14th century banquets, British Empire influences on Asian food practices, ancient Indus foods, Jesuit tastes, Indian cheeses, pickles, Nyonya cooking and plenty of sweet things in China and Japan : this conference will give you a great taste of what modern scholars are working on in the field of Asian food.

Shared Taste Conference:
The Shared Taste Conference takes place on June 28, June 29 and June 30 and features scholars working across relevant disciplines to present papers on the Eurasian movement of crops, foodstuffs and food practices, and the role of food in the exchange between Asia and Europe.

Keynote and opening of conference on June 28 by eminent French food historian Françoise Sabban (Paris); special featured speaker on June 29 is Asian food scholar Cecilia Leong-Salobir (Wollongong).

Registration now open:
Please register for the conference through this link: register for the Shared Taste Conference
You can attend all 3 days, or pick your programme. Your ticket includes tea and coffee at the conference venue (Thu, Fri, Sat) and buffet lunch (Thu, Fri). There is a limited amount of discount tickets for students.

Shared Taste Conference dates:

• Thursday June 28, 12:00-18:00 hrs
• Friday June 29, 9:30-18:00 hrs
• Saturday June 30, 9:30-12:00 hrs

Venue: Leiden University, PJ Veth building (Nonnensteeg 1-3, Leiden, entrance through Academy Building gate) room 1.01 [central staircase]

Shared Taste conference full programme: [PDF]
Shared Taste conference abstracts: [PDF]

Thursday June 28 **

11:30-13:00 coffee, registration, lunch

13:00 KEYNOTE : Françoise SABBAN. Cooking in the spirit of the times in Eurasia – Special shared tastes of the medieval aristocratic haute cuisine in Europe and China

• 14:00 Anil PARALKAR. Transculturality in a Pickle Jar:
The Globalization of Achar-Recipes in the Early Modern Period
• 14:30 Charisma LEPCHA. The introduction, production and consumption of mild and hard cheese in Kalimpong
• 15:00 Mareike PAMPUS. Captains, Cooks and Curries: Maritime Connections in Penang’s Nyonya Cuisine

15:30-16:00 tea, coffee break

• 16:00 ZHAO Mengxi. Fed by Books: The Circulation of Botanical Manuals for Famine Foods in East Asia and Europe, c.1500-1900
• 16:30 Vitalija Povilaityte-PETRI. Sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.) as food and herbal medicine in Lithuania
• 17:00 ZHENG Nan. Sweet potato: Introduction, Cultivation and Influence in China

17:30 end of day 1

Friday June 29 **

9:00-10:00 coffee and registration

10:00 Cecilia LEONG-SALOBIR. A Taste of Three Cities: Historical sketches of British Empire influences on the food practices of 20th century Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore

• 11:00 Mukta DAS. The best laid plans (and tables)… Lusophone food and festivals in postcolonial Macau
• 11:30 Grazia Ting DENG. The Reproduction of Local Taste: Chinese Baristas in the Italian Coffee Bars
• 12:00 TAKENAKA Ayumi. From Sashimi to Tiradito: the Emergence of Nikkei Food in Europe

12:30-14:00 lunch break

• 14:00 ZHOU Hongcheng. Chinese Food knowledge through the Westerners in the Middle of the 17th century
• 14:30 Piotr GIBAS. Food for the Jesuits: Western Diet in China before 1911
• 15:00 XU Guanmian (Victor). The Confusion of Sweetness: (Re-)Knowing Sugar in Early Modern China, 1500s-1630s

15:30-16:00 tea, coffee break

• 16:00 Uttam LAL. Mobility of Sugar and Salt across Himalayan Borderlands
• 16:30 Hui-ying KERR. Sweet Treats and Foreign Foods: Hanako Magazine and the internationalised women of the Japanese bubble economy
• 17:00 NALIVAYKO Oxana. Confectionary Dō: Tracing the history of sweets in Japan

17:30 end of day 2

Saturday June 30 **

9:30 Saturday morning coffee

• 10:00 Sussan BABAIE. Persian Cookery-Chinese rice: new ‘tastes’ in early modern Iran
• 10:30 Aleksandar SHOPOV. The Migration of Rice, People and Taste across the Dardanelles, 1400-1600
• 11:30 Jennifer BATES. Cultural Unifier, Local Staple or Exotic Luxury? Food as material culture in the Indus Civilisation, South Asia (c. 3200-1500 BC)
• 11:00 Akshyeta SURYANARAYAN. What’s cooking in the Indus Civilisation?

12:00 wrapping up 12:30 end of day 3, end of conference

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This symposium is organised by the Shared Taste project at Leiden University, generously funded by the Kikkoman Foundation

• Image credit: “Foreigners from the Five Nations Enjoying a Banquet”. Triptych of polychrome woodblock prints; ink and color on paper. Utagawa Yoshikazu, 1861 Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of William S. Lieberman, 2005