Chow-chow

When addressing a workshop about exchanges with Chinese universities, Roger Greatrex, professor of Chinese at Lund University, Sweden, stressed the importance of making sure Chinese academics had access to the kind of food they liked.

There was some unsympathetic chortling at this faddiness, whereupon Professor Greatrex pointed out that in Mongolia, boiled unsalted mutton was the dish of the day, every day.

"Would you do good research on that?" he demanded.