Sun Wukong at the table

The classic Chinese meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert: it is organized around fàn (主食), the grain base—rice, millet, wheat flatbread or porridge—around which revolve the cài (菜), small dishes of vegetables, mushrooms or ferments that season the grain, accompanied by a soup, tea or libation alcohol. Above this earthly table hovers the Pántáo huì (蟠桃會), the legendary Peach Banquet of Immortality of the Queen Mother of the West, where peaches of longevity and jade wine are served to the Immortals—the very feast that Sun Wukong ransacked. These recipes thus range from the humble monk's bowl to the dazzling dish of Heaven.

A small golden flower with an apricot and honey scent, osmanthus is the celestial aromatic par excellence: Chinese tradition places an osmanthus tree on the Moon, and its fragrance evokes the immortality that Sun Wukong stole from Heaven. Dried, it perfumes syrups, rice wines and confections with a sweet, floral breath—a fragrant thread between the table of men and that of the gods.