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Fair enough. I enjoyed it, although most Sichuan cuisine is too spicy for my taste.

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Completely unrelated. I first started following you on Salon in the Internet's pre-Cambrian era. My primary interests lie in the areas of economics and politics. Scanning your post's titles, it seems the focus of your Substack is Chinese culture and cuisine. While this is certainly worthwhile, it is not a major interest. I would be interested in your takes on the current Zero COVID policy or President Xi's born again Maoism. Are these politically sensitive topics beyond the scope of this outlet? Given the outrageous bullying that the PRC subjects foreigners to when they want access to Chinese markets, I could certainly understand avoiding them.

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Thanks for writing. Although my chosen narrative vehicle is Sichuan cuisine, there is nothing beyond the scope of this outlet! I would recommend reading "Beef Noodle Soup Solidarity" (https://andrewleonard.substack.com/p/beef-noodle-soup-solidarity?s=w) which touches on some deeper political issues with regard to China, and actually the entirety of this post that you are commenting on now gets at some larger issues. My most specific thoughts on Xi Jinping are in "Xi Jinping and John Cena Are Rotten Pieces of Pork Offal" (https://andrewleonard.substack.com/p/xi-jinping-and-john-cena-are-rotten?s=w). I'm pretty sure that that post alone has made this newsletter off-limits to the mainland chinese market. But if you are looking for tightly targeted commentary on current Chinese politics this is probably the wrong place. I am indulging myself in a more aesthetically roundabout approach to the topics I've always been interested in.

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