BEIJING, January 13, 2012 (City Weekend) — Level up your knowledge of Chinese cuisine with these six cookbooks covering everything from the Cultural Revolution to the best wines to pair with an Asian-style meal.
The Regional
Rhyme-time brother and sister duo Mary Kate and Nate Tate ate their way through—and blogged—over 9,700 miles of nine regions in China, including Inner Mongolia and Tibet. The result—part travelogue, part cookbook—is loaded with recipes for favorites like Coca-Cola Chicken Wings that you can’t find anywhere else. Feeding the Dragon: A Culinary Travelogue Through China with Recipes, Mary Kate and Nate Tate, Andrew McMeel Publishing, US$24.99
The Cultural
When Sasha Gong was sent to a small village in Hubei province at the age of 9, she—and thousands like her during the Cultural Revolution—learned a lot about not just how to cook, but how to cook well making do with limited ingredients and using only things grown locally. Gong teamed up with old-China-hand Scott D. Seligman to create a cookbook full of luscious homestyle dishes alongside history lessons, culture points and socialist realist art. The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, Sasha Gong, Scott D. Seligman, Earnshaw Books, US$24.95
The Autobiographical
A cookbook via memoir, or maybe memoir via cookbook, A Tiger in the Kitchen is Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan’s story of leaving Singapore at 18 and eventually moving to New York to work as a fashion writer. But she started to feel like her native Chinese-Singaporean cuisine was calling her home, and finally she returned. As she learned to cook her favorite childhood dishes (10 recipes are included in the cookbook), she simultaneously uncovered long-kept family secrets. A Tiger in the Kitchen, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Voice, US$14.99
The Easy
Bee Yinn Low grew up in a Chinese household in Malaysia, helping her mother prepare “steamy and fragrant” Chinese meals. While working as a business executive in the U.S., she realized she had little time to prepare these meals and felt constrained by the lack of traditional ingredients found in American supermarkets. She has managed, though, to find substitutions and work-arounds for hard-to-find items and shares these secrets, as well as loads of recipes, in her book. Easy Chinese Recipes: Family Favorites from Dim Sum to Kung Pao, Bee Yinn Low, Tuttle Publishing, US$24.95
The Everyday
Readers may recognize Ching-he Huang from her popular cooking shows on both British and American TV. Her book guides readers in preparing 100 “fresh, simple, delicious, and satisfying” Chinese dishes, including Western-style takeout favorites. With claims that her dishes are healthier and cheaper than ordering in, at-home cooks can replace their Chinese take-home menus with this book. Ching’s Everyday Easy Chinese: More Than 100 Quick & Healthy Chinese Recipes, Ching-he Huang, William Morrow Cookbooks, $27.50
The Vintage
While not technically a cookbook, this makes a great accompaniment to studying Chinese cuisine. Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee’s book is a guide to pairing wines with Southeast Asian dishes. It adds Asian terms to the oenophile lexicon, which are listed alongside their Western counterparts. Mastering Wine for the Asian Palate, Jeannie Cho Lee, Asset Publishing and Research Limited, $77.00
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