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Beyond the Great Wall

Recipes and Travels in the Other China

Hardback , 376 pages
ISBN: 9781579653019 (1579653014)
Published by Artisan
$40.00(US)

about Beyond the Great Wall

WINNER OF THE 2009 JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOK AWARD

WINNER OF THE 2009 IACP BEST INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOK AWARD

A bold and eye-opening new cookbook with magnificent photos and unforgettable stories.

In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai. But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppelands of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. The peoples who live in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions. In Beyond the Great Wall, the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid—who first met as young travelers in Tibet—bring home the enticing flavors of this other China.

For more than twenty-five years, both separately and together, Duguid and Alford have journeyed all over the outlying regions of China, sampling local home cooking and street food, making friends and taking lustrous photographs. Beyond the Great Wall shares the experience in a rich mosaic of recipes—from Central Asian cumin-scented kebabs and flatbreads to Tibetan stews and Mongolian hot pots—photos, and stories. A must-have for every food lover, and an inspiration for cooks and armchair travelers alike.
photo of Jeffrey Alford

about Jeffrey Alford

Jeffrey Alford is the author, along with Naomi Duguid, of six award-winning books on food and travel: Flatbreads & FlavorsHomeBaking, Seductions of Rice, Hot Sour Salty Sweet, Mangoes and Curry Leaves, and Beyond the Great Wall. In stories, recipes, and photographs, the books explore daily home-cooked foods in their cultural context.

Alford now lives in northeastern Thailand, just near the Cambodian border. He plants rice in May each year, and harvests by hand in late November. He writes, gardens, grows orchids, and cooks, and he's learned to love the taste of red ant eggs, crickets, grasshoppers, and leguminous tree leaves. Nowadays, Jeffrey seldom photographs a person he doesn't know.
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photo of Naomi Duguid

about Naomi Duguid

Naomi Duguid is the author, along with Jeffrey Alford, of six award-winning books on food and travel: Flatbreads & FlavorsHomeBaking, Seductions of Rice, Hot Sour Salty SweetMangoes and Curry Leaves, and Beyond the Great Wall. In stories, recipes, and photographs, the books explore daily home-cooked foods in their cultural context. Her newest book, Pinch of Turmeric, Squeeze of Lime, is a collection of recipes and travel tales from Burma. 

Naomi Duguid, traveler, writer, photographer, is often described as a culinary anthropologist. She is a contributing editor of Saveur magazine, gives photo-talks about food and travel, and writes a weekly blog, www.naomiduguid.blogspot.com. She conducts immersion food tours in northern Thailand each winter (www.immersethrough.com) and calls both Toronto and Chiang Mai home.  
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