Street of Eternal Happiness by Rob Schmitz

I have always been fascinated by the rise of China since they opened up their economy years ago to a blend of communism and capitalist.  Having done some business in China, I've been able to observe firsthand the dramatic change of people in China.  The have nots now have and rich are now richer and it appears everyone is striving for more money, more money.  

But what has been under reported is how all the grab for success has affect the population, millions of peasants moving to the city, family live apart because parents trying to make it in this economy, people losing their moral compass, etc.

I'm familiar with Rob Schmitz work from hearing him on NPR and given that he's APM's China correspondence, who else is better to tell stories of the Chinese people

Author's Bio

His book Street of Eternal Happiness does a great job at telling the stories of individuals and families who live on this one street in Shanghai.  Shanghai, modern of all modern city but below the skyscrapers, there's stories of people trying to "make it."  The tales become entwined and gives us a glimpes of the hope, greed and pain of living in China.

This is a great book and great read. 

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

All Under Heaven by Carolyn Phillips

This has got to be one of the best book about Chinese cooking that I have read.  I didn't know much about the author but then I read about her background and the fact that she lived in Taiwan and immersed herself in the culture.  This has really given her a deep understanding and appreciation of the complexity of Chinese cooking.
I like how she noted there is these layers to Chinese cooking that not many in America has close to experiencing.

I especially how she wrote, you eat what you speak, which is so true, each region has it's down dialect and people each from the dialect they are from.  The breakdown of the book by different region is really cool, gives perspective of what each region is known for and specialize in. Who knew the chinese salad is originally from Manchurian region.

I like how at the beginning of each chapter, she will briefly explain the sub region within each large region and its food.  Who knew within one region, there's so many different sub regions.  For example The Yangtze River & It's Environs includes Huai Yang , Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Northern Fujia, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi.

The recipes are written concisely yet with very clear instructions.  The illustrations that accompany some of the recipes are good, such a making your own smoker, pot sticker, etc.

This book is really good and highly recommend it.

Around the Fire by Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quinez Denton, with Stacy Adimando.

Who doesn't love BBQ?  Not me, I love a good BBQ and always on the lookout for good BBQ recipes.

I got the book Around the Fire by two acclaim chefs,  Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton. Their restaurant Ox, is known of it's open fire style of cooking.




Click Here for More Information on this book

This book has great photography and lots of recipes. OX used a large wood fire grill that's what's used in Argentina. When I read this,  I'm like how do I make any of the recipes with just a gas grill.

But the authors made it known that the recipes are made for home cooks and in perusing the recipes, they are easy to cook, though some of ingredients, like squid are not that easy to get.

The pictures are beautiful and recipes are clear and easy to follow.

I would recommend this book for all would be BBQers.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.