This week has been eye opening, especially thanks to the new book from Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet: The story of Chinese Food. I’m nearing the end of the book where she explains how difficult it is to truly cover all of the regional cuisines of China. Historically, there are only four great cuisines, each covering one of the major directions of East, West, North, and South. These four cuisines represent the major differences in the regions and give the broadest exposure to someone exploring Chinese food. In her recommendation, should you choose to pick a place to start exploring the cuisines of China, go with these. For some perspective on what I mean by historical, the current eight were originally ordained so in 1980, in an article published in the People’s Daily Newspaper. This is apparently still quite a point of contention, especially for less populous regions. Take a for a moment the Tibetan plateau. The food in this area is limited by what can grow at such high altitude and influences from neighboring areas such as India and Nepal. Dairy, especially that of yaks, is very common, whereas dairy is virtually absent from most other Chinese regions.