Cream of Chinese Cuisine is Zoe's Chopsticks Challenge!

BTM: Where did you start to learn about Chinese food?

It was in Taiwan that I started to appreciate Chinese food, but my first encounter with real Chinese food was in my third year at university, when I did a two-month course in Beijing. I was simply amazed!  It was nothing like the Chinese food that one eats in the West. 

I think that you can honestly say that you could come to Beijing and sample every cuisine of China, but ironically, one of the more difficult 'cuisines' to find here are the Old Beijing dishes. Take Dou Zhi for example: this drink looks like dishwater, smells strong, and tastes like 'liquid sauerkraut'. I really like it but the young people don't agree, so it's disappearing.

BTM: I wanted to ask you about your observations on the role of women in Chinese cuisine.

Well, I haven't yet met a female chef. I'm told that cooking in the average Chinese restaurant kitchen is very heavy work, with the huge woks and high temperatures. As far as I've seen, it seems to be a profession for men. I've been surprised to meet a lot of female managers, and a lot of them are very young and talented. 

There is a famous female chef at the Bian Yi Fang Peking Duck restaurant who is no longer in the kitchen, but she was celebrated as 'the last female inheritor of the trade' when she was apprenticed to the master chef some decades ago.

From my own observations, it seems that the men who cook at work usually cook at home as well. I have a lot of Chinese friends, and it always seems to be the guys who are cooking. The women cook at home too, but the men are always slightly suspicious! [laughs] The men think that they're the ones who know the secrets, who have mastered the techniques, and who can put together a dinner. It's probably not the same all over China, because China is huge with many different ethnic groups, some of which are matriarchal.

BTM: You always seem to be having such a good time during your Culture Express Chopsticks segments.

That's because I am! We try to offer a very visual program.  We take a lot of time to take beautiful shots of the dishes and the décor. I always insist that we see how the food is made, the steaming woks and the assembly of the dishes. Of course we also want to be informative, in a limited amount of time. We try to condense all of these aspects into the Chopsticks segment.

When we re-launched Culture Express we decided to cover all of the famous 'brand name' restaurants of Beijing, which we've now done. Because every one of them has some kind of specialty, we focused on no more than three dishes per restaurant.

CCTV-9 has several kinds of viewers: Chinese people in China who are studying English, foreigners in China who want to see what China has to say for itself in English, and many viewers abroad. Our Chinese viewers obviously know what their own cuisine is about, so they're more interested to know how a foreigner approaches Chinese food, and then there are the Westerners, some of whom don't know a thing about Chinese food, while others are quite knowledgeable.

BTM: Could you eat Chinese food every day of the year?

I have been! [laughs] I must say that lately I've been branching out a bit more, but I love Chinese food. What is amazing about it is that you can get such a variety, this whole range of tastes, textures, colours.

BTM: Which Chinese cuisine do you like best?

I absolutely love Mongolian hot pot. Get the plain broth, throw in a load of lamb, some nice sesame buns, and dip it all into the sesame sauce. It's brilliant for wintertime.

During springtime, there is a wonderful dish called chun juan. It was traditionally prepared to celebrate the first harvests of the spring. Basically it is a thin pancake, like those that come with Peking duck, and stuffed with spinach, bean sprouts, meat and eggs. You roll it up and it tastes incredibly fresh.

During autumn it is great to get into the fatty dishes in preparation for the winter. During summer I don't eat so much, but what I do love is the Northern Chinese cold noodles. The Beijing-style noodles are made fresh in front of you, and the chef will add chopped cucumber, radish, lettuce － it is really light and healthy and tastes wonderful.

In Beijing you can get a great meal for such little money. I've found often that price is not necessarily an indicator of quality. I've had superb meals in very cheap places, and I've had some disappointing meals in very expensive places.

BTM: Are there particularly good food districts for a short-term visitor to Beijing to visit?

Definitely Houhai, and Ghost Street, north of Dongzhimen. Many Chinese people aren't convinced about Ghost Street but I think it is fun, and there are lots of restaurants to choose from. Also Sanlitun, if you avoid the bar street － there are loads of interesting restaurants to discover if you just wander around.

BTM: What do you love about Beijing?

The sense of history. If you walk through the hutongs south of Qianmen you can feel like you're in a different epoch. Walk through those tiny alleys and you'll see the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Also, Houhai is gorgeous with the lake, the old architecture, and the beautiful restaurants.

There was one wonderful time when Culture Express went to a Muslim restaurant on Ox Street.  When we arrived there was a Hui wedding underway, which was combining elements from Hui, Han and Western weddings. The bride was wearing a lovely white Western gown, then when the Imam left the beer was brought out [laughs], and my director thought it would be a good idea for me to gatecrash this wedding for the Chopsticks segment. I felt a little awkward of course, but the family welcomed me into the celebration and sat me down with the guests. It was so lovely I'd never gate crashed a wedding before, let alone a Chinese Muslim wedding, but their hospitality was wonderful and we got some amazing pictures!  You'd never get that kind of welcome in the West. I've been amazed by the Beijingers warmth and hospitality.

My job offers me an extraordinary view into Chinese culture. I've seen things I would have never seen otherwise. I've been all over the country, I've spent festivals in farmers' homes, and I get to see what happens in the kitchens! I certainly haven't explored the full range of Chinese cuisines yet.