Seven Banquets - And A Return Ticket?

As New Year’s Eve arrives – and with it the annual urge to look backward and forward at the same time – find myself thinking about food, travel, and connections. Case in point: my recent interview for the New Books Network with Thomas David DuBois, the author of China in Seven Banquets. What begins as a discussion of seven historically grounded meals quickly turns into something richer: food as memory, food as scholarship, food as an excuse to cross oceans. And, it didn’t hurt that Indiana-born DuBois is a food historian and professor at Beijing Normal University, so we could chat about current on-the-ground culinary trends.

You can listen to the full conversation here.

Longtime VittlesVamp readers may remember that this wasn’t my first brush with China. Years ago, I ate my way through Beijing with professional guides and reckless enthusiasm – Peking duck, hutong wandering, Ghost Street crawfish, tea safaris, foot massages – the whole glorious blur. That trip was part of a larger China sojourn that also included similarly spirited adventures in Shanghai and Hong Kong

Reading this book and recording this interview reopened that particular mental filing cabinet. It made me want to revisit China. (And, at the very least, it made me want to revisit NYC’s many Chinatowns.)

That said, there may be an opportunity to head back to Asia this year. Nothing is set, but the idea has been planted. If that path leads me through Beijing again, I could imagine swinging by a kitchen to cook with the author – not necessarily recreating ancient recipes, but sharing the kind of hands-on, present-tense experience that makes food matter. Something to think about as the clock runs out on this year and edges us toward 2026. Cheers – and gānbēi!