Asian Books

Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China

Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A bold and eye-opening new cookbook with magnificent photos and unforgettable stories.

In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai. But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppelands of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. The peoples who live in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions. In Beyond the Great Wall, the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid—who first met as young travelers in Tibet—bring home the enticing flavors of this other China.

For more than twenty-five years, both separately and together, Duguid and Alford have journeyed all over the outlying regions of China, sampling local home cooking and street food, making friends and taking lustrous photographs. Beyond the Great Wall shares the experience in a rich mosaic of recipes—from Central Asian cumin-scented kebabs and flatbreads to Tibetan stews and Mongolian hot pots—photos, and stories. A must-have for every food lover, and an inspiration for cooks and armchair travelers alike.

Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

Fuchsia Dunlop

Amazon Price: $19.80 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $14.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Elizabeth David had it easy. All she had to do was eat her way through France and Italy and translate the essence of the encountered cuisines for a ravenous, literate, English-speaking public. Fuschia Dunlop, on the other hand, went to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan in China, where she ended up the first foreign student enrolled at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. That was nearly 10 years ago. After annual return visits and endless research she has produced, in English, a magnificent introduction to the food and foodways of Sichuan. She is in every way the dharma inheritor of Elizabeth David.

You too may start to salivate halfway through the introduction to Dunlop's magnificent Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. Perhaps it begins when she explains xian, "one of the most beautiful words in the Chinese culinary language." It describes an entire range of flavor and sensation, "the indefinable, delicious taste of fresh meat, poultry, and seafood, the scrumptious flavors of a pure chicken soup..." Before you know it you are running headlong into a world of 23 distinct flavors and 56 cooking methods (they are all listed at the end of the book). Sichuan is the place where "barbarian peppers" met up with a natural cornucopia and a literary cooking tradition stretching back to the fifth century A.D. Innovation with cooking technique and new and challenging ingredients remains a hallmark of Sichuan. After describing basic cutting skills and cooking techniques, Dunlop presents her recipes in chapters that include "Noodles, Dumplings, and Other Street Treats"; "Appetizers"; "Meat"; "Poultry"; "Fish"; "Vegetables and Bean Curd"; "Stocks and Soup"; "Sweet Dishes"; and "Hotpot." Yes, you will find Gong Bao (Kung Pao) Chicken with Peanuts--Gong Bao Ji Ding. It's named after a late 19th-century governor of Sichuan, Ding Baozhen, which brought on the wrath of the Cultural Revolution for its imperial associations. Until rehabilitation, the dish was called "fast-fried chicken cubes" or "chicken cubes with seared chilies."

Land of Plenty is literary food writing at its best, as well as a marvelous invitation to new skills and flavors for the home cook. Read it. Cook it. Eat it. And take pleasure in the emerging career of Fuschia Dunlop, a big new voice in the world of food. --Schuyler Ingle

Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go

Naomi Kijima

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent Bento Lunches 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is both an excellent introduction to bento lunches and a great inspiration for experienced cooks packing bentos for their loved ones. I have made nearly every recipe in this book and I have not been disappointed. Each recipe is made in a small quantity and most can be made in under 30 minutes, making this an excellent cookbook for small households (1-2 people). I have also increased the quantities to adapt the recipes for dinner. There are pictures to accompany each recipe, but for the beginner it might be worthwhile to pick up an additional guide to Japanese cooking. As with anything it might take some experimentation to adjust the recipes to your liking.

I've been running a bento blog for going on 2 years and found the best way to learn about bento is to search web for Japanese bento blogs. Type the word "bento" in hiragana or try photo sites. This book is an excellent accompaniment to that sort of research because it enables you to identify what many of the items are and provides you with a recipe.

My only complaint is the book should have been spiral bound and laminated. My copy is in pretty bad shape from being used so much.

Editorial Review:

This book offers an elegant way to enjoy delicious, healthy food on the run. Includes more than 40 main dish recipes and step-by-step illustrations.

5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices

Ruta Kahate

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chronicle Books Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $10.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great, simple Indian recipes anyone can make 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is great for anyone who wants to learn to cook some great Indian dishes. It has easy instructions, great pictures, and the food comes out amazing every time. I have reccomended this book to friends and family, and I would reccomend it to anyone with any interest in Indian cuisine.

Editorial Review:

The premise is simple: with five common spices and a few basic ingredients, home cooks can create fifty mouthwatering Indian dishes, as diverse as they are delicious. Cooking teacher Ruta Kahate has chosen easy-to-find spices coriander, cumin, mustard, cayenne pepper, and turmeric to create authentic, accessible Indian dishes everyone will love. Roasted Lamb with Burnt Onions uses just two spices and three steps resulting in a meltingly tender roast. Steamed Cauliflower with a Spicy Tomato Sauce and Curried Mushrooms and Peas share the same three spices, but each tastes completely different. Suggested menus offer inspiration for entire Indian dinners. For quick and easy Indian meals, keep it simple with 5 Spices, 50 Dishes.

Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China

Jen Lin-Liu

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harcourt Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $11.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

As a freelance journalist and food writer living in Beijing, Jen Lin-Liu already had a ringside seat for China’s exploding food scene. When she decided to enroll in a local cooking school—held in an unheated classroom with nary a measuring cup in sight—she jumped into the ring herself. In Serve the People, Lin-Liu gives a memorable and mouthwatering cook’s tour of today’s China as she progresses from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant. The characters she meets along the way include poor young men and women streaming in from the provinces in search of a “rice bowl” (living wage), a burgeoning urban middle class hungry for luxury after decades of turmoil and privation, and the mentors who take her in hand in the kitchen and beyond. Together they present an unforgettable slice of contemporary China in the full swing of social and economic transformation.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

Jennifer 8 Lee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fascinating book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I found this book really fascinating. I'm really intrigued by food history, and Lee made me think alot about so-called "authentic" food. I recommend this book, and have already to my friends and family.
Joan

Good, could have been a bit better 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As others have said, Ms. Lee writes very well, and most of this was really interesting. But she has a total blind spot about fortune cookies, and for me, there was WAY too much stuff about trying to research exactly who invented them. When I realized that I was starting a THIRD chapter on this same subject -- which she'd already covered exhaustively in two previous chapters -- I groaned inwardly and just skipped to the next chapter. OK, we get it: fortune cookies are not Chinese, any more than General Tso's chicken or chop suey. Except for this one flaw, the book was a lot of fun.

Editorial Review:

If you think McDonald's is the most ubiquitous restaurant experience in America, consider that there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendys combined. New York Times reporter and Chinese-American (or American-born Chinese). In her search, Jennifer 8 Lee traces the history of Chinese-American experience through the lens of the food. In a compelling blend of sociology and history, Jenny Lee exposes the indentured servitude Chinese restaurants expect from illegal immigrant chefs, investigates the relationship between Jews and Chinese food, and weaves a personal narrative about her own relationship with Chinese food. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles speaks to the immigrant experience as a whole, and the way it has shaped our country.

Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China

Fuchsia Dunlop

Amazon Price: $14.52 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $14.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new memoir by the most talented and respected British food writer of her generation.

Award-winning food writer Fuchsia Dunlop went to live in China as a student in 1994, and from the very beginning she vowed to eat everything she was offered, no matter how alien and bizarre it seemed. In this extraordinary memoir, Fuchsia recalls her evolving relationship with China and its food, from her first rapturous encounter with the delicious cuisine of Sichuan Province to brushes with corruption, environmental degradation, and greed. In the course of her fascinating journey, Fuchsia undergoes an apprenticeship at China's premier Sichuan cooking school, where she is the only foreign student in a class of nearly fifty young Chinese men; attempts, hilariously, to persuade Chinese people that "Western food" is neither "simple" nor "bland"; and samples a multitude of exotic ingredients, including sea cucumber, civet cat, scorpion, rabbit-heads, and the ovarian fat of the snow frog. But is it possible for a Westerner to become a true convert to the Chinese way of eating? In an encounter with a caterpillar in an Oxford kitchen, Fuchsia is forced to put this to the test.

From the vibrant markets of Sichuan to the bleached landscape of northern Gansu Province, from the desert oases of Xinjiang to the enchanting old city of Yangzhou, this unique and evocative account of Chinese culinary culture is set to become the most talked-about travel narrative of the year.

Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking

Masaharu Morimoto

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Morimoto's cooking has distinctive Japanese roots, yet it's actually, as the chef calls it, "global cooking for the 21st century." Morimoto's unique cuisine is characterized by beautiful Japanese color combinations and aromas, while the preparation infuses multicultural influences such as traditional Chinese spices and simple Italian ingredients, presented in a refined French style. Bringing all these elements home, with helpful step-by-step instructions and gorgeous photography, this accessible book explains Chef Morimoto's cooking techniques and plating philosophies and brings Japanese cooking to your own home. AUTHOR BIO: Chef Morimoto has been the Japanese iron chef on the Food Network's weekly show, "Iron Chef," and its spinoff "Iron Chef America," since 1999. The show airs in the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, and Hong Kong. Formerly the Executive Chef of the Sony Club and Nobu, Chef Morimoto now has his own restaurants in New York, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and Mumbai, and also created his own brand of sake and beer.

The Manga Cookbook

The Manga University Culinary Institute, Chihiro Hattori

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

cute basic cook book 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is a decent beginner's cookbook. It would be great for children or teenagers who want to learn how to cook. The photos in the beginning are fine, but it's a bit disorganized because of the lack of photos throughout the book especially for different recipes.

Editorial Review:

Reading manga sure can make a person hungry! Food appears frequently in Japanese comics, but what exactly is it that the characters are eating? Introducing The Manga Cookbook, an illustrated step-by-step guide to preparing simple Japanese dishes using ingredients found in every Western kitchen. Learn to identify and make the same things you see in all your favorite manga: authentic onigiri (rice balls), yakitori (skewered chicken), oshinko (pickled vegetables), udon (Japanese noodles), okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pizza) and many others! Includes sections on how to assemble bento boxed lunches and properly use chopsticks. Features original manga illustrations by Chihiro Hattori. Soon, you too can enjoy a meal fit for a manga character!

Discovering Korean Cuisine: Recipes from the Best Korean Restaurants in Los Angeles

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dream Character, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $12.19

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A step-by-step guide to re-creating healthy, delicious, Korean-style dinners, this book unlocks the mysteries behind these delicacies in an approachable, illuminating manner. Featuring contributions from 12 of Los Angeles’ most prominent Korean restaurants, this cookbook includes recipes ranging from mainstays such as kimchi, bulgogi (marinated beef), mu-saengchae (spicy Korean radish), and bossam (boiled pork) to specialty dishes such as jjim-dak (vegetable chicken stew), hobak-juk (squash porridge), and jjam-bong (spicy noodle soup with seafood). Besides the typical listing of ingredients and instructions, each recipe contains a progression of photographs illustrating various stages of preparation along with the completed dish. A handy introductory section visually identifies common ingredients and details how to complete the basics—cleaning, peeling, dicing, slicing, shredding, and preparing broths and rice. Those inspired to visit the restaurants themselves will find contact information and a map of their locations in the back of the book.