The difficulty in collecting the elusive fungus meant an eye-watering price on the menu. As well as its fantastic taste, the filmmakers probably quite rightly considered the livelihood of the collectors when they highlighted that particular delicacy.
But it still had an unexpected fallout: So many people (the rich, of course) were alerted to it, that demand shot up and the fragile ecosystem where it grows is now threatened.
In Season 2, which has just ended, the show switched its focus to items more affordable to everyone. No longer were rare delicacies the main attraction, and so maybe gastronomic enthusiasm has been dampened slightly.
For many, curiosity remains the main driving force behind high-end Chinese cuisine.
Some seek out rare plants and animals in the name of gaining better health benefits, or delectability.
But I challenge that.
I have been enticed to try a few such rare delicacies in my time, and the truth be told, they are often not as delicious as billed.
On a trip to Hainan, one fish I was sold for 10 times the price of a regular one was not half as tasty as the lesser option.
No, it is the inaccessibility that raises the perceived value of some items.
The thought of eating items only a few can afford is the reason why some species are endangered.
In that sense, the makers of A Bite of China have been right to steer away from those rare edibles that represent status symbols in high society.
But maybe the biggest upside of the series is the awakening of love among a wider swath of the Chinese public, simply for the food they consume on a daily basis.
It is not every day that people treat what they eat as part of their culture. But it could certainly be argued that Chinese food is the only part of Chinese tradition that has deeply touched almost every other culture around the globe.
In the US, for instance, even small towns with no Chinese inhabitants have Chinese restaurants.
Chinese food is known to be delicious and affordable－maybe not exactly Michelin-caliber－and for those places which do have a Chinese community, the restaurant can act as a lifeline of many who settle there.
However, for a long time, some have harbored the elitist view that food is somehow low on the list of a country's cultural markers.
In the 1980s, I joined a group of Chinese dignitaries on a tour of North America.
They dined out in so many Chinese restaurants (they were not yet accustomed to Western food, not even fast food) that some feared that many Americans might simply consider Chinese food was all China had to offer.
That offended many Chinese-Americans, who made a good living as restaurateurs. But after watching this show, surely nobody would now dare make such a flippant remark.
Today, people are so genuinely proud of Chinese food that some have moved to the other end of the scale, believing in the superiority of what they eat, to the exclusion of everything else.
In an era of little mobility, people ate what they grew, with almost no chance of tasting things from afar.
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