Land Of Plenty (Hardcover)

I believe it is common knowledge among foodies that there is a big difference between Sechuan and Cantonese cuisine, and that the former is characterized by very spicy foods. Viewing a few episodes with the Iron Chef Chinese will fill you on this. What this book covers is to characterize with great clarity and thoroughness what Sichuan cooking is all about.

The first impression I get is that Sichuan cooking is very highly codified, almost on the same level as French cuisine. This immediately reveals to the reader that, for example, there are easily a half dozen different types of stir fry cooking within Sichuan cuisine alone. It also means that the Sichuan doctrines on taste match or exceed Western culinary tradition. They have, for example, the concept of 'xian' which describes the 'indefinable, delicious taste of fresh meat, poultry, and seafood'. This is in addition to the real magic the cuisine does with the more familiar sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The author effectively captures and communicates the importance of these tastes in Sichuan cuisine to the reader, including experiments so one can experience these tastes first hand.

The second impression I get is that chilis, that is, plants of the genus capsicum from the new world, had as big an impact on Sichuan cuisine as the tomato had on Italian cuisine, at roughly the same time in history. Before new world chilis arrived, the heat in this cuisine came primarily from a local red pepper, a berry similar to our familiar black pepper. In the seventeenth century, the genus capsicum really took over. Yet, the cuisine is not as fiery hot as one may find in Mexico or the Caribbean. The peppers most commonly used are just moderately hot and the author constantly warns against substituting Thai chili peppers for the Sichuan peppers, as the result would be painful.

Following Ms. Wolfert and Ms. Kennedy, the author has successfully translated the Chinese techniques for English speaking readers. However, one would not be able to fully appreciate or execute these recipes without some basic ingredients and equipment. I really believe that one would loose something in these recipes if one did not have a round bottom wok and it's tools. Fortunately, even very good Chinese woks are very inexpensive, especially at restaurant supply stores. For those with electric ranges, a flat bottomed wok may be a reasonable approximation. I would also recommend that one make the effort to get the authentic canned and bottled ingredients. Substitutions, even from other Asian cuisines may give very misleading results. For the non-foodie recipe hunter, I recommend the chicken recipes and the vegetable recipes. The Kung Pao recipe is worth the price of admission and one always needs a way to make veggies more interesting. (I was surprised when the grean bean recipes used the French haricort vert and not the long Asian grean bean.)

If Ms. Dunlap is not presenting authentic recipes, she has done a very good job of fooling me. She has also succeeded in keeping me thoroughly entertained with her headnotes and stories about how she came across the various dishes. The only heads up I would give you, dear reader, about the recipes is that sometimes important information about the recipe is given in the headnote, which people in a hurry may not read. Otherwise, this is a first class job of recipe writing.

The photographs are gathered in color sections and are of reasonable, but not extraordinary quality. The introductory background on Sichuan cuisine and appendices are superb.