Calamari index? It's butter in China
The lawyer-turned-writer Jeffrey Steingarten once wrote about the Calamari Index, that measure of culinary sophistication he invented as the resident food critic for the US edition of Vogue magazine.
Imitation being the best part of flattery, I am paying tribute to the man who first inspired me to explore food beyond the plate. Let's look at a Butter Index, a mystic yardstick of how China interacts with the culinary world beyond its borders.
As the expatriate daughter-in-law of a very Beijing family, I vacillate between eating local and longing for the melting-pot diet I am used to. While I am ever-willing to be assimilated, I find it difficult to sacrifice my culinary roots - hence the persistent search for a fresh block of butter all these years.
