If you want to get to know China, where would you start? The Great Wall? The Forbidden City? Or at the dinner table?

This time, we step into the kitchen with Professor Thomas DuBois of Beijing Normal University and start with four home-style dishes — tomato and egg stir-fry, mapo tofu, steamed eggplant with a savory dressing, and mixed brown rice.

For DuBois, food is more than just taste. It has become a way of understanding China.

From Shandong and Tianjin to Beijing, from local markets to family dinner tables, food has been woven into his life and memories in China.