Twenty-four of the country's minority groups call Yunnan home, each retaining their own traditions. Stretching from the Himalayan plateau down to the subtropics, Yunnan encompasses extremes from alpine meadows to rainforest. It is the most diverse region in China culturally, biologically, and meteorologically. On a culinary level, this means Yunnan is one of the most delicious places on earth. The region is famous for its mushrooms, hams, pickles, edible flowers, its use of potatoes, and its love of chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. Yunnan's food is exciting and unfamiliar, but much of it is actually quite easy to make, using simple techniques already familiar to Western cooks. Each chapter covers a different area featuring its cardinal recipes such as Tibetan momo dumplings, Dai cucumber salad with peanuts, the famed "crossingthe- bridge" noodles of Kunming, Eastern-style fried rice with ham, potatoes, and peas, and roasted eggplant salad from near the Burmese border. Complete with profiles of local cooks, artisans, and farmers, as well as breathtaking on-location photography, Cooking South of the Clouds takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the land of Shangri-La and introduces a new world of flavours.

While many baby boomers are downsizing to a simpler retirement lifestyle, photographer and writer Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins took a more challenging leap in deciding to build a house on the side of a mountain in southern Ecuador. They now live half the year in Cañar, an indigenous community they came to know in the early nineties when Blankenship taught photography there. They are the only extranjeros (outsiders) in this homely, chilly town at 10,100 feet, where every afternoon a spectacular mass of clouds rolls up from the river valley below and envelopes the town. In this absorbing memoir, Blankenship tells the interwoven stories of building their house in the clouds and strengthening their ties to the community. Although she and Michael had spent considerable time in Cañar before deciding to move there, they still had much to learn about local customs as they navigated the process of building a house with traditional materials using a local architect and craftspeople. Likewise, fulfilling their obligations as neighbors in a community based on reciprocity presented its own challenges and rewards. Blankenship writes vividly of the rituals of births, baptisms, marriages, festival days, and deaths that counterpoint her and Michael’s solitary pursuits of reading, writing, listening to opera, playing chess, and cooking. Their story will appeal to anyone contemplating a second life, as well as those seeking a deeper understanding of daily life in the developing world.

Collects recipes from in and around China including Hani chile-garlic paste, ham sesame coils, Lhasa beef and potato stew, and tomato bell pepper salad.

James Beard Award Winner A trailblazing chef reinvents the art of cooking over fire. Gloriously inspired recipes push the boundaries of live-fired cuisine in this primal yet sophisticated cookbook introducing the incendiary dishes of South America's biggest culinary star. Chef Francis Mallmann—born in Patagonia and trained in France's top restaurants—abandoned the fussy fine dining scene for the more elemental experience of cooking with fire. But his fans followed, including the world's top food journalists and celebrities, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Madonna, and Ralph Lauren, traveling to Argentina and Uruguay to experience the dashing chef's astonishing—and delicious—wood-fired feats. The seven fires of the title refer to a series of grilling techniques that have been singularly adapted for the home cook. So you can cook Signature Mallmann dishes—like Whole Boneless Ribeye with Chimichuri; Salt-Crusted Striped Bass; Whole Roasted Andean Pumpkin with Mint and Goat Cheese Salad; and desserts such as Dulce de Leche Pancakes—indoors or out in any season. Evocative photographs showcase both the recipes and the exquisite beauty of Mallmann's home turf in Patagonia, Buenos Aires, and rural Uruguay. Seven Fires is a must for any griller ready to explore food's next frontier.

The pure fun of classic American chocolate treats. The Chocolate Room has become a place of pilgrimage for chocolate lovers from near and far, thanks to its simple mission: to create treats that bring back those original childhood memories of the pure joy of chocolate. Its chefs have a knack for reconstructing a classic American recipe in ways that improve on the original. Their showstopping Chocolate Layer Cake, for instance, is the cake all other chocolate cakes dream of being; it’s made with a blackout pudding filling, three different kinds of chocolate, and a custardy ganache frosting. The book is filled with similar new twists that express the slightly irreverent and creatively whimsical spirit for which Brooklyn has become known: Chocolate Caramel Matzo, Chocolate Cuatro Leches Cake, and Chocolate Stout Gingerbread. Recipes reveal the secret tips behind signature favorites in every category from cakes and puddings to pies and cookies. Confections are geared to be achievable in the home: S’mores bars, Rocky Road mounds, and Cookie Chip Chocolates. The book also features informative primers on important techniques—including tempering chocolate, whipping cream and eggs, and assembling a cake. There’s Always Room for Chocolate is set to become the new essential cookbook for all things chocolate.

