Foreword: Food for thought / Sidney W. Mintz -- Introduction: The globalization of Chinese food and cuisine: markers and breakers of cultural barriers / David Y.H. Wu and Sidney C.H. Cheung -- Food culture and overseas trade: the trepang trade between China and Southeast Asia during the Qing Dynasty / Dai Yifeng -- Sacred food from the ancestors: edible bird nest harvesting among the Idahan / Mohamed Yusoff Ismail -- Improvising Chinese cuisine overseas / David Y.H. Wu -- The development of ethnic cuisine in Beijing: on the Xinjiang Road / Zhuang Kongshao -- Cantonese cuisine (Yue-cai) in Taiwan and Taiwanese cuisine (Tai-cai) in Hong Kong / David Y.H. Wu -- Food and cuisine in a changing society: Hong Kong / Sidney C.H. Cheung -- Food consumption, food perception and the search for a Macanese identity / Louis Augustin-Jean -- Heunggongyan forever: immigrant life and Hong Kong style yumcha in Australia / Siumi Maria Tam -- Chinese dietary culture in Indonesian urban society / Mely G. Tan -- The invention of delicacy: Cantonese food in Yokohoma Chinatown / Sidney C.H. Cheung -- Chinese food in the Philippines: indigenization and transformation / Doreen G. Fernandez