Brief Review of Kosher Chinese

This is the story of a vegetarian Jewish man from the Upper West Side of Manhattan and his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in the interior of China.

Michael Levy, author of Kosher Chinese, and whose story this is, had been a kosher vegetarian, and when he went to China to teach English and was confronted with a bowl of deep fried millipedes at his welcome dinner, broke the cultural training instilled by the Peace Corps and said, "I cannot eat this." The 30 or so people, including a Communist part official, who had gathered in his honor gasped and turned stone silent. After a long pause and deep silence, Levy again spoke and said "Because I'm Jewish." Finally, the silence was broken when someone said, "Comrade Marx was a Jew," and "Einstein too." This was how Levy became known as the Friendship Jew. What follows in this cleverly written book is Levy's account of living in the interior of China, the part of China not covered by the modern news media, and how he learns to live using squat toilets, adapting to foods, and even confronting his moral dilemma and eating dog. This book is entertaining, thought provoking, and well worth reading! I give this 5 stars out of 5.