“In this remarkable new cookbook, Bergo provides stories, photographs and inventive recipes.”—Star Tribune As Seen on NBC's The Today Show! "With a passion for bringing a taste of the wild to the table, [Bergo’s] inspiration for experimentation shows in his inventive dishes created around ingredients found in his own backyard."—Tastemade From root to flower—and featuring 180 recipes and over 230 of the author’s own beautiful photographs—explore the edible plants we find all around us with the Forager Chef Alan Bergo as he breaks new culinary ground! In The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora you’ll find the exotic to the familiar—from Ramp Leaf Dumplings to Spruce Tip Panna Cotta to Crisp Fiddlehead Pickles—with Chef Bergo’s unique blend of easy-to-follow instruction and out-of-this-world inspiration. Over the past fifteen years, Minnesota chef Alan Bergo has become one of America’s most exciting and resourceful culinary voices, with millions seeking his guidance through his wildly popular website and video tutorials. Bergo’s inventive culinary style is defined by his encyclopedic curiosity, and his abiding, root-to-flower passion for both wild and cultivated plants. Instead of waiting for fall squash to ripen, Bergo eagerly harvests their early shoots, flowers, and young greens—taking a holistic approach to cooking with all parts of the plant, and discovering extraordinary new flavors and textures along the way. The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora demonstrates how understanding the different properties and growing phases of roots, stems, leaves, and seeds can inform your preparation of something like the head of an immature sunflower—as well as the lesser-used parts of common vegetables, like broccoli or eggplant. As a society, we’ve forgotten this type of old-school knowledge, including many brilliant culinary techniques that were borne of thrift and necessity. For our own sake, and that of our planet, it’s time we remembered. And in the process, we can unlock new flavors from the abundant landscape around us. “[An] excellent debut. . . . Advocating that plants are edible in their entirety is one thing, but this [book] delivers the delectable means to prove it."—Publishers Weekly "Alan Bergo was foraging in the Midwest way before it was trendy."—Outside Magazine

Cook with confidence every day! Dig into 365 essential recipes and tons of foundational resources—from the James Beard Award winning team at Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. This is Milk Street’s new and comprehensive guide to today’s recipe repertoire, full of fresh flavors and simple yet game-changing techniques. This is everyday cooking you actually want to cook every day. Milk Street 365 is both inspiration and reference for the contemporary kitchen, with recipes that will change the way you cook at home==from soups, stews and salads to flatbreads, pizzas and noodles. Dishes include: Velvety Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Yogurt Vietnamese Pork and Scallion Omelette Butter Beans in Tomato Sauce with Dill and Feta Thai Green Curry Chicken and Vegetables Taiwanese Five-Spice Pork with Rice Garlic-Rosemary Burgers with Taleggio Sauce Cheese-Crisped Pinto Bean Quesadillas Plus deep dives into ingredients, pantry basics, and foundational techniques that every cook should master. You’ll learn better ways to roast chicken (hint: flat birds crisp better, and seasonings stay in place when slid under the skin) and discover bold finishes for chops and steaks (think a slather of cilantro-lime sauce or a smear of miso butter). Here, fundamental recipes and their nearly endless variations are paired with lessons on the art and science of good cooking. Sidebars and charts deliver valuable guidance about the tools, ingredients and techniques that comprise the modern kitchen. It’s a 360-degree approach for all 365 days of the year.

The world's most comprehensive, well documented and well illustrated book on this subject. With extensive subject and geographical index. 363 photographs and illustrations - many in color. Free of charge in digital PDF format.

Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure is the delightful companion book to the BBC TV Show featuring their culinary adventure across China Two of the most highly respected authorities on Chinese and Oriental cooking today, Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang, come together in this exciting cookbook and is the result of their journey through China on a culinary and cultural odyssey to find the old, the new and the unexpected as shown in the BBC TV show. They tell the story of China, both old and new, through food. Each recipe in the book features a back story from Ken and Ching so you can learn the secret stories behind all your old favourite recipes and be inspired to find new ones. They cook with local families, en route to discover the influence of Buddhism on vegetarian food and whether the Chinese did actually invent tortellini in remote Kashgar before travelling to Sichuan Province, China's gastronomic capital. Ken is the old-hand who brought the wok to the West and Ching-He is the energetic newcomer. Together they uncover the secrets of Old China and the techniques of the new, fusing them together to create a unique and authoritative perspective on Chinese food that will surprise and inform.

The world's most comprehensive, well documented, and well illustrated book on this subject. With extensive subject and geographic index. 231 photographs and illustrations - mostly color. Free of charge in digital PDF format.