All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China [A Cookbook]

I bought this for my wife as she was struggling to follow her mom's instructions on "add a little bit of this and a little bit of that" recipes, and recipes online were sparse even when searching in Chinese. She has noted that the taste on several are very accurate to what she grew up with in China, and they are sufficiently well explained that you don't have to take a leap in trying to understand a new ingredient or technique.This is our go-to cookbook now - equivalent to Joy of Cooking for more Western food. While it doesn't have everything we want, it covers enough basis to satisfy 75% of what we are looking for. If there was a revised version or a follow up version, I would absolutely purchase it!Authentic, easy to understand, very good handling of substitutes for hard to find ingredients.

Sehr umfangreiche Rezeptsammlung

Negli anni l'Occidente ha maturato un'idea distorta della cucina cinese, quella dei ristorantini economici sotto casa: involtini primavera, riso alla cantonese, chop suey e simili, con raviolini, involtini e carni che quasi sempre cadevano dalla busta dei congelati direttamente nella padella o nel wok, serviti poi con salsa di soia scadente e stucchevole agrodolce.Nessuno di questi piatti ha mai avuto una lontana somiglianza con la reale cucina cinese, neppure con la più povera di prodotti o di inventiva; ma anche se il peggio è duro a morire, qualcosa sta cambiando nella percezione occidentale, una sensazione che coincide con la crescita della Cina a superpotenza economica, con l'invasione di prodotti alimentari freschi sui mercati mondiali, con la rinascita dell'impresa ristorativa sullo stesso territorio nazionale cinese, e, non ultimo, con l'interesse e la curiosità sempre maggiore da parte di cuochi, di professionisti o di curiosi appassionati per tutto quello che salta fuori dal Cappello Magico della gastronomia cinese.Il problema maggiore da affrontare è però in ogni caso che la Cina non è uno Stato omogeneo e ben definito, ma un continente vastissimo che assomma al suo interno continenti minori (o se si vuole, un insieme di 35 Grandi Stati, ognuno con localizzazione e caratteristiche agroalimentari assai diverse); da qui ne deriva una varietà da capogiro che difficilmente può essere imbrigliata nelle pagine di un libro.La prima grande appassionata della cucina cinese, la grande Fuchsia Dunlop, iniziò anni fa la sua ricerca dalla provincia dell'Hunan, passando quindi al Sichuan ed ora allo Jangnan ("The Land of Fish and Rice", 2016) offrendoci forse uno dei pochi modi corretti di visitare ricchezza e differenze di questo enorme patrimonio.Ci prova qui Carolyn Phillips con una panoramica unitaria e più rischiosa (perché è inevitabile lasciar fuori molto), ma il librone di 500 pagine che ne vien fuori è assai bello, esteticamente ben fatto e, dal punto di vista tecnico, riuscito alla perfezione. La scelta vincente è stata quella di sacrificare immagini e foto a colori in favore di una grafica pulita, con disegni, cartine geografiche, piatti, passaggi, ecc ecc., tutto in un raffinato tratto nero e rosso, senza farsi mancare nulla del necessario, magari ritirandolo in riquadri laterali e senza sacrificare nulla del testo. Le 35 cucine della Cina vengono quindi raggruppate in 5 grandi regioni (le Terre Aride, il Nord e il Nordest della Manciuria, i Territori Centrali, Yangtze e regioni limitrofe, la Costa Sudest); capitolo finale dedicato alle tecniche di preparazione, più glossario, indice, e tavole di conversioni delle misure.Edizione con copertina rigida, bella e utile la prefazione di Ken Hom (che risulta anche come consulente, insieme a Harold McGee e molti altri), prezzo di acquisto 18€ più o meno; unica nota negativa (ma non dipende dal prodotto) l'imballo, questa volta poco curato da parte di Amazon (per questi libri grandi bisogna trovare un buon sistema per proteggere gli angoli).

This is a vast book. It is almost overwhelming in scope. And some cook book readers will want to disregard this one because it does not have pictures. I think that would be a mistake, especially for cooks who want to delve further into Chinese dishes than what they have already found in general Chinese cooking books. "All Under Heaven" introduces the reader into the intricacies of Chinese food culture regions. It is not an introduction into Chinese cooking.I think this book might be a bit overwhelming for an inexperienced cook; someone unfamiliar with Oriental ingredients. Although, if you glance through the very exemplary "Look Inside" feature on this product page, you will see that many recipes are very approachable, and ingredients readily available from a large well-stocked grocery store. If you are inexperienced, yet very interested in discovering the regional cooking of China, you will be able to tackle these recipes with gumption and determination. While a large oriental grocery store would surely be a great help, it is not mandatory for maybe a third-to-half of the recipes. If you are out in the middle of nowhere, Amazon's vast array of foodstuffs can come to your rescue.While many of the line drawings are beautiful, without even a few full-color photos, the book is a bit difficult to plow through if your intent is to just glance at the recipes and whiling away a peaceful afternoon. This is a serious book, loaded with information, and not suited for light reading.Each region is covered, but no region is really covered in depth. Each region has sub-regions, and there is a sprinkling of recipes for each. For instance, I was hoping to learn more about Hakka dishes. While there were a few recipes, I yearned for more. Hence, I call this book an "introduction" despite its 500+ pages. There is enough information on each area to whet your appetite.I've written quite a few cook book reviews, and I usually include some of my favorite dishes before I wrap it up. Not this time. This book is truly vast in scope, and I don't really have any favorites. I can say that I started with a temporary download of the book from the publisher Ten Speed Press, and today, now that Amazon has it offered for sale, I have purchased my own copy. I can say that the recipes I tried so far produced the predicted results. Now, I want to have the book for my own; to have and hold a hard copy to study it better. It is that kind of book. I bought a hard copy because I think it will be easier to manage than the Kindle version. I want to flip pages back and forth between the recipes, the decent glossary in the back, and the extensive index.Maybe it would give you some insight, if I told you that I now live in a large motor coach, and I do a lot of cooking outdoors. And I am really trying to downsize my cookbook collection, and have gone from over a thousand cook books to a single cabinet-full in the bus. And I still indulged myself with this book.....I am looking forward to really getting to know the recipes in All Under Heaven during the cooler months coming up.*I received a free, temporary download of the ARC of this book from the publishers.

This is a fantastic book and obviously a real labour of love by Ms. Phillips, who not only researched cooking techniques and developed all the recipes, but also drew all of the adorable illustrations. The book is just beautiful to look at. The expansive "techniques" section at the back of the book is invaluable. This book is would be excellent for anyone who has mastered basic Chinese cooking but wants to branch out, or someone with familiarity in one region's dishes but not those of others, or someone who is a beginner to Chinese cooking but not to Chinese eating. I haven't seen better English-language descriptions for how to make flaky (I mean, really flaky) scallion breads or Shaobing. I can't believe I've successfully made Chinese puff-pastry! I can't believe I made a savoury egg custard, and then cut it into cubes and DEEP FRIED it! I can't believe I smoked a whole chicken in a wok!