If you haven’t been keeping up with the flogosphere (get it? it’s the food blogosphere!) then you may not have heard of this great mini-series from CCTV called A Bite of China.  The good news is the production value is high and the subject matter is really good. The bad news is that it’s only in mandarin and the subtitles are no-where to be found.  But I have faith that official or unofficial subtitles will turn up soon.

Each 50 minute episode revolves around a theme.  The first episode, Gift of the Nature, focusses on produce that takes work to eat such as the long treks in the forest to dig out tender bamboo shoots, walking many kilometers just to find one matsutake, wading and digging through sludge to get an arm of lotus root, etc.  It’s great that the show focuses on the more traditional way of doing things and that it jumps to locations all over China.

Oh and the food porn shots. WOW.

Full episode list:

• 1: Gift of the Nature (bamboo, matsutake, lotus root)
• 2: Story of the Staple Foods (rice, noodles, buns)
• 3: Inspiration of the Conversion (time-intensive foods like fermented tofu, yak butter, bean paste)
• 4: The Taste of Time (preserved things like pickled cabbage and salted fish)
• 5: Secret of the Kitchen (cooking tools and spaces)
• 6: Five Harmonious Flavors (foods representative of the five flavors like bittermelon, sweet honey comb candy, and spicy fish)