Stage 1

Theme: The Silk Road: the trade of goods and ideas with Central Asia, India, and Europe – Uighur cuisine.
Period: Sui and Tang Dynasties (581–907).
Places: The Chinese Silk Road.

Itinerary
Shanghai – Lanzhou – Dunhuang – Turpan – Korla – Ruoqiang – Chechen – Niya – Khotan – Yecheng  – Karagilik – Yengisar – Kashgar – Urumqi – Hangzhou.

Stage 2

Theme: The Grand Canal, the world's longest manmade waterway, allowed the verdant South to help feed the much drier, overcrowded North.
Period: Song Dynasty (960–1279).
Places: The Grand Canal: Hangzhou to the Yangzi River.

Itinerary
Hangzhou to the Yangzi River along the Grand Canal.

Can you help?
I welcome suggestions from anyone: Where should I go? What should I eat? Who should I talk to? Must sees, must dos? Do you have any contacts (locals or expats) in any of the places I will be going to? Please get in touch with me: stephen.jack at me.com

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Chinese Cuisine 101, by Jason Harper (editor) is a Chinese cookbook with a unique approach. It is a collection of recipes and accompanying essays by students in Harper's English class in Henan, China. That each recipe is written by an ordinary young Chinese, lends a strong tone of authenticity to the project. 

There are some nice anecdotes and background stories to many of the dishes. We learn, for example, that the dish Eggplant and Fish in a Clay pot is the result of an ancient love affair between … an eggplant and a fish, and that the pork belly dish, kou wan you, became famous after it became the favourite of the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen. The sovereign liked to dress down and mingle incognito with the common folk. Once when staying with a farming couple, he was served kou wan you. Instantly smitten, he began extolling the dish, sending it on the road to fame.

As the editor admits in the forward, the writing is less than perfect, and readers will find some of the instructions imprecise: "Oil 2 spoons," "35 g fresh soup," for example, and may wonder, like me, what "amylum" is (starch!), but there is a rich assortment of mostly homestyle Chinese meals to choose from, and anyone with the slimmest experience with Chinese cooking will have no problem navigating these quirks.

Hailing from Michigan in the US, Jason Harper has been in China for five years teaching at Sias International University, Xinzheng. He is already at work on a second cookbook called Sichuan Cuisine 101, "… which was also written by my students,' he said. "It's quite a collection of fun essays about China’s spicy food. And I’m converting Chinese Cuisine 101 into an eBook (iBook) for Apple platforms, but I hope to eventually make both cookbooks available in eBook and print formats. It’s quite a task to do alone."

And which of the recipes in the book is his personal favourite? "Hot Chinese Cabbage (酸辣白菜 suānlà báicài) is what I order the most with dinners. It’s the perfect side dish: light, low-calorie, inexpensive, and when I find a restaurant that makes it well, I’ll go there just for that."

There was a time not so long ago when Taiwanese were quick to tut-tut China when food scandal news came out of the Mainland. Funny how they have been less vocal recently in the wake of home-grown stories of a un-nutritious nature, like this one: Aluminum in Taiwan pastries.

Don't know if I could eat one – I thought most people agreed that the smell of stale urine was not very nice. Perhaps I could eat one if the egg was cooked in my own freshly discharged urine? Then again, I think I will stick with tea eggs. What about you – would you eat one? 

And is this headline taking the piss or what? Could Urine-Boiled Eggs Be China’s Next Big Food Export? Business opportunity anyone?

"A steakhouse is out of kilter of yin and yang. Most people discover that balance in their body when they hit their 60s and go, 'God, I can't eat that steak anymore."

Hom has a new book out (no. 33), and as well as discussing dietary balance, shares a recipe for chicken stock in this short interview.

In Taiwan, as if an apparent Government bird flu coverup, and ractopamine (a lean meat promoting drug) in American beef wasn't enough; Labs find banned pesticides on fruit, vegetables. Items in question: kumquats, jujubes, leeks, mustard greens, green beans, and wax apples, available at your favourite RT-Mart, Matsusei, Far Eastern AMart, or Wellcome store.

For millennia, the cycle of Chinese agriculture has followed the timetable of the 農曆 nongli, but is China's farming calendar 'out of step' with global warming?

And this from China: The Rough Guide: "Waitresses bring you beer and nibbles, including such staples as chicken's feet." Staples!

"In China, with the way I grew up, if you worked in the factory and talked about food too much you were criticised and had very severe punishment." –Sasha Gong

With over 20 ingredients this dish is "not for the faint of heart." If I ever get a completely free weekend I might try it. If you try the recipe, let us know how it comes out.

The researchers experimented on rats, noting that, "As well as sobering them up, the treated rats also exhibited fewer hangover symptoms; for example, untreated rats were more likely to cower in the dark recesses of their maze," behaviour that any human drinker would identify with.

We see this kind of possible silver bullet in development type headlines almost on a weekly basis, and in most cases that is all you ever get. Now, if the headline read, "Alcohol antidote a reality; on market tomorrow," that would really be something.