Have you ever been to Panda Gourmet? It’s a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Washington DC with something of a cultish following because of its authentic dishes from Shaanxi and Sichuan, and because of the rumour that it was originally built as a canteen for Chinese workers constructing the new Chinese embassy in the city. I visited it last month on my US book tour, thanks to Tyler Cowen, who invited me to take part in one of his ‘Conversations’ – on the subject of Chinese food! It was great fun, and you can watch the video, listen to the audio podcast or read the transcript of our discussions here!

And here’s a picture of our lunch (my favourite dishes were the Xian cold noodles 凉皮 and the Xian pulled pork ‘burgers’肉夹馍: