Food for Thought: Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees

I ran across Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees in a Facebook comment by Rob Handel, the chef I interviewed about foraging. Rob is a trained botanist who likes to categorize things, so I can see why he would enjoy this book. It’s organized by cooking methods: stir-frying, red cooking, flavored steaming and so on. You learn the technique, then get several recipes to practice it. There’s also a preface describing the characteristics of each region’s cuisine, including lesser-known (in the West) areas like zhejiang and shandong. The author, Kian Lam Kho, is from Singapore which provides an appreciated third-party objectivity as well as some nice dishes from Kho’s own upbringing.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees also has some excellent historical tidbits. We learn that Mapo, as in Mapo Dofu, literally means “pock marked” and this iconic dish is named after Pock-Marked Chen, who endured the epithet but also opened a restaurant specializing in mapo dofu which is still in business in China today. We also discover that sweet and sour pork, far from a Westernized abomination, was a logical creation by Chinese who migrated to California, and that General Tso’s Chicken, often mocked for its inauthenticity, was invented in Taiwan, by a chef who late opened a restaurant in NYC that was unsuccessful because people didn’t think it was authentic enough.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees (the title is a literal translation of the characters representing chicken feet and Chinese broccoli) is good reading with some good recipes. Check it out.