Salt Sugar MSG: Recipes and Stories from a Cantonese American Home
Calvin Eng, with Phoebe Melnick. Clarkson Potter, $37.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-58208-4
Chef and Brooklyn restaurateur Eng debuts with an inviting and innovative collection inspired by Cantonese flavors and techniques. He starts with a detailed introduction to essential ingredients, noting differences in common types of soy sauce (“Light soy sauce is used for salt and dark soy sauce is used for color,” he explains) and recommending home cooks buy jars of fried garlic and shallots to save time and effort. Beef chow fun, clams with black bean garlic sauce, hup to ha (shrimp and walnuts), coconut taro sago dessert soup, and other traditional dishes are sure to please. Eng’s ingenuity shines through in original fusion creations, including fufu cacio e pepe mein (bucatini with fermented bean curd garlic butter), mini sweet-and-sour meat loaves, salt and pepper pork schnitzel with Chinese ranch, and congee arancini. Those new to cooking Cantonese food will appreciate Eng’s mellow tone (“Recipes are meant to be just a guide, not a constraint”) and cultural tidbits (“Ovaltine is a Hong Kong staple by way of British colonization,” he notes in the malted chocolate waffles recipe). This is a must for anyone looking to incorporate Cantonese cuisine into their repertoire. Agent: Katherine Cowles, Cowles Agency. (Mar.)
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Reviewed on: 01/29/2025
Genre: Lifestyle
Other - 1 pages - 978-0-593-58209-1