A great feast for the American people, involving special Shanxi food, opened in New York City on April 30 and will run through May 9, as the first Shanxi province event of its kind abroad, in two parts: "China Shanxi food festival in New York" and "China Shanxi Food Festival in UN".

The first of the two involves Shanxi cooking and a noodle performance, April 30 - May 2, at Manhattan's China Sun Restaurant, a Sino-US cuisine industry seminar, on May 4, in Flushing; and a Shanxi food affair at New York University, on May 8.

The second comes with a "Shanxi Food Exhibition", May 5-9, at UN headquarters in Manhattan, with 16 noodle-cooking chefs, selected from the province's 520,000 catering workers spread across 60,000 restaurants.

Sponsors of the event are the China Cuisine Association and Shanxi Cuisine Industrial Association, with support from the provincial commercial bureau.

Sun Yuejin, head of the provincial commerce bureau, said that this exhibition will help Shanxi food find its way to the world and is a good way to promote its cuisine and particular Shanxi characteristics and give the province a more international image.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw