Recipes and Modern Stories from a Thousand-Year-Old Tradition: A Cookbook
Starred review from July 4, 2022
Honoring a Chinese cuisine that dates back to the Xia dynasty in 2070–1600 BCE, Che, creator of the Plant-Based Wok blog, serves up an invigorating collection of recipes that put a plant-based spin on the dishes of her heritage. The Chinese word for vegetarian, su, connotes foods that are “simple, quiet and plainly unadorned,” exemplified here by delectable dishes like blanched lettuce in a delicate ginger-soy sauce, stir-fried lotus root, and cucumber salad heated with chili oil and garlic. Separate chapters on tofu and tofu skin (with maker profiles) recast bean curd as a worthy ingredient dished out in many forms, from dried sticks to deep-fried. Che delves into the tradition of tofu as “mock meat” (as in tofu-skin “roast goose” rolls) with a historical long view that casts it as playful rather than ascetic. Meanwhile, an informative chapter on gluten, “the ‘muscle’ of wheat,” touts the ingredient’s strengths (including its “meaty texture and ability to absorb flavor”) and offers instructions for making it from scratch. “Dessert doesn’t really exist in Chinese food,” Che explains, but a few sweet soups conclude a chapter on congee. Family photos interspersed with glamour shots of food feel right in a book whose style so perfectly aligns with its winning subject.