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From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking
One of the best known experts on Chinese food draws on her reminiscences of the foods of her childhood to create 200 exciting vegetarian recipes--many of which make use of commonly available ingredients--and describes the techniques used to prepare them. 40 line drawings.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 26, 2012
Firstly, we make no apologies in reviewing a book that is 17 years old... older than many YUM readers. Yet this is a classic in its genre and an indisputable reference work, all of which is written by a credible, established author to boot.
Simply put this book is concerned with vegetarian cookery, authentic Chinese vegetarian cookery. Combining all of the essential elements and utilising the fruits of the earth, you will soon see that perhaps there can be many tasty alternative dishes that don't feature meat. This book is not, however, campaigning or encouraging you not to eat meat - it just focusses on meat-free dishes. This reviewer believes that even meat eaters will find many things here that can either function as credible dishes on their own, or even work well with a bit of meat thrown in for good (?) measure.
After a look at the foods of the earth and an introduction to the typical Chinese kitchen (for those who are not familiar with an authentic kitchen) and common techniques involved within Chinese cookery. Even the more-experienced cook should give this section at least a quick glance as it is possible to learn new tricks, tips and techniques. The recipes themselves are split into sections: vegetables; rice; soup; traditions of Buddha; fish; noodles and wrappings; pickles and salads; fruits and buts, sweets and snacks. The book is written in a fairly deceptive, easy-to-follow, unassuming manner. You are not treated like a total fool but neither are you assumed to be the son of a master chef either. The advice is just given, perhaps similar to how a mother would give advice to her child.
Looking at the recipes many of them appear to be familiar yet when you focus a little more deeply inside it is interesting to note just how many small variations and in fact not so common combinations can go together. For example, taken purely at random, baby corn with broccoli stems or mushroom lettuce rolls.
If this book was released today it would surely feature many full-colour pictures of the dishes and certainly on one hand that could be a benefit to see what you are making. Yet the author has managed to carefully, perfectly encapsulate the recipes and advice in this book into a single, strong unit. Maybe the intricacies of Chinese food preparation have been subsumed in the editing process.
If you have the opportunity to acquire this book or at least to preview it then you are strongly recommended to do so and to consider a purchase. Not so many books are on sale 17 years after their release, in a regular issue, at a price much higher than their sticker price. Yet this book is nothing special, yet it IS special. It delivers everything it modestly promises and a lot more besides.
From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking, written by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and published by Hungry Minds Inc. ISBN 0026329859, 336 pages. Typical price: GBP40. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Simply put this book is concerned with vegetarian cookery, authentic Chinese vegetarian cookery. Combining all of the essential elements and utilising the fruits of the earth, you will soon see that perhaps there can be many tasty alternative dishes that don't feature meat. This book is not, however, campaigning or encouraging you not to eat meat - it just focusses on meat-free dishes. This reviewer believes that even meat eaters will find many things here that can either function as credible dishes on their own, or even work well with a bit of meat thrown in for good (?) measure.
After a look at the foods of the earth and an introduction to the typical Chinese kitchen (for those who are not familiar with an authentic kitchen) and common techniques involved within Chinese cookery. Even the more-experienced cook should give this section at least a quick glance as it is possible to learn new tricks, tips and techniques. The recipes themselves are split into sections: vegetables; rice; soup; traditions of Buddha; fish; noodles and wrappings; pickles and salads; fruits and buts, sweets and snacks. The book is written in a fairly deceptive, easy-to-follow, unassuming manner. You are not treated like a total fool but neither are you assumed to be the son of a master chef either. The advice is just given, perhaps similar to how a mother would give advice to her child.
Looking at the recipes many of them appear to be familiar yet when you focus a little more deeply inside it is interesting to note just how many small variations and in fact not so common combinations can go together. For example, taken purely at random, baby corn with broccoli stems or mushroom lettuce rolls.
If this book was released today it would surely feature many full-colour pictures of the dishes and certainly on one hand that could be a benefit to see what you are making. Yet the author has managed to carefully, perfectly encapsulate the recipes and advice in this book into a single, strong unit. Maybe the intricacies of Chinese food preparation have been subsumed in the editing process.
If you have the opportunity to acquire this book or at least to preview it then you are strongly recommended to do so and to consider a purchase. Not so many books are on sale 17 years after their release, in a regular issue, at a price much higher than their sticker price. Yet this book is nothing special, yet it IS special. It delivers everything it modestly promises and a lot more besides.
From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking, written by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo and published by Hungry Minds Inc. ISBN 0026329859, 336 pages. Typical price: GBP40. YYYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
April 16, 2025
Though you might not know it from some American Chinese restaurants (or China’s recent pork consumption), China has a long tradition of delicious and sometimes quite elaborate vegetarian cooking. This is in part because Buddhist monks don’t eat meat and Taoist practitioners rarely do, while regular people may also be vegetarian for stretches of time as part of a religious vow. Over the centuries, various ingredients from other parts of the world have been incorporated into that tradition.
This book provides a lot of that historical and cultural background to the recipes, including sharing the puns that give certain dishes meaning (eg scallions - chung - being considered wise because the character for “wise” sounds like chung ming, and because they are hollow like an open, receptive mind) as well as the really fun names given to a lot of foreign veggies (“golden pearls” for sweet corn kernels, “shoots of the mist” for asparagus, etc.).
