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“An astonishingly accomplished exploration of flavors, ingredients, and traditions.”—Katy Hui-wen Hung (洪惠文), co-author of A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai
“This is a beautiful love letter to Taiwan and a quietly uncompromising work of documentation.”—Hannah Che, author of The Vegan Chinese Kitchen
George Lee grew up with his A-Gong (grandfather) in the quiet refuge of Tamsui, Taiwan. He took part in the myriad Taiwanese food traditions his A-Gong nurtured, until he was seventeen, when his A-Gong passed. In observation of the death, he and his family undertook a set of Buddhist funeral customs and abstained from eating meat. For a hundred days, they ate at the monastery and the nuns there taught him to cook.
Years later, he revisited the lessons and pieced them into the story of his family’s cooking. Some recipes he shares here are directly from childhood: Han-tsî-bê, an everyday breakfast congee floating with fist-size chunks of golden sweet potatoes, and the quintessential preserve Tshài-póo, crunchy strips of sun-dried daikon radish that salt in the air for a few days in January. Others tread the boundaries between old and new, such as Sòo-lóo-pn̄g, a meatless rendition of the hand-cut pork bits his mom braised in soy sauce and ladled over rice.
While writing this book, George wandered all over Taiwan with his friend Laurent Hsia, who took photos along the way. Together, they sought out the foods and places tied to their memories growing up. Like the grandpa who slung a bag of apples along the zebra crossing to exit the morning market, or the old couple on the bus in black and white, sitting side by side and peering forward, the two found themselves . . . always afoot, traveling. A-Gong’s Table follows the rhythm of their footsteps: a pulse that takes you quietly through the book and through Taiwan, from morning to night.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 30, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781984861283
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781984861283
- File size: 86781 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from April 1, 2024
Lee, who runs the blog site Chez Jorge and has buzzy accounts on Instagram and TikTok, grew up in a house built by A-Gong, his paternal grandfather, on the outskirts of Taipei. Basing this book on his family history, particularly the 100-day period he spent following Buddhist funeral customs to abstain from meat after the death of A-Gong, Lee offers 90+ vegan recipes. These are enriched with detailed notes and intimate story fragments, as well as photographs by Laurent Hsia, taken as they both traveled across Taiwan. The book is arranged across items from the larder, breakfast, little eats, vegetables, soups, mains, and festivals and includes the Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese translations of recipe names. It is a book for readers of cookbooks and is deep, reflective, and exhaustive in its goal of sharing a culinary heritage--and a family life. Some of the dishes will take skill and time, such as Five Willow fried fish, but others, including the comforting sweet potato congee, will welcome and sustain first-timers to the recipe. VERDICT A rich achievement that should be a part of all library collections. It might not be a book everyone cooks from, but it will be one everyone learns from.--Neal Wyatt
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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