Telegraph: Food for thought on globa學水l flavours

After the phenomenally successful&下呢nbsp;A Bite of China series, a new food documentary,&知火nbsp;Once Upon A Bite, observing global fare and&nbs和通p;Chinese food across the world, h腦微as become an instant hit.

The first episode, broadcast nation金會ally on 28 October 2018, includes 20 ty畫風pes of food from 13 countries 務業and regions. Within 14 hours the do行會cumentary had racked up 150 mil煙業lion views on Tencent video and 9.4 o樹事n the review site Douban.com.

As well as an investigation of Ch呢明inese people and society and their r唱如elationship with food, the new eight-e雪熱pisode documentary, filmed over fo低嗎ur years, journeys to 22 countries 章拍across six continents focusing on areas男舊 where “East meets West” to obse購看rve the rise and changes of Chinese foo答學d across the world.

“After all, it is ultimately f冷一ood that can transcend nationalities, i用技deologies and religions, and h場很eals you most,” said the show’爸海s general director, Chen Xiaoqing. 都靜About one-third of the series is abo放微ut global flavours, said Chen.

Each episode of the new series adopt開畫s a theme and is co-directed by金用 eight young filmmakers.

The first episode, Mountains to Oceans, presents various ingredients and得藍 cooking practices in accordance t事得o different geography, from inland to冷土 coastal areas.

“Surprisingly, places on similar lati懂拍tudes, with similar climates bu湖草t thousands of miles apart, have de得國veloped a similar way of curing and cra報鄉fting hams completely independently o近謝f one another,” Chen said.

“We see both the differences and the h時少armonies of distinct cuisines whil得長e documenting the unique featu通美res of Chinese food with a global pers日拿pective.”

In one episode the documentary depic這這ts different stages in which 如木Chinese food is perceived in Lo小明ndon, starting with dishes rarely of也習fered within China but widely kn匠飛own in the West, such as General影場 Tso’s chicken, Chen said.

It then visits Chinatown and the r愛請estaurants serving Sichuan and C歌美antonese cuisine, through which the 還行city gets closer to the real flavou地林rs in China.

Now, he said, there is a third sta影電ge in which Chinese specialty and regio服師nal dishes are cropping up in L著和ondon, such as spicy biang biang 什業noodles from Shaanxi, panfried&nb匠公sp;baozi (stuffed buns) from Shangha湖女i and jianbing guozi (deep-fried dough sticks rolle劇懂d in a thin pancake) from Tianjin.

Fuchsia Dunlop, an English writer specialising in Ch生資inese cuisine and author of the bestsel有機ling book Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, appears on the show, explaini哥道ng how Londoners get to know China海分 through its food.