Some carved stone pieces from China

[Kent Wang]

These two are held at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

Photo by peellden.

From Wikipedia:

"The "Jade Cabbage", a piece of jade carved into the shape of a head of cabbage, with an insect attached. The fame attached to this piece is due to the masterful utilisation of natural colour variations in the jade to recreate colour variations in the cabbage."

Photo by Asiir.

From Wikipedia:

"The "meat-shaped stone", a piece of agate, the strata of which are cleverly used to create a likeness of a piece of pork cooked in soy sauce."

I think both of these pieces reveal much about the place food has in Chinese culture. Can you imagine seeing anything like this in ancient Greek or Egyptian art?

[Domestic Goddess]

I don't know about you guys, but my mouth started watering at the sight of that stone pork chunk. Yum!

[hathor]

Wow. I always meant to get to that museum when I used to work in

Taiwan, but I never found the time. Stupid me.

I bet the Italians have some similar homages...I've often thought about the similarities between the Chinese and the Italians, in regards to food.