From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking [Hardcover]

Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995

One of the best known experts on Chinese food draws on her reminiscences of the foods of her childhood to create 200 exciting vegetarian recipes--many of which make use of commonly available ingredients--and describes the techniques used to prepare them. 40 line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Yin-Fei Lo, an authority on Chinese cooking and author of several other cookbooks, presents dozens of delicious and unusual Chinese vegetarian dishes. Some are recipes from her childhood and family, others are the "real" versions of dishes served in Chinese American recipes, and still others are her versions of classic dishes or her own innovations, often using ingredients not traditionally available in China. The readable headnotes give a good sense of the symbolism inherent in all of Chinese cooking, and a special chapter is devoted to the vegetarian dishes created in Buddhist temple kitchens. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The culinary tidbits that Lo includes in her salute to earth foods are almost as intriguing as her more than 200 mainly vegetable recipes. Vegetarian Buddhists may eat only three types of seafood--mussels, claims, and oysters. The turnip cakes enjoyed at the Lunar New Year are a symbol that good fortune is rising, and so on. She insists on and explains the gathering together of the right stuff and learning the right techniques; a carbon-steel wok and cleaver, for example, are the two critical pieces of equipment in Chinese cooking. The best part of the book are the dishes--some tied to tradition, others the product of Lo's imagination. The need for exotic ingredients, from buckthorn seeds to red dates, may be the only deterrent to reader-cooks. Barbara Jacobs

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0026329859
• ISBN-13: 978-0026329859
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars delicious and informative, May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking (Hardcover)

This cookbook has been one of the best sources of delicious tofu recipes that I have been able to find. I have been cooking from this book for a few years and I have loved every recipe that I have tried. The author uses both traditional and non-traditional ingredients (like sundried tomatoes) to create flavorful chinese recipes that are at home in the western kitchen.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Despite oyster sauce - an incredible cookbook, December 2, 2006

By 

E. Grey "Classical Chinese Med. student" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking (Hardcover)

I have a sagging shelf of cookbooks, most of them vegan. This is the one cookbook I have other than my Betty Crocker (that has so many recipes fun to veganize) that includes mention of meat. Another reviewer gave this cookbook a bad rating due to the author's lack of clarification concerning oyster sauce (vegan versions are readily available at Asian food markets and elsewhere). I think this is a bad move on the reviewer's part. This omission is regrettable, but it in no way diminishes the fine job that the author does in doing what her job was: to come up with awesome recipes and provide readers with instructions on how to duplicate them.

My only complaint about the cookbook is that many of the recipes end up being pretty heavy on oil. I have taken to halving the oil recommendations in most recipes, replacing the remaining volume with water or another liquid. I find it makes the recipes much lighter, with very little loss in taste.

Overall, highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good!, July 22, 2004

By 

C Yu "team_aspic" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking (Hardcover)

This is one of the better books written on vegetarian cookery (biased towards Southern Chinese cooking). There is a pretty good exposition of ingredients at the beginning of the book, and I was able to locate most at the Chinese market. Ms. Lo makes extensive use of flavored cooking oils that you make yourself. This could be a bit time consuming, but worth the extra flavor. Also a good idea is making her recipe for stock; good stock she explains is crucial for good chinese cooking, especially vegetarian cooking. There is also a section on fish, which might seem a bit out of place (fish is not in the same category as land dwelling animals in Chinese tradition). Some of the recipes seem a bit repetitive. The book does include the chinese name as well which might be handy for some of us. All in all a good book for vegetarians who want to inject a bit of Chinese flava into their diet.