Recipes I’ve tried
- Vegetarian “oysters” (Rounds of fried eggplant stuffed with onion and ginger pickle. I recommend adding the salt and pepper to the batter. Really succulent and yummy.)
- Buddah’s delight (A medley of different colors and textures to delight a Buddhist monk. You can sub in various things – I didn’t use the celery, and couldn’t find the dried tofu – but I would encourage trying to get at least a couple of the more unusual ingredients such as lotus root, black mushroom, and lily buds because they really give this dish its unusual character. I used the recipe on the facing page to prepare the gingko nuts for this from the tree in my garden, which I’d never done before. Gingko “fruits” are very stinky, but the seeds inside have a mild, tender kernel with just a touch of bitterness. But you could sub in something like edamame for a similar texture if you can’t get these!)
- Tomatoes stir-fried with broccoli (Includes mushrooms & water chestnuts. I used halved cherry tomatoes, the broccoli stems in place of celery, and soaked dried shiitakes. Nice and fresh-tasting, but would probably up the shiitakes next time for more umami flavor)
- Pineapple stir-fried with “chicken” (Relatively simple and quite tasty, with boiled and pan-fried tofu playing the role of chicken, and oyster sauce being the main flavoring for the tofu, pineapple, water chestnut and peppers)
- Scallops with mango (There are some seafood dishes included in this book as well. Here the sweet scallops and mango are complemented by asparagus, bell pepper and mushrooms. I substituted fresh oyster mushrooms for straw mushrooms and left out the celery)
- Asparagus with straw mushrooms (…and gingko nuts, bell pepper, and other ingredients! I left out the baby corn and bean threads because I didn’t have any, and used fresh oyster mushrooms instead of canned straw mushrooms. Makes for a refreshing, healthy stir-fry.)
- Mushroom lettuce rolls (Likewise stands up to a bit of substitution/proportion adjustment. I used dried shiitake instead of black mushroom and I didn’t double-blanche the bean sprouts because ours come soft enough that doing that AND stir-frying them would kill them. But when those were combined with the bell pepper, ginger pickle, and oyster sauce, the result was delicious)
With 200 total recipes, I still have a long way to go, but with the ones above this book has proved itself a staple of my cookbook shelf.
This book provides a lot of that historical and cultural background to the recipes, including sharing the puns that give certain dishes meaning (eg scallions - chung - being considered wise because the character for “wise” sounds like chung ming, and because they are hollow like an open, receptive mind) as well as the really fun names given to a lot of foreign veggies (“golden pearls” for sweet corn kernels, “shoots of the mist” for asparagus, etc.).
Recipes I’ve tried
- Vegetarian “oysters” (Rounds of fried eggplant stuffed with onion and ginger pickle. I recommend adding the salt and pepper to the batter. Really succulent and yummy.)
- Buddah’s delight (A medley of different colors and textures to delight a Buddhist monk. You can sub in various things – I didn’t use the celery, and couldn’t find the dried tofu – but I would encourage trying to get at least a couple of the more unusual ingredients such as lotus root, black mushroom, and lily buds because they really give this dish its unusual character. I used the recipe on the facing page to prepare the gingko nuts for this from the tree in my garden, which I’d never done before. Gingko “fruits” are very stinky, but the seeds inside have a mild, tender kernel with just a touch of bitterness. But you could sub in something like edamame for a similar texture if you can’t get these!)
- Tomatoes stir-fried with broccoli (Includes mushrooms & water chestnuts. I used halved cherry tomatoes, the broccoli stems in place of celery, and soaked dried shiitakes. Nice and fresh-tasting, but would probably up the shiitakes next time for more umami flavor)
- Pineapple stir-fried with “chicken” (Relatively simple and quite tasty, with boiled and pan-fried tofu playing the role of chicken, and oyster sauce being the main flavoring for the tofu, pineapple, water chestnut and peppers)
- Scallops with mango (There are some seafood dishes included in this book as well. Here the sweet scallops and mango are complemented by asparagus, bell pepper and mushrooms. I substituted fresh oyster mushrooms for straw mushrooms and left out the celery)
- Asparagus with straw mushrooms (…and gingko nuts, bell pepper, and other ingredients! I left out the baby corn and bean threads because I didn’t have any, and used fresh oyster mushrooms instead of canned straw mushrooms. Makes for a refreshing, healthy stir-fry.)
- Mushroom lettuce rolls (Likewise stands up to a bit of substitution/proportion adjustment. I used dried shiitake instead of black mushroom and I didn’t double-blanche the bean sprouts because ours come soft enough that doing that AND stir-frying them would kill them. But when those were combined with the bell pepper, ginger pickle, and oyster sauce, the result was delicious)
With 200 total recipes, I still have a long way to go, but with the ones above this book has proved itself a staple of my cookbook shelf.
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November 18, 2021Hunted this book down because I’m currently trying to make a specific type of mock meat, and this book has a chapter on temple food. It doesn’t have the thing I was looking for, but does have a lot of other great recipes.
Side note: so 90s! Three recipes that use sun dried tomatoes!!!
Side note: so 90s! Three recipes that use sun dried tomatoes!!!
December 25, 2017
Amazingly good.
May 24, 2018
One of my absolute favorite cookbooks!
March 10, 2020
Fantastic! I have loved everything I have tried from this collection, and I have learned valuable core techiniques.
July 20, 2018
Amazingly good.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews