more Chinese restaurants in the United Sates, than McDonald's worldwide. As familiar as it is, Chinese food culture , according to Jack, it is not well understood.

"China is a massive place with a more diverse climate and geography than any other country, with several thousand years of agricultural and food inventiveness behind it. No Chinatown could ever do justice to variety of foodstuffs and dishes actually found in China."

Jack's journey will take him along the Yellow River, the length of the Silk Road, into the grasslands of Mongolia, to the Tibetan Plateau and to many of China's burgeoning metropolises. He expects to log around 10,000 km (6,000 miles) through nearly 20 provinces travelling by riverboat, rail, bus, bicycle, foot, and local beasts of burden, when necessary.

The story of Chinese cuisine will be published as a book.

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Stephen Jack lives in Taiwan and writes about Chinese food.

Contact: Stephen Jack Tel: +886 936 179 046 (mobile) GMT +8
stephenjack at mail.com

Ten Interesting Facts about Chinese Food Culture and History

1. Dogs, along with pigs and chickens, were an important food source in China by 5000 BC.
   
   
2. The recent discovery of 4,000-year old noodles (made from millet), pushes the known date of the origin of noodles back by 2,000 years
   
   
3. Chinese invented brandy and whisky around 700 AD
   
   
4. Oranges, kumquats, loquats, peaches, apricots, persimmons, and kiwifruit, are all native to China
   
   
5. In Chinese, the expression, 'eating tofu' is a metaphor for the sex act
   
   
6. Pork so dominates the meat market in China that the words pork and meat are synonyms.
   
   
7. After water, tea is the most popular drink in the world. It is China's most influential food export
   
   
8. Chinese consider the internal organs of animals warming, strengthening foods. An animal organ often corresponds to the same organ in a human. Hence the saying, 'Eat liver to fortify your own liver.
   
   
9. As the choice of 1.3 billion people, Chinese food is the world's most popular.
   
   
10. Chinese is probably the most popular ethnic cuisine in the world. There are more Chinese restaurants in the United States, than there are McDonald's worldwide.