On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome with Love and Pasta

Lin-Liu (Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China), a Southern California foodie repatriated to Beijing, where she ran a cooking school, returns with another ambitious culinary travelogue. This time she’s in search of the evolving noodle along the ancient Silk Road, the key trading route between western China and the Mediterranean. Intrigued by the question of who really invented pasta—did Marco Polo bring it back to Italy from China in the 13th century or had it been consumed by the Etruscans long before?—Lin-Liu embarked on a six-month trek through remote lands such as Tibet; Xinjiang, China, home of the Uighurs; the trio of “stans” (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan); Iran, with its strangely alluring Persian noodles; and Turkey, where she taught an Istanbul cooking group how to make dumplings, before reaching the Mediterranean and Italy. Lin-Liu made a point of invading the kitchens of her hosts and local cooks, and she was amazed at similarities between regional noodle dishes and rustic Italian food; appalled or pleasantly surprised by strange ingredients; and, from yurt to hovel, delighted by the local hospitality. Lin-Liu’s journey is a bold palate-awakening adventure, endearingly rendered . (July)