• Eat Your Books

  Errata from authors: There are, we regret to say, errors in the conversion table that our publisher inserted into Beyond the Great Wall at the last minute. We’re embarrassed to have to tell you that the conversion error is a very basic one that confuses American and Imperial cups. An Imperial cup is 10 ounces, and a pint is 20 ounces, or two and a half American cups.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chicken pulao with pumpkin

  • Gabriela on October 02, 2010

    Frozen cubed pumpkin or squash works well. Add on top of rice quickly once rice is cooked.

  • TwoBeans on November 02, 2013

    When using arborio rice, the dish comes out much heavier and thicker than shown in the picture. Substitute long grain white rice for a dish more similar to the one shown. Also possibly cut the amount of rice to only 1 1/2-2 cups.

• Beef-sauced hot lettuce salad

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Quite good.

  • erin g on September 11, 2010

    I found it a bit bland and added a hit of chili.

  • mziech on April 13, 2011

    I love this recipe! very simple and delicious!

  • Snadra on November 04, 2011

    It does need a bit of chile to lift it, but is a great way to use up a bit of left over meat and makes a good substantial summer salad in a hurry.

• Large Kazakh fusion loaf

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Beautiful.

• Savory boiled dumplings

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Don't bother with the carrot and pork filling. Stick with the Leek and pork.

• Tibetan pork and spinach stir-fry

  • mirage on June 26, 2010

    Plain. Even with Sichuan pepper!

  • lkgrover on March 09, 2017

    I agree with Mirage; this recipe was rather plain. Next time I will try increasing the ginger (a little) and substituting chicken broth for water in the final step. With stir-fry pork meat (cut but uncooked), it makes quick dinner preparation.

• Earlobe noodles

  • ironsteph on July 10, 2014

    So easy and forgiving, and good leftover. Make with Hui Tomato-Lamb Noodle Soup.

• Cooling oasis salad with tomatoes and herbs

  • lorloff on June 20, 2020

    This did not really work. It was too dry in the end we added some good olive oil and sushi vinegar which improved the dish. Would not make again.

  • lkgrover on May 07, 2018

    An aptly named "a cooling oasis." A good complement to spicy recipes, to cool the palate. I used dill and parsley for herbs.

• Lisu spice-rubbed roast pork

  • lorloff on November 20, 2016

    This was a great pork roast recipie. We really loved it. I have made it several times following the recipie and then the most recent time I added the spice mix to Mother In Law's Gochujang Fermented Chile sauce Marinade with Garlic and followed the recipe otherwise and it was a fabulous 10 out of 10 hit. I cooked it until my thermapen MK 4 registered 135 internal temperature it rose to 137 while resting. Will definately make again and will try this sauce next time with port tenderloin.

• Market stall fresh tomato salsa

  • mcvl on December 20, 2021

    What could be simpler? So fresh, so tangy. I used romas and my Cuisinart.

  • JLDuck on March 24, 2018

    Surprisingly tasty and very simple. I used cherry tomatoes.

• Cellophane noodle soup with fish balls

  • mcvl on March 17, 2015

    Good, not special.

• Dai carrot salad

  • mcvl on October 31, 2020

    I made this with roasted carrots, v. good.

  • Snadra on September 20, 2010

    try carrots in thinnish batons, double dressing, reduce onion.

• Dai chile-fish soup with flavored oil

  • mcvl on October 18, 2013

    Super-delicious, super-easy.

• Dong chicken-vegetable soup

  • mcvl on July 05, 2012

    Good. Not amazing.

• Cucumbers in black rice vinegar

  • TrishaCP on August 02, 2017

    This was light, refreshing, and very easy to make. I didn't bother with the pre-salting step. I just added salt to taste (less than required by the recipe), the vinegar, and the sesame oil.

• Ginger and carrot stir-fry

  • Allegra on February 26, 2013

    This is a superb recipe to add to the repertoire. Love that it uses ingredients that I always have on hand; it's a great barren fridge dish. It takes a while to julienne all those roots, but well worth it. The peppery bite of the ginger combined with the heat of the chiles and the numbing sensation of the sichuan peppercorns creates a lovely and addictive flavour burst in the mouth. Recommended!

• Stir-fried stem lettuce Lhasa-style

  • lkgrover on May 26, 2017

    I made this with bok choy and chicken broth. Good flavor, cooks quickly. Great for a weeknight side dish with other Chinese food. (This recipe is also similar to their Yunnan greens recipe from their Hot Sour Salty Sweet cookbook, if you are interested in a variation.)

• Napa and red onion salad

  • lkgrover on March 31, 2019

    Light salad with a refreshing crunch. Next time I will reduce the red onions (a little goes a long way for me).

• Miao red sauced-fish

  • JLDuck on May 18, 2019

    A delicious and pungent recipe. I used picked green chilies. I doubt it changed the outcome to any degree. Easy to make but must like chilies.

• Rice-mung bean soup

  • Hana.Sundet on January 19, 2024

    When telling your friends you're bringing rice-mung bean soup as the main dish, make sure they know it's whole beans in a rice stew and not just bean sprouts floating in a thin rice broth, or they may anxiously drop a lot of money on meat to make up for the heartiness they mistakenly thought they would miss. Just a possibility.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  Best cookbooks of 2008: ...for armchair adventurers, their exotic narrative is impossible to resist.

  Full review