Why Fuchsia Dunlop Is My Hero

Since her first Sichuan cookbook came out several years ago, Fuchsia Dunlop has been a particular hero of mine, on par with Paula Wolfert and David Thompson — part anthropologist, part gourmet. Not only is Land of Plenty easy to cook from, but it explains the culinary theory behind spicy, fragrant Sichuan cuisine — how complex flavors are created, how ingredients should be sliced and steamed and fried — with a level of detail that before was only available to people who can read Chinese.

Last week, Norton published Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Dunlop's memoir of her travels in China. These days I read food books for education, not escape, so I'm not a big fan of culinary memoirs, particularly when they're chick lit plus recipes. But Dunlop's story is much more than a few reminiscences about peppers she'd chopped interspersed with literary gasps of delight. She was the first Western student to study at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine back in the mid-1990s, flouting bureaucracy and convention to do so, and tells about her adventures hitchhiking around Tibet and pestering street-snack stall owners in Chengdu to let her train with them. The part that's rocking my world right now is the section I'm reading on how she overcame her deep, practically unconscious Western likes and dislikes about the textures of foods and learned to appreciate texture as the Chinese do:

Chinese chefs and gourmets talk often about kou gan, or 'mouthfeel.' Certain textures are especially prized. Cui, for example, denotes a particular quality of crispness that is found in fresh crunchy vegetables, blanched pig's kidneys, and goose intestines ... Cui crispness offers resistance to the teeth, but finally yields, cleanly, with a pleasant snappy feeling. It is different from su, which is the dry, fragile, fall-apart crispness of deep-fried duck skin or taro dumplings. Some foods, like the skin of a barbecued suckling pig, can be described as su cui because they offer both types of crispness, simultaneously.

If you want to express the springy elasticity of a squid ball, you might refer to its tan xing, which also describes the bouncy aspect of ... sea cucumber texture ... Nen is the tenderness of just-cooked fish or meat, or the fresh suppleness of very young pea shoots; hua the smooth slipperiness of 'velveted' slices of chicken. Another lovely texture word is shuang, which evokes a refreshing, bright, slippery, cool sensation in the mouth: one might use it for certain starch jellies soused in vinegar and chilli oil.

Sorry if the words goose intestines and blanched pig's kidney turn your stomach (her loving description of eating cracked rabbit heads still makes me cringe). What's great about this book is that she doesn't pooh-pooh our nausea — she just eventually moved beyond it. For me, reading this section is like touring a contemporary art museum with an art historian who can explain all the cultural references and theoretical underpinnings of the works on display.

It even makes me hungry for some cui dry-cooked pork intestines.

Topics: Books

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The Other Maker

Just got a call from a publicist for Jordan Rubin asking if I'd heard of his book The Maker's Diet. Visions of drowning my body image issues in whiskey until I reached my ideal weight danced in my head. Apparently she meant the other maker—you know, intelligent designer and all that—because God wants you to lose all that weight you gained celebrating his kid's birthday.

Anywho, Rubin will be in Federal Way Friday signing his new book Perfect Weight America and is looking for unhealthy families to "adopt" for a promotion where he'll help them clean up their diet. Want to transform your Twinkie-happy brood? E-mail Susan Fonger.

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A Timely, Responsible Holiday Gift for Foodies

I wholeheartedly believe that if you're going to eat meat, you should have to visit a slaughterhouse. And if you live in one of the richest industrialized nations in the world, you should have to read this book:

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and his wife Faith D'Luisio is at once remarkable, revolting, and riveting. Primarily a photo essay compiled of different families from around the world standing amongst a week's worth of their food, Hungry Planet forces you to confront the agony and the ecstasy of all that is fit for the pie hole. The sweet side of the book is an intimate look into the simple, every day food rituals of the world. The bitter side of this book shows just what fast and junk food have wrought.

You'll just come away 1.) thinking that you don't eat adequate servings of fruits and vegetables, 2.) feeling like a glutton, and 3.) knowing that if there is a devil, he has high fructose corn syrup coursing through his veins. Yes, Mireille, even French people are getting fat, or at least less healthy. They eat more processed food than ever, including beaucoup de Royales with cheese.

What surprised me the most? Daaaaamn, Kuwait has put on the pounds, neck and neck (and neck) with America and Australia, with 70% of the population overweight and almost HALF the women obese. But at least they're free, right? All in all, the beautiful moments of the book prevail, thanks to Menzel and D'Luisio's empathy and considerate framing.

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Book Release: Gluten-Free Girl

Seattle has its share of fabulous food bloggers, perhaps none more well-known than Gluten-Free Girl, whose blog has lovingly chronicled her transition to gluten-free eating and her romance with Impromptu chef Danny Ahern. (Real life name: Shauna James Ahern.) Shauna's first book, Gluten-Free Girl: How I Found the Food that Loves Me Back . . .And How You Can Too, comes out tomorrow.

In it, she traces her path from the days before she was diagnosed with celiac disease, when pain and fatigue guided her, to gluten-free living, giving details about what foods she had to learn to avoid (blue cheese is out!), which ten foods she can't do without, and how to cook with the cornucopia of grains that are naturally gluten-free. For someone like me, who's already convinced that $25 is a fair price for a bottle of great olive oil, the book was a good ego boost (Go Shauna! You tell America to stop eating so much shit! Tell them!).

Her book was also sort of an eye-opener. I don't know anyone with celiac disease, and had no idea how widespread it is (try about 1 in 100 people) or how seriously eating microscopic amounts of gluten can harm someone. I consume wheat-based carbs like oxygen - involuntarily, and with bodily necessity. Shauna picks up on the fact that when most of us think of eating gluten-free – whether we need to or not – we think of doing without, of forgoing flavor and enjoyable foods. Based on her recipes, seems to me like the only things she really has to forego are things that come in boxes, with labels and long, unpronounceable ingredient lists.

For foodies, Gluten-Free Girl is also a love story, with a less traditional entry point. It’s the story of Shauna falling in love with real food, which is sexy for those of us who get turned on walking into a cheese shop or running our hands through a box of black beans at the farmers' market.

Shauna's blog says she'll start her book tour in New York tomorrow, but here's a link to her tour calendar - you'll find her at Seattle events the week after next.

Topics: Blogwatch and Books

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