Fuchsia Dunlop has written some of the best known English-language books on Chinese cooking, spending years at a time immersing herself in different regions of China in order to learn the area’s dialect and culinary specialties. But as she tells Dan, that wasn’t her original plan. She moved to Chengdu in her 20s because she wanted to live abroad and knew the food there would be great. Still, she says it took years before she stopped eating “like a European.” Her latest book, Invitation to a Banquet, tells a sweeping story of Chinese food through dishes like sweet-and-sour pork balls (an English takeaway standby) and fire-exploded kidney flowers (one of her favorite dishes of Chengdu).

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, Jared O'Connell, and Julia Russo, with production this week by Johanna Mayer.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.