From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking (Hardcover)

by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (Author)

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company (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: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #390,210 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of little gems hidden here, April 29, 2002

By	"boo89" (Moscow, ID USA) - See all my reviews

I've been on a Chinese cooking bender for several months now, and this book is one I have been turning to night after night. It continually surprises me that the simplest recipes, the ones you would never find at a restaurant, and usually the ones with no "sauce," turn out to be the most delicious. There's a great little dish of stir-fried carrots and celery, another of stir-fried corn (frozen corn, even!). Sounds plain, right? But no--they are works of brilliant simplicity. They show the artistry of making something from nothing. They're not all works of genius, though. I normally make a pretty fabulous scallion pancake, but I tried the recipe in this book and it was terrible. Many of the sauced dishes taste the same. Overall, though, I'd say that most of this book is genius.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.

10 of 10 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 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.