Exquisite recipes from Shanghai and the Lower Yangtze region, by internationally renowned Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop
The Lower Yangtze region or Jiangnan, with its modern capital Shanghai, has been known since ancient times as a 'Land of Fish and Rice'. For centuries, local cooks have been using the plentiful produce of its lakes, rivers, fields and mountains, combined with delicious seasonings and flavours such as rice vinegar, rich soy sauce, spring onion and ginger, to create a cuisine that is renowned in China for its delicacy and beauty.
Drawing on years of study and exploration, Fuchsia Dunlop explains basic cooking techniques, typical cooking methods and the principal ingredients of the Jiangnan larder. Her recipes are a mixture of simple rustic cooking and rich delicacies - some are famous, some unsung. You'll be inspired to try classic dishes such as Beggar's chicken and sumptuous Dongpo pork.
Most of the recipes contain readily available ingredients and with Fuchsia's clear guidance, you will soon see how simple it is to create some of the most beautiful and delicious dishes you'll ever taste. With evocative writing and mouth-watering photography, this is an important new work about one of China's most fascinating culinary regions.
About the Author
Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, and has been travelling around China and collecting recipes for more than two decades. She has written for publications including the Financial Times, Saveur, the New Yorker and the Observer, and has appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word and The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4. Her previous books include the award-winning Sichuan Cookery, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking and Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China. She speaks, reads and writes Chinese, and she lives in East London.
Industry Reviews
2016 Cookbook of the Year * Guild of Food Writers *
2016 Food Book Award * Andre Simon *
Fuchsia Dunlop reveals China's best-kept food secrets in a magnificent new book about Jiangnan's culinary heritage * Observer *
Dunlop shares everything she has learnt about this rich culinary landscape, with recipes which are eminently doable at home * Telegraph Magazine *
Through gifted storytelling and stunning photographs, Fuchsia Dunlop highlights a rich tradition of seasonality and sustainability * Alice Waters *
Authoritative and absorbing, full of insight, enticing recipes, and infectious delight in the pleasures of the table * Harold McGee *
Amid the constant tsunami of cookery books, a new one by the Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop is always worth looking out for * Jay Rayner, Observer *
When Dunlop writes a recipe it is done in the spirit of generosity rather than of showing off. There is a startling purity to these recipes * Literary Review *
Eloquently but simply captures the rich cuisine of a region unfamiliar to most Westerners * Cecilia Chiang *
Every time I think I've finally started to get Chinese cuisine, Fuchsia seems to come around and point me towards a little door that opens up onto a whole new world of flavors and techniques * J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, author of The Food Lab *
We judge a cookbook's quality on the amount of food stains we've flung on it over the years. The filthier, the better. This one'll become a Pollock-esque masterpiece of soy-sauce, sweet chilli and dried-on rice in a matter of weeks. Everything in it sounds delicious * Mr Hyde *
Fuchsia Dunlop is an authority on China's cuisine. There's information on the local history, ingredients and approach to food, and the recipes are deceptively easy to make * Delicious *
Britain's greatest expert on Chinese cooking celebrates the Jiangnan region. These are foolproof dishes, but by virtue of the novelty of the region and flavour combinations, they remain exciting. As ever, with Dunlop, the book is an introduction to a whole new world. Dunlop fans need not worry, this book will not disappoint. And it will win her many more * Waitrose Weekend *
