I thumbed through Phaidon’s recent release, China The Cookbook, and the Hong Kong authors state that red vinegar is red because it is dyed. However, other sources say that red yeast rice produces the hue. Why the discrepancy?
There are a number of safety issues listed for red yeast rice according to its Wikipedia entry, and its relation to statin drugs caused it to disappear from the market for a few years. I’m going to assume the health concerns, combined with the cheap production alternatives food dyes offer, are why we shouldn’t expect to see traditional Zhejiang vinegar become available in the US.
Speaking of China the Cookbook, please start a thread if you’ve used it and have comments. I’m not generally a fan of Phaidon’s breadth over depth approach and their poor job at recipe testing, but am interested to hear whether this one has recipes that make it worth it. I enjoyed its introduction, but found that space prevents it from offering the detailed cultural and historic gems that make Dunlop’s books and All Under Heaven so interesting. But 600 recipes is 600 recipes …
