In Nanjing, the Ass Meat Pizza Is Great—If You Can Find It

I recently traveled to Nanjing, one of those laser-paced, ultra-developed, hyper-modernised, second-tier Chinese cosmopolises nobody ever goes to. Its population is roughly equivalent to that of New York City, but nothing there is set up for North Americans or Europeans. It gets so few Western visitors that people kept coming up and asking if they could take a picture with me—just because I'm white.

One of the experiences we seek from travel in an increasingly globalised world is to end up elsewhere, in a land where nothing makes any sense to us; where we become, in fact, foreigners. To feel out of place while traveling is to "feel the sharp savour of the real," as Janet Malcolm once wrote.

Savouring all that reality tends to make people hungry. Fortunately, a reliable way to get over culture shock is to connect with another society through its cuisine. When you see what people eat, you learn how they live. Sharing local food in a faraway country can give you an incipient sense of belonging.

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