Snake Fang Salad: Culinary Travails in China

Snake Fang Salad is China sour and sweet, pungent and sublime - through the grass-roots gaze of travel photographer Greg Elms. On assignment to capture one of the world's oldest culinary traditions in a bunch of images, he discovers oriental cuisine is not as easily framed as he'd like, and conundrums are served with every meal. From scorpion tails in Beijing to snake restaurants in Guangzhou, from the chilli-laden blowtorch heat of a Chongqing hot pot to a search for the elusive purple carrot in Xi'an, here is a story as bizarre as it is real, a contemporary picture of a nation increasingly intrinsic to Western life. Greg Elms is one of Australia's leading food and travel photographers. For 15 years he's travelled and photographed Australia and the world for Lonely Planet, Gourmet Traveller, Travel + Leisure, Good Weekend, National Geographic Adventure and Qantas magazine.