Luscious lectures

In September 2013, UC Davis launched the Confucius Institute, dedicated to “promoting the understanding of Chinese culture, especially Chinese food and beverage culture.” Now that its first academic year is nearing its end, the department is hitting its stride with a whole buffet of events: At noon on Tuesday, May 20, the school will host a lecture titled “What Makes Chinese Food So Delicious?” Happening at the UC Davis Student Community Center, Meeting Room D, the discussion will center on classifying Chinese cuisine and the five-flavor theory of Chinese cooking. Then at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, UC Riverside professor of anthropology E.N. Anderson will visit the Mondavi Center to deliver a lecture titled “Origins of Chinese Food: Neolithic Innovations and Early Dynasties.” It'll cover Chinese food's “thousands of years of development,” according to the Confucius Institute's website (http://confucius.ucdavis.edu; read about more programs and events there, too). UC Davis is located at 1 Shields Avenue in Davis.