There is a certain type of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, fanny-packing, Red Stater who considers a trip to the Pawn Stars pawn shop the ne plus ultra of their trip to Sin City.
The crême de la crême of their Vegas vacation, the piece de la resistance of their precious playtime, if you will.
ELV does not understand these people.
Of course, The Official Younger Sister of ELV once went to Dollywood and he didn’t understand that, either.
Besides being a fun read about the birth of a food writer, Fuschia Dunlop’s Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China is a great primer on the glories of Szechuan cooking.
An unabashed fan of the Szechuan province (she considers it the ne plus ultra of Chinese cuisine) her book explores everything from the tongue-numbing effect of those mysterious peppercorns, to the Chinese propensity to eat “everything that flies except an airplane, and everything with four legs except the table.”
We’ve been hearing the rumors about China Mama for a couple of years now.
“Not as good as it used to be.”
“Nothing like it once was.”
“Fallen way off.”
“They’re using store bought, frozen xiao long bao, now.”
And on and on it has gone, with most of these reports coming in from our regs, loval readers, and other trusted foodie friends.