So, onto China. We all know what China is and, paradoxically, I think that there’s so much to say limits how much I will say. Typically I’d talk about influences on the cuisine and try to take us around the garden path with some tangentially related history, researched very quickly. But there’s just a bit too much to chew on this time. Suffice to say that Chinese culinary history was influenced by its neighbours and the West (chillies come to mind!) just like anywhere else. But an awful lot of food originated in China, such as the soy sauce that’s so ubiquitous in many cuisines, China’s been a huge influence on the world’s cuisine itself and a lot of its characteristic dishes and ingredients just come from itself.