Photo: Stefan Lins

By: Justin Chan

Chinese cuisine in America is often defined by typical dishes such as orange chicken, dumplings and chow mein. Those dishes only represent a small portion of the vast number of culinary treats the Chinese have to offer. Stroll through Chinatown in the vibrant Lower East Side, and you’ll find roasted pork or duck hanging in front of restaurant windows and vendors selling mini pancakes made from a gooey batter. Better yet, walk into a restaurant, and you might have the chance to experience a popular Cantonese serving known as dim sum.

Dim sum traces its roots back to the ancient Silk Road, which connected East Asia to parts of Africa and Europe. The trade route allowed merchants to exchange goods but also gave rise to a delicacy that many Chinese families have come to adore. Farmers and laborers would stop by teahouses along the route where they would yum cha (drink tea) and help themselves to dim sum or small platters of food. The Cantonese in Southern China particularly took a liking to the bite-sized edibles, and what used to be a quiet dining experience quickly became a raucous one. Read More

Lamb Curry

Lindsay Hunt is our new media intern at MarcusSamuelsson.com.  She will be contributing a weekly column about cooking through two of Marcus’ cookbooks: cookbooks Soul of a New Cuisine and New American Table.

Lindsay is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in SoHo, New York.  She loves food from all over the world.  From Ethiopian food to Dim Sum to the best biscuits and gravy, she loves to eat her way through New York’s diverse food scene.

Her parents lived in Indonesia until just before she was born, and she credits her love for all foods to growing up with her parents’ adventurous tastes and the bountiful options of cuisine in her native Southern California.

During her study abroad experience in Rennes, France, Lindsay indulged in crepes, baguettes, and creamy cheeses.  At Dartmouth College, Lindsay studied Arabic and studied abroad in Fez, Morocco.  She ate everything from chicken and prune stews to a surprisingly creamy appetizer of sheep’ brains.  Now, based in Brooklyn, she looks forward to traveling the globe again through Marcus’ recipes.

Read her first installment of her column below.

Read More