Cafe Z is legend in Chengdu – hugely expensive compared to the price of an average meal, but considered by many as the best place to get Western food in the city. I’ve had this buffet restaurant at the Shangrila Hotel recommended to me countless times, but being the cheapskate that I am was somewhat reluctant to go. Yesterday evening though, what with it being Mike's last night in town, we decided to take the plunge. And boy was it worth it.

It isn’t just that the food is all high quality and totally delicious – it’s the range that’s spectacular. Not only are there Sichuan specialities, Cantonese Dim Sum, Beijing Duck and various other Chinese dishes, but there is also Japanese, Italian, Moroccan, Indian…the list goes on, and is topped by perhaps the most gorgeously presented dessert selection I’ve ever seen.

Sadly I was too busy stuffing myself silly to take many photographs of the food in its entire splendor, but hopefully the following gives you a rough idea.

Bowls of delicious titbits.

Sauces and dressings in the Mediterranean section.

Sichuan-style Douhua.

The chocolate fountain.

Individual chocolate squares served on spoons.

So, if, like I did, you’re wondering if it’s worth the high price, wonder no longer and just go.

While in the first installment in the Beyond Sichuan series I went south, this time I’m going north – to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province. This city, a large proportion of whose population are of the Hui Muslim minority, is home to the famous Lanzhou Lamian, a.k.a Lanzhou ‘Pulled Noodles’: fresh wheat dough pulled by hand into long, even strands, and served in a plain meat broth. It is a cheap, filling and delicious meal.

Luckily, I don’t have to go all the way to Lanzhou to eat Lamian, as they are found in cities across China and Chengdu is no exception. My local Lamian joint is run by a friendly family, whose littlest member is particularly cute.

Like most Lamian restaurants, my local is open much later than many other eating establishments, so is particularly convenient for a midnight snack. But the absolute best thing about Lamian is its preparation, which is visually wonderful and usually done within eyesight of the diners. Through a magical and mind-boggling process of twisting, folding, pulling and loud slapping of the dough onto the work-board, the chef creates perfect noodles from raw dough in mere seconds. He also makes it all seem ridiculously easy, which, I am quite sure, it’s not.

Here are some photos of the making of Lamian at my local restaurant. The finished dish itself isn’t that much of a looker – just noodle soup with some sliced beef and fresh coriander; it’s the making of the noodles, right in front of you, and the visual spectacle it involves, that makes Lamian so special.

Sichuan people like their Sichuan food. On Chengdu’s mean streets, Chuancai dominates, and it’s sometimes difficult to find any other Chinese cuisine. A few, though, are readily available, and so over the next few weeks I’ll be introducing you to some of my favourites in my neighborhood. First stop: Yunnan, and the famous ‘Crossing the Bridge Noodles’.

Legend has it that this dish was created during the Qing dynasty, by the wife of a hard-working scholar. The scholar liked to work on an island on a lake, and everyday his wife would bring him a bowl of rice noodles for lunch; but by the time she had walked from their home and crossed the bridge to the island, the noodles would be cold.

Eventually, however, the scholar’s wife hit upon a clever idea: a layer of oil on top of the broth. This little trick kept the heat from escaping, and ensured that the noodles arrived at her husband’s table still hot and delicious. Thus, the dish was named 过桥米线 (guo qiao mixian) – ‘Crossing the Bridge Noodles’.

Today, Crossing the Bridge Noodles are perhaps Yunnan’s most famous dish, and specialist restaurants can be found on almost every street in the capital, Kunming. They’re are also quite popular in Chengdu, and accordingly, my local Crossing the Bridge Noodles restaurant is run by a family who used to live in Yunnan. Here, the layer of oil isn’t very thick, but I don’t really care about that anyway, because what really make Crossing the Bridge Noodles fun are all the things you add to the broth: quail’s eggs, tofu skin, bean sprouts, spring onions, tomato, lettuce, a couple of different meats, and of course, the rice noodles.

First, a plate laid out with all these goodies arrives at your table, along with a generous bowl of rice noodles.

Next comes a huge claypot-ful of broth, to which the waitress adds all the other ingredients.

Finally, you mix it all together with your chopsticks, add any extra flavourings you may desire (such as vinegar or chili oil), and it’s ready – as seen, in all its glory, in the photo at the top of this post. Crossing the Bridge Noodles are perfect in cold weather, when the hot broth is wonderfully warming. It’s also particularly good when you’re feeling a bit unwell, for not only is it full of fresh, lightly cooked vegetables, but it also has many of the qualities of that universal cure-all, chicken soup.

