At the Chinese Table: A Memoir with Recipes
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the 2022 IACP Award in Literary or Historical Food Writing
KCRW Best Culinary books of 2021
WBUR Here & Now Favorite Cookbooks of 2021
Part memoir of life in Taiwan, part love story—a beautifully told account of China’s brilliant cuisines…with recipes.
At the Chinese Table describes in vivid detail how, during the 1970s and ’80s, celebrated cookbook writer and illustrator Carolyn Phillips crosses China’s endless cultural and linguistic chasms and falls in love. During her second year in Taipei, she meets scholar and epicurean J. H. Huang, who nourishes her intellectually over luscious meals from every part of China. And then, before she knows it, Carolyn finds herself the unwelcome candidate for eldest daughter-in-law in a traditional Chinese family.
This warm, refreshingly candid memoir is a coming-of-age story set against a background of the Chinese diaspora and a family whose ancestry is intricately intertwined with that of their native land. Carolyn’s reticent father-in-law—a World War II fighter pilot and hero—eventually embraces her presence by showing her how to re-create centuries-old Hakka dishes from family recipes. In the meantime, she brushes up on the classic cuisines of the North in an attempt to win over J. H.’s imperious mother, whose father had been a warlord’s lieutenant. Fortunately for J. H. and Carolyn, the tense early days of their relationship blossom into another kind of cultural and historical education as Carolyn masters both the language and many of China’s extraordinary cuisines.
With illustrations and twenty-two recipes, At the Chinese Table is a culinary adventure like no other that captures the diversity of China’s cuisines, from the pen of a world-class scholar and gourmet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this multifaceted memoir, food writer Phillips (All Under Heaven) vividly recounts her love affair with Chinese cuisine. In 1976, she arrived in Taipei as a student and made her "greatest culinary discovery that first year": pork ribs "soaked in a spicy marinade... over equally buttery chunks of sweet potato." She remained in Taiwan for several years after falling in love with her now-husband, J.H., a local who broadened her palette and inspired her to recreate some of his favorite traditional dishes, including pig's head with stir-fried scapes. Phillips's reflections are peppered with humor ("My Mandarin... must have sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard"), and she provides ample historical and cultural context, especially when discussing J.H.'s family history. As she remembers cooking alongside her Hakka father-in-law, she explains that the word Hakka is "used to label a people, heritage, and cuisine, rather than a particular locale." Phillips pairs every chapter with a few recipes—among them black sesame candy wafers (her father-in-law's favorite), garlic chile sauce, and Yunnan cold rice noodles—that ambitious home chefs will want to try. The blend of cooking, culture, and romance make this an irresistible treat for food lovers and travelers.