Hi there. My name is Diana Kuan. I’m a New York-based writer and cooking teacher who is somewhat obsessed with Chinese food around the world. My childhood is partly to blame.
I grew up watching my family run a Latin-flavored Chinese restaurant in Puerto Rico, and later a Polynesian-style take-out and Cantonese bakery in suburban Boston. My parents’ tendency to stick to familiar cuisine meant we always ate Chinese on vacation, whether we were in downtown Montreal or the California desert. I realized early on that “Hong Kong-style” food is unfamiliar to many mainland Chinese.
This blog is about the diverse regional foods around China. It is also about the offspring, the Chinese food outside the mainland: Portuguese-accented Macanese, Peruvian chifa, Indian-Chinese, and a myriad of other hyphenated Chinese cuisines. If I can successfully apply my French culinary training to stir-fries, there is no reason traditional and non-traditional forms can’t co-exist.
Outside of the blog, I have written on food and travel for The Boston Globe, Food & Wine, Gourmet, US Airways, Time Out New York, Mediabistro, and the book Food Journeys of a Lifetime (National Geographic, 2009). I have also taught Chinese cooking in New York and Beijing. Now I’m working on a cookbook with Random House/Ballantine, which will be out in Dec 2012. Every once in a while I still fantasize about wok-fried chicken with a side of plantains.
Where Appetite for China has been featured:
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Disclosure and Relationship Statement:
I may occasionally accept free products, services, travel, tickets, or other forms of compensation from companies and organizations. I may or may not decide to write a review or host giveaways related to products or services I have received, but when I decide to do so, it will be clearly disclosed. The views and opinions expressed on this site by me are purely my own and reflect my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences (which may vary from yours) and do not necessarily reflect those of any company or organization