Keep your eyes peeled for more in the Beyond Sichuan series, coming soon…

ps. I recently learnt that, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, you shouldn't eat chicken when you've got a cold - the complete opposite to Western medical wisdom! I wonder which one is right...

Chop Chop Dumpling Restaurant (the Chinese name is much better - 饺子王 translates as 'dumpling king'). Haymarket, Edinburgh.

The Szechuan. Tollcross, Edinburgh.

China Garden. Preston Street, Brighton (you can see the ruined West Pier in the background).

Famous Sichuan. Queen's Road, Brighton (this was definitely not here when I was a student in Brighton!).

Fuzhou Restaurant (Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian province, where many early Chinese immigrants to the UK came from). Chinatown, London.

Young Cheng. Chinatown, London (the Chinese businessmen you can see going into the restaurant were the end few of a very long line - must be a good place...)

Note: I only ate at one of the above restaurants (the Szechuan, more on which still to come), so cannot recommend any of the others!

One of the many delights of my recent visit back to the UK was how much I enjoyed the food. Living in China for two years, it's easy to forget that there is a whole world of other wonderful food beyond the borders of the People's Republic. But though of course I was expecting great things from France and even London, I certainly did not anticipate the foodie heaven than Edinburgh turned out to be...

Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities in Britain, and my connection with it goes back quite a while - I worked there for a month at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2005, and have been back almost every year since. This time, I visiting my great friend Peggy Hughes, who I worked with at the Book Fest and who is now a busy busy bee on the Scottish literati scene. Knowing about my love for food, she and her lovely partner Colin took it upon themselves to give me a one-day food-tour of their city, and in doing so totally turned around my previous favourable-but-not-amazing foodie impression of Edinburgh.

We started at the Edinburgh Farmers' Market, which Peggy, who will herself admit is not the biggest foodie, is nonetheless a huge devotee of due to the infamous Hog Roast. It was a beautiful morning, and what with being festival time as well the market was packed and bustling. While Peggy headed straight to the aforementioned stall,

I chose first to sample the wares of one of the market's success stories, Stoats Porridge. This ain't no ordinary porridge; this is, if such a thing exists, gourmet porridge, exemplified by my own choice of Stoats Cranachan: porridge, fresh rasberries, toasted oats and single cream.

It was sublime, and for me at least, took porridge to whole different level.

Though my hunger was somewhat abated by this oaty delight, I still had room enough left for something I spied at one of the very first stalls - homemade Scotch eggs.

This is no supermarket junk foodstuff, but the real thing - crisp breadcrumbs, surrounding a deliciously savoury sausage meat mixture, itself wrapped around a huge, rich duck's egg.

It really was fantastic. Years ago I heard a radio program about real Scotch eggs; it must have piqued my interest for I remembered it at the market, and was so excited to try something that is usually pretty gross, but done properly is just brilliant.

And the fun didn't stop there! After the market we went for a little peek at Edinburgh Books, the magical shop that hosts some of the events at Peggy's festival, West Port; and after that, a trip to my old favourite the Mosque Kitchen.

This was but an hour or so after the market however, and I really wasn't hungry enough for a full meal. Luckily, rather than miss out on one of the best (and cheapest) meals in the city, I had the inspired idea of asking them to serve my dal in the tupperware box I'd brought along to the market for any takeaway purchases (that I didn't end up making).

The lovely mosque folks obliged; my dal was totally yummy, and even yummier eaten an hour or two later when my appetite had returned.

But it didn't end there, oh no. Much, much later in the day and accompanied by other friends, I made a trip to the wonderful, inspirational Susie's Wholefood Diner, where I ate many a delicious meal during my various visits to Edinburgh, and to where I was eager to return.

The friends I was with were, in fact, rather reluctant to eat at Susie's, and I had to insist that they would like it. Once they'd tasted the fantastic, homecooked vegetarian food however, they were of course won over (though you will have to imagine it for yourself because the dining room was too dark to photograph!).

Finally, close to midnight, it was time for my last supper: wonton soup at the Szechuan restaurant under Peggy and Colin's apartment. I won't go into too much detail about it here, because I will be doing so elsewhere soon, but needless to say, it was perhaps the perfect end to a perfect day. I guess a foodie is a foodie, wherever she is.