Sometimes you read a memoir/cookbook that puts your life is in perspective. The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco by famous San Francisco restaurant owner Cecilia Chiang tells her life story of barely escaping China, moving to Japan then on to America and becoming perhaps the most famous Chinese restaurant in the city at the time. And one with a lasting legacy. And she was a woman. And she didn’t grow up cooking.
So there were a few hurdles, to put it lightly. The fact that I have a cold and my sink sprung a leak – those are non-issues.
So I made a bunch of the recipes to see for myself. And though I’m gluten free (no soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce except the GF versions), I found some fermented, salted black beans (naturally wheat-free) and figured Cecilia Chiang’s black bean clams would make a good dinner, even if I swapped out the clams for (cheaper) mussels.
When food lovers talk about books you have to read, they often mention this one, but they mention it for both the story and the recipes. The recipes come from the restaurant. They’re the bestsellers: the potstickers, the seafood, the Americanized versions of food from home. And they come with the stories of feeding famous musicians, politicians and the who’s who of San Francisco at a time when Chinese food was cheap and quick and this was not. This was glamour.
I was right. Or, rather, she was brilliant.
Here’s where you can get the book (or at your local library).
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