Marketing man Fred Schneiter travelled from San Francisco to Asia in the 1960s, and stayed for 30 years. Schneiter starting writing in his teens, and went on to a journalism degree while working as a University News Bureau reporter. He worked for three US newspapers before Korean War service in Troop Information and Education, editing an army newspaper during the occupation of Germany while freelancing a column in the US on the lighter side of army life. Whetting an early appetite for adventure by riding freight trains across America during high school vacations, Schneiter lived and worked in Asia for more than 30 years, covering more than 40 countries in the process, and every province of China. He was in Tiananmen Square the day the tanks moved in, lived in Hong Kong during its final years as a colony, and witnessed first-hand modern China's monumental rise after opening to the West. He's won national awards in communication and management, lectured at Stanford, and was a member of a small group of China Hands invited to testify on US-China trade on Capitol Hill shortly after China's opening to the West.

"Spirit of place meets spirits and plaice, and squid and cold melon soup and a great deal more – if you are looking for a book that captures the tastes and smells of the East, this is it. A truly lovely book." – Jonathan Chamberlain, author of "King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong"

"Schneiter delightfully puts food exactly where it should be: on the table, to be shared, as a way of meeting and connecting with people. But his chatty recipes also show how there can be joy in the cooking, not only in the eating. -- Annabel Jackson, author of "Taste of Macau"