Carolyn Phillips’ 500+ page book, All Under Heaven arrived in my mailbox today. The book is based on her blog, Madame Huang’s Kitchen and is organized around five broad regions of China and Taiwan (North & Manchurian Northeast, Yangtze River and its Environs, Coastal Southeast, Central Highlands, Arid Lands). In total, there are 300 recipes, and each is prefaced by one of the 35 regions it derives from and its title in English, pinyin, and Chinese characters.
You can think of the book as five regional cookbooks for the price of one. Each regional section starts with a discussion of the region in general, and then devotes a few paragraphs to subregions. There is a table of contents for each section, and it organizes the recipes into appetizers and small plates, soups, entrees, side dishes, starches and street food, sweets and beverages.
The back of the book has over a hundred pages of reference material including techniques, menus, and an awesome section “stir-frying on a wimpy stove” that helps on issues not addressed on my shelf of Chinese cookbooks.
That’s the background. What are your thoughts on the book itself, and have you tried any recipes?