Review of "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province" by Fuchsia Dunlop

Weaving the history of how the Cultural Revolution impacted Chinese cuisine with an extraordinary cookbook was no mean feat. Ms. Dunlop gives us a comprehensive guide to Hunan style Chinese cooking, complete with a guide to tools and ingredients. She gets extra credit for telling the history of General Tso's Chicken, but the book itself is a work of craftmanship that we rarely see these days. The pictures just make your mouth water in anticipation. I have a repetoire of about 3 Chinese dishes that I vary according to whatever I have in the kitchen, but which all usually come down to beef or chicken stir fried with some veggies in a sweetened soy sauce. Its embarassing that I haven't been able to learn more than this after all these years, and I am positively green with envy when I see the gorgeous creations in the pictures here. But don't let my shortcomings stop you. I'm sure you'll be making your family a whole new array of Chinese treats once you start your way through this fabulous cookbook.