The Literary Table - Revised Edition

When troubled, have a jam swiss roll with a cup of black tea; reminisce about past loves with a spoonful of dried tangerine peel and red bean soup; on a lonely night away from home, savor wontons without dried flatfish broth; desire solitude and cook a plate of pasta out of thin air... Taste them all before the craving fades. "The Literary Table" not only lets you revisit the vanishing tastes and emotions within words but also shares knowledge and insights about food: Do you know how Haruki Murakami makes his pasta? In "Rouge," the most potent poison isn't opium, do you know what it is? Have you discovered the delicious dishes scattered throughout "Young and Dangerous"? Do you remember how to make the campfire coffee the cowboys in "Brokeback Mountain" drank while talking? Iris Chui will tell you all about it. If reading and thinking make you hungrier, the book also pairs 12 simple and light recipes for you. Just gather your ingredients, get your hands busy, and you can connect with different eras, diving into the memories of the dishes. Enjoy them while they're hot, turning your daydreams and desires into reality, letting reading nourish your stomach and your heart. Highly recommended by Shirley Kwok, Chan Chi Him, and Yip Chi Chung, all discerning gourmands! Endorsement: As a culinary journal, this book draws from the author's memories, life experiences, and emotions on one hand, while being grounded in rich knowledge and reading experience on the other. Iris navigates the worlds of Chinese and foreign literature and pop culture, from Shi Nai'an and Lu Xun to Eileen Chang, from Kafka and Hemingway to Haruki Murakami, and from Sherlock Holmes and the Police Academy to Manabu Yukawa. Recipes from different eras and countries are presented with ease. From the food in the mouth, she connects to the books she has read, reconstructing the sensory experiences of the human world from clues within the text. Eating and reading mutually inspire each other, finally merging into one. — Shirley Kwok (Hong Kong Scholar and Writer) Iris's writing style is nimble, swimming with ease in the sea of knowledge, her witty metaphors spanning heaven and earth. In "The Years of Wontons," she writes of a departing poet's homesickness, connecting wontons to the Pearl of the Orient—a stroke of genius... "The wontons are flat and round, somewhat asymmetrical in shape, with uneven surfaces and wrinkles, like a slightly withered Pearl of the Orient." The Pearl of the Orient is already a stale metaphor, but with descriptions like 'asymmetrical,' 'uneven surfaces and wrinkles,' and even 'withered,' its beautiful image is completely washed away. — Chan Chi Him (Hong Kong Scholar and Writer) What is written in "The Literary Table" often revolves around everyday scenes and personal trifles, which then branch out into various literary and film works. The dining scenes within the text are also enriched through contrast, transforming into pages of recipes that hold the desires of survival, the taste of the times, and sensory memories. — Yip Chi Chung (Editor-in-Chief, "SAMPLE" Magazine)