Through a collaboration with Xu Minji’s Conversation with China Instagram channel Cooking with Adrienne has expanded its audience to China foodies with a Sweet & Sour Chicken recipe. The goal of Minji’s blog is to bring together people from different cultures by sharing their common experiences with food and cooking. I encourage you to follow her and if you are ever in London book her Chinese foodie experience.
Last Monday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Minji on the WeChat platform and shared my experience of becoming a foodie through my friendship with Adrienne. You can read a transcript with pictures of the interview: CWA Conversation with China. And below is the recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken, from the first Cooking with Adrienne book, which Minji translated and shared with her followers during the course of the interview.
It was a delightful surprise that the CWA brand and ethos of ‘All Food is Good Food’ resonated so well with the followers of Minji’s blog. They are an eclectic group of about 150 people; 50% of them are Chinese teachers of English language in Chinese or International Schools all over the country, as well as the UK and Canada, who are looking to gain more cultural understanding of the language. The remainder are either Chinese living in developed cities in China or overseas and non-Chinese people working in China who have an interest in culture and travel.
The feedback from the event was also quite enlightening. In China most young couples work but it is still primarily the responsibility of the the woman to make dinner. Chinese meals often comprise 2-3 meats and/or fish and 4-5 vegetables/starches. That’s a lot of mis en place! The result is that many Chinese go out to eat a lot. But there is a trend now for young couples to share the cooking and create quicker but still healthy meals. That’s where the Sweet & Sour Chicken recipe came in as well as the Salmon Fillets with Mandarin and Ginger from the blog. These dishes really resonated with the audience because they are easy to prepare and incorporate ingredients that are easy to source in China, or in local Chinese markets in most major cities.
Here are some of the comments that were shared on line after the interview:
- Food is love! When my mom has time she always cooks delicious food for me. I will try to cook the Sweet and Sour Chicken, it must be very delicious. Taste, taste and taste, haha, I love this CWA cooking method.
- I’m not a good cook but now I am inspired to try the recipe that was shared! I’m looking forward to the next Coffee Chat 🙂
- I am very impressed with Joan’s friendship with Adrienne. It is far beyond the recipes and book. And I’m also impressed with the slogan on the website: All food is good food. Many thanks to Joan and Minji for bringing us such a good time.
This journey has taken some unexpected turns but so far finding a Chinese audience that embraces Adrienne’s cooking ranks at the top. I think Adrienne would not be surprised though because her cooking and food travels knew no bounds!
Stay tuned for more CWA surprises!!
With lots of foodie love,
Working with Joan on this interview program is absolutely delightful.
When I first found this Cooking with Adrienne project on Instagram I assumed it is Adrienne who is writing about all these recipes. But wait! The more I looked into this, the more I found the story intriguing and heartwarming. It is about cooking with love and friendship. So it is not surprising that I wrote to Joan asking if she would be a guest of my culture exchange program.
What is surprising is that Joan very quickly agreed. (Hooray!!!) She generously gave her time to prepare all this, including downloading an instant messaging application (originally designed in Chinese). Seeing her get up to speed so quickly with a new chat application with ease and confidence, I thought to myself, wow, that is a pair of hands not only good with cooking stoves but excellent with mobile keyboards.
The interview program went really well. Many people were informed a little bit more about Western cuisines. What Joan did for us all was opening a window so we gathered enough interest and curiosity to learn a bit more.
The biggest impact for me personally is my love of cooking grew. As Joan wrote in this blog, Chinese young generation is more used to go out for meals. Life is busy and we want to have things quick and easy. During working with Joan on ‘Cooking with Adrienne’ I tried a few her recipes and the result is incredible. What I found is a curiosity for the food itself, how do things work together, how do they taste originally. The experience of making something with one’s heart and enjoying something with one’s stomach is simply a gift of life.
I look forward to reading the book ‘ Cooking with Adrienne’ very soon!