“What are you taking with you to eat?”

This was not the question I was expecting from April, my editor here at The Plate, when I told her I’d be reporting in China this month.

Starting Tuesday, I’ll be travelling around China for National Geographic magazine for three weeks, researching the pressing food questions that have emerged in the country over the last few decades.

The research will take me from Shanghai to Xi’an, where I’ll talk to farmers and factory workers.

I know precious little about China. But the one thing I do know is that I will be surrounded by food, and one of the world’s great cuisines, the entire time. So why would I take food with me?

April rummaged around her