Beyond the Great Wall Wrap-Up

m-c:

So the first thing I want to know is whether you were able to conquer your feeling of intimidation because the book was so pretty and so big.

mb:

To be completely honest ... no, I wasn't. It's just so beautiful and giant and filled with words that I never really could get past the intimidation factor. For me a real cookbook is one where I can fold down the pages of the recipes I'm interested, where I don't worry about breaking the back, and where I inevitably rip off the dust jacket because I know it's just going to get ruined anyway. This is not such a book.

m-c:

I know exactly what you mean. I was so happy and relieved when I finally spilled something on the book -- chicken fat on page 67. After that I relaxed a little.

mb:

Oh yeah. I can see how that would help a lot. Maybe I should have opened a jar of tomato sauce and poured the entire thing on the book. That's about what it would have taken to cure my intimidation.

Did you cook other recipes than the ones we wrote about?

m-c:

Zillions. My motivation for doing this book -- besides just the fact that it's a wonderful cookbook -- was to get more comfortable with Chinese cooking by cooking unfamiliar kinds of Chinese food. I made the Ginger and Carrot Stir-Fry (pp. 96-97), pinch noodles after the noodle recipe on pp. 132-134 --

mb:

What exactly are pinch noodles?

m-c:

You make noodle dough and then pinch it into little individual noodles. I love the texture.

I made the cabbage and red onion salad that you alteRed last week -- my version was a lot more sauerkrauty -- the Cucumbers in Black Rice Vinegar (p.83), Silk Road Chickpea‑Carrot Fritters (p. 119), and Noodles with Sesame Sauce (p. 149). Mark helped me with the Uighur Pastries with Pea Tendrils (pp. 208-209) by filling the beautiful little envelopes; he's very good at jobs like that, and I'm not. Bunches of other recipes -- I really worked the book.

The best, though, was not just the best for the month but one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my whole life, was the chile-smeared fish, based on A+D's recipe for Deep-Fried Whiting (pp. 234-235. You cut the fish into chunks, roll the chunks in a mixture of chile paste (p. 18) and cornstarch, then deep-fry the chunks. So easy and so, so good.

mb:

I've never known you to deep-fry anything.

m-c:

Well, yes, I stopped deep-frying when the Great Fat Fear descended upon the land, but now that I know not to be afraid, I've started up again. Deep-frying is ridiculously easy and makes such enjoyable food. 92% of the delicious snack foods of the world are deep-fried.

So how about you? Did you cook other things?

mb:

Well ... errrr ... no. I feel so horrible admitting that, but it's true. I let my fear of the book stop me from cooking anything else from it. What a terrible thing to have to admit!

I will say though that I am excited to look back at this book in a couple of months and give it another try. Usually the intimidation wanes after a while and I'm really hoping that will happen with this.

m-c:

I always have to say something about the index. There's an entry in the index for carrots in Vegetarian Stir-Fry (p. 211) but no carrots in the recipe; a redirect from squash to pumpkin would be a help for U.S. readers; discussion of the Uighur people needs another entry at p. 209; yogurt needs another entry for morning tsampa (p. 181). The index is beautifully laid out and easy to read ‑‑ other cookbooks should take it as a model.

mb:

Well, no big surprise there, right? The layout of the entire book is beautiful. Not the easiest to cook from, but beautiful.

m-c:

Can you say more about that?

mb:

This book is about two people's travels. It includes recipes, but much of it isn't recipes and is instead stories and anecdotes and gorgeous, gorgeous photographs, so sometimes it feels much more like a coffee table book or a travel guide than a cookbook. I guess what I really wouldn't have liked is to have a better differentiation between the recipes and the text.

But really, I'm just being picky.

m-c:

My big realization for the month is that it makes a huge difference having a small wok. No wonder I've had so much trouble with Chinese cooking over the years -- our only wok was gigantic. Now I've become so comfortable that it feels like no big deal to stir-fry every night.

I'm sorry I didn't get you one just like mine, but I promise I will next time I go back to China.

mb:

Cool. I like the idea of stir-frying every night not being a big deal. That's really appealing.

And then maybe if I have a small wok it'll just be one less thing to find intimidating!

m-c:

Summing it up, I love the book and Margaret is still hesitant but will definitely give it another try.

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