Victor Mair, Author at China Channel

Author: Victor Mair

Victor Mair has been teaching at the University of Pennsylvania since 1979. He specializes in Buddhist popular literature as well as the vernacular tradition of Chinese fiction and the performing arts. Throughout the 1990's, Professor Mair organized an interdisciplinary research project on the Bronze Age and Iron Age mummies of Eastern Central Asia. Among other results of his efforts during this period were three documentaries for television (Scientific American, NOVA and Discovery Channel), a major international conference, numerous articles and a book, The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Thames and Hudson, 2000). (Source: Penn Arts & Sciences)

Move over French fries, for Trump little crisp strips – Victor Mair

Chef Jon seems to be very fond of king trumpet mushrooms. They occur as an ingredient in three of his dishes on this menu. As might be expected, in the Chinese names of two of these three dishes, the word gū 菇 (mushroom) appears, but in the third it does not. Instead, in the latter, it is called simply Chuānpǔ 川普 (Trump), with nary a mention of an equivalent for "-et" nor for "mushroom."

The name of this dish in Mandarin is Chuānpǔ xiǎo cuìtiáo 川普小脆條, which Chef Jon calls "Crispy King Trumpet Mushroom" in English, but which may more literally be translated as "Trump little crisp strips."