Introducing my new(ish) food blog
Some time last year, I decided that writing about travel and cooking on a single site – as I was doing here at Little Yak – was a bit of […]
Some time last year, I decided that writing about travel and cooking on a single site – as I was doing here at Little Yak – was a bit of […]
Mr Book suddenly let out a hoot and, leaning closer, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his forefinger. Glancing around to see what had caused the […]
Merry Christmas one and all! I hope you’ve all managed to have fun despite the ice storms, floods and smog clouds that have afflicted various parts of the world in […]
Ordering Chinese food can be a nerve-wracking experience, particularly if you don’t speak or read Chinese. Get it wrong, and your fears of being served platefuls of unmentionable animal parts […]
Visiting a traditional Chinese doctor can go one of two ways. You will either have your tongue inspected, your pulse taken in six different ways and leave with a bundle […]
Earlier this year I bought a kilo of pork belly in order to make some zhajiang – a satisfyingly salty pork-based sauce that’s popular served with noodles in Beijing. As I unwrapped […]
Wherever you are, look out for tonight’s full moon – it’s supposedly the largest, roundest moon of the year, celebrated across China by the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon’s perfect circle […]
You’re 3,000 miles away from the nearest coast, it’s 10am and 38°C outside, and it’s a Muslim region so cold beer and short shorts are not an option. How on […]
For the first time since university, I have a proper backpacking trip coming up – six weeks across northwest China – in order to update a guidebook. I’ll be heading […]
I’ve been thinking about comfort foods recently. What is it that makes them comforting? My guess is that they’re often foods that we ate as children – in my case, […]
A few years ago, while working as a tour guide in Yunnan, I had a guest who – every morning – insisted on “not eating lunch for breakfast”. She had […]
Dali in Yunnan is home to some of China’s best-looking vegetables. The Bai people who live in and around Dali have been blessed with a lush, fertile strip of homeland, […]
While I’ve been living in China and Hong Kong for almost seven years, I still can’t really cook Chinese food. Earlier this month, while trawling Hong Kong’s supermarkets for pickled […]
I was in Guizhou around the time that the Great British Horsemeat Scandal kicked off. On my first afternoon in the countryside, I came across a group of men butchering […]