fave five #6: xueci cheng

featuring vintage chinese cookbooks

this week’s fave five comes to us from food writer and recipe developer,

Xueci Cheng

. you may already recognize her from the recipe and video collaboration we recently did making roujiamo.

we met when we were both working for kitchen stories (catch her quizzing me on caesar salad trivia here), and since then we’ve kept in touch both as friends and fellow content creators (#cringe but it’s also #true). i love xueci’s content, have linked to it before and probably will again, so without further ado, enjoy her fave five and see you next week!

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xueci cheng’s fave five

1. Making food from scratch: I've been enjoying taking on projects that once seemed daunting to me, like making some traditional Chinese foods from scratch. For Chinese New Year this year, I made a small batch of Sichuan wind-cured sausage (xiangchang) and pork belly (la rou) with the seasoning and casing I brought back from China. It was actually easier than I thought, the hardest part was the waiting. Then came tang yuan, a rice ball dessert also for a CNY celebration, which turned out surprisingly easy thanks to a store-bought filling. Next on my list: making tofu from dried soybeans and fermenting rice. 

2. Vintage Chinese cookbooks: I started collecting old books on Chinese cooking last year. So far, my collection spans from the '80s and '90s to the early 2000s, with some titles that are now discontinued. Cookbook culture is not big in China, where most people turn to the internet or social media for recipes. Flipping through these books, I found knowledge about ingredients, dishes, and how culinary traditions have evolved over the years, all while experiencing a wave of nostalgia.

3. Pop culture podcasts: Podcasts have been one of my primary forms of media consumption lately. I can't imagine going for a walk without listening to something, and my AirPods have practically become an extension of my body. I love a variety of shows covering pop culture, including TV and film, and sometimes I also listen to food-related topics. I particularly enjoyed "The Watch" series by The Ringer recently as I was watching the series Shogun (highly recommend, too), and "The Culture Study”, which delves into topics from Bradley Cooper to the Stanley Cup.

4. "Stay True" by Hua Hsu: This small book had been sitting on my shelf for quite some time before I finally picked it up and finished it. It's a beautifully nuanced narrative about college life, friendship, identity, and loss. The climax of the book hit me quite hard and brought some tears as I read late into the night. The emotions lingered for days afterward.

5. Library books: Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I recently signed up for the public libraries association in Berlin. For just €10 a year, I can now access a vast collection of books including recent publications and cookbooks. I borrowed "Good Material'' by Dolly Alderton and found the return due date actually motivated me to read more quickly. I can have books delivered to my local library or pick them up myself and there’s also an extensive e-book database—where I've recently borrowed e-cookbooks "Tenderheart" by Hetty Lui McKinnon and "A Very Chinese Cookbook" by Kevin Pang—which great for someone like me with a small apartment that has limited shelf space.