Adventurous eater
New account of rambling foodie is beautifully illustrated with ink paintings
From roast mutton in Northeast China and a 10-yearold sorghum wine in a small town in Sichuan province to a bowl of rice noodles at a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris, Wang Kai has eaten them all. He still remembers how the food tasted and even the expression on a waitress’ face.
Wang, who was a reporter with Sanlian Life Weekly, a popular magazine with 300,000 readers, for 10 years, earlier covered the Wenchuan earthquake, the crash of a plane carrying the Polish president and other stories in his journalism career. But as he traveled around China and the world, he was also looking for something else — stories about food.
His book Langshiji (Adventures with Food), published in November by Peking University Press, is a collection of his adventures as a rambling foodie.
When writing about food, Wang is fluent and funny. “Food is my window to observe the world,” says Wang.
“So whether it is about the old man lining up for a bowl of lamb soup in the morning or the woman in high heels eating noodles at a stall after a day’s work, food connects to people and their lives,” says the 46-year-old.
Wang believes that when people wander in the world of food, it is a temporary escape from the real world.
Wang says he always finds the best places to eat, even in small towns. And he thinks this is because he is greedy for new tastes.
When Wang visited the Golden Triangle for an interview, he met an armed man on a motorbike who invited him to a small restaurant in the mountains for a delicious chicken meal.
Wang followed the man and tried the chicken. “It was a special experience,” says Wang.
In Wang’s view, food in China is taken very seriously. “For the simplest food like the fried bread stick, particular care is taken — like which part has to be crispy, which part thick, and which thin,” says Wang.
Lin Xi, Chinese ink painter and illustrator of the book, depicts vegetables and fruits and provides handwritten recipes to go with Wang’s stories.
Commenting on the book, Lin says: “It’s neither a restaurant guide, nor a cookbook. It’s his understanding of food.”
Chen Xiaoqing, director of A Bite of China, a popular documentary series about Chinese food, likes Wang’s book.
Speaking about food and how people react to it, he says: “When facing food, some people eat to fill their stomachs while others eat for love.
“And among food lovers who like to share, some of them write for columns, while others write for fun. From these two categories, Wang Kai firmly chooses the latter, and that’s why I admire him.”
Wang, who is now director of a new-media venture called Moveable Type, has more time to enjoy food, but he misses the simple food he used to eat on hurried trips.
“I eat boldly, widely, elaborately, but also casually, and the book is like a conversation with my readers,” says Wang.
“I hope they enjoy my journey.”
I eat boldly, widely, elaborately, but also casually, and the book is like a conversation with my readers.”
Wang Kai, former reporter