Follow the Pasta Trail Around the Globe in 'On the Noodle Road'

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Carolyn Kellogg, Follow the Pasta Trail Around the Globe in 'On the Noodle Road;'  In 'On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome With Love and Pasta,' Jen Lin-Liu looks into pasta's rambling past.
http://www.latimes.com/features/ ... oodle-road-20130721,0,791910.story

Note:
(a) Jen Lin-Liu, 'On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome With Love and Pasta. Penguin, July 25, 2013.
(b) Jen LIN-LIU  林留 清怡  
http://jenlinliu.com/blog/
(i) She is founder of Black Sesame Kitchen, a Beijing cooking school

黑芝麻厨艺馆
http://www.blacksesamekitchen.com/
(ii) Her husband is Craig Simons.
(iii) 作者：林留清怡/ 譯者：韓良憶, 味人民服務：從小麵攤到五星級餐館的奇妙歷程. 樂果文化 (Taipei), 2010 (translated from Jen Lin-Liu, Serve the People; A stir-fried journey through China, Harcourt, 2008)
http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010476124
(“她的父母從台灣移民至美國 * * * 父親是臺灣人，母親是廣西的外省人，小時候常回臺灣，感覺到母親的故鄉是個「禁忌」。後來長大了，中國也開放了，就想去中國看看。首次到中國是在她大一的時候”)

(c) “it was probably cooked up by a 1920s Don Draper — it's just not true”

Don Draper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Draper
(a fictional character of AMC's television series Mad Men)
(d) “Beginning in Beijing, she ate her way across China to Urumqi, Lop and Kashgar”

Lop Desert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lop_Desert
(e) “This is the Iranian stew fesenjun”

Fesenjān
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fesenj%C4%81n

Please click External links 2 and 3 to see what the dish looks like (No 1 might be infested with virus).
(f) “A good story needs a villain, and Lin-Liu has * * * a Central Asian rice dish called plov. She finds plov tedious and unappetizing; unfortunately, it is traditionally served to guests, so she must eat it again and again and again, an exasperation she plays for laughs. Iran is more problematic; she approaches it with a keyed-up fear that seems amplified to provide a strong contrast with the reception she gets from the people she meets — universally warm and open.
(i) For plov, see pilaf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilaf
(a stamp with a caption: “Plov on Azerbaijani postage stamp;”  a photo with a caption: “Uzbek plov being prepared in a kazan in a Tashkent home”)
(ii) keyed-up (adj): “excited or nervous”
Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... an-english/keyed-up

(g) “cheese industry of Emilia-Romagna”

Emilia-Romagna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia-Romagna
(comprising the former regions of Emilia and Romagna; Its capital is Bologna)