Review: Henry Chung’s Hunan Style Chinese Cookbook | Sybaritica

 

ISBN 10: 0517533251 / 0-517-53325-1  ISBN 13: 9780517533253 Publisher: Harmony Books Publication Date: 1978  

 I picked a copy of this book up at a second hand bookstore in Ottawa and when I opened it I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is autographed by the author himself. The autograph, accompanied by the author’s personal Chinese seal, is prefaced with wishes of ‘Happy eating’ to a person named ‘Greg Lowder’. The signature is dated 1985 (7 years later than the publication date) so it doesn’t look like this book was a copy purchased at a ‘book-signing’ promotion. I can’t help speculating about who this Mr. Lowder might be, or how this signed edition ended up in a second hand bookstore … an estate-sale, maybe?

Anyway, I would have bought this book even without the signature as I recognized the author’s name and I also seem to remember seeing him on television some years ago. Henry Chung, who was born in Hunan, came to the United States in 1948 and became quite well known for his Hunan restaurant on Kearny Street in San Francisco. According to Tony Hiss, who wrote the introduction to this book, this establishment, which received rave reviews in Gourmet magazine, was ‘practically the only Hunanese–owned restaurant outside of China and one of the few outside the province of Hunan itself’. This fact, even if only partially accurate, certainly accords Mr. Chung’s book a certain historical value, to my mind.

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Content and Organization

The book contains 145 pages and the recipes, numbering 80 in all, are grouped into eight basic categories.

Table of Contents (click to enlarge)

At the beginning, there is a section entitled ‘First words about Hunan and Hunan Cuisine’. It is very brief, only 14 pages long, and, quite obviously, gives only a short shrift to what is a complex topic. Indeed, the author purports, in these mere few pages, to give the reader an introduction to Hunanese history and culture, Hunanese foodstuffs, and the techniques and equipment used in Hunan cookery. In truth, most of this material contains little more than the general basics that can be found in a host of other Chinese cookbooks, although the author does supplement this somewhat in the introductory paragraphs to the various food categories.

Alternating with the recipe sections are some short essays on a variety of topics, most of which are only peripherally connected to Hunanese cookery. There is one section on the Chinese Zodiac, for example, and another on ‘Feng Shui’. The odd nugget of interesting information can be found here and there in these pages but most of it is really not especially diverting and one gets the sense that these added sections have been included almost as an afterthought to give ‘filler’ to what would otherwise be a very short book. It is a shame, ultimately, that the author didn’t spend a bit more time and include some more topical information.

Many of the recipes in the book are for dishes that the author served at his restaurant in San Francisco and, while some are definitely Hunanese in character, such as the Red-Stewed Beef Ligament, for example, a good many, like the Mu-si Pork, don’t have any special connection with Hunan at all. In all fairness though, it should be pointed out that the title of the book reads ‘Hunan-style’ cookery and the author does not actually claim to be offering an in-depth coverage of actual ‘authentic’ Hunanese dishes. In a similar vein, it is also true that many ingredients common in Hunan would have been much less available in North America back in 1978 than they are today and that this factor would have placed constraints on the author both in terms of cooking at his restaurants and in writing recipes for a North American readership.

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Assessment

The recipes on offer are fairly straightforward and easy enough to follow even for a relative novice in the kitchen. Unfortunately, very few of them dishes are accompanied by illustrations of the finished dishes and the few pictures that are provided are fairly poor quality gray-scale illustrations that really don’t add much to the text.

The author is no doubt a very fine cook, but that does not, of course, necessarily make one an expert on food in general. Several times throughout the book, Mr. Chung confidently asserts that this or that particular ingredient or dish is far superior in Hunan than it is anywhere else in China. One expects a certain bias, perhaps, but ultimately he just comes across as opinionated and one wonders how extensive is his experience when it comes to making fair comparisons.

At the beginning of each recipe, the author provides a little introductory background to the dish in question. This is one of those qualities that makes for a good cookery book instead of a mediocre one, but this is only as true as the degree to which one can rely on the information being given. In the recipe for Kung Pao Chicken for example, the author tells us that the dish was originally created by the chef to a Hunanese general named Tso Tsung-tang. This is at odds with virtually all other sources wherein the dish is associated with the Sichuan Governor, Ding Baozhen, who was known by the title Gong Bao (Kung Pao) meaning Palace Guardian. Indeed, Mr. Chung actually seems to be confusing the origin of this dish with that of ‘General Tso’s Chicken’ which has now become virtually ubiquitous on Chinese restaurant menus. Unfortunately, questionable assertions like this make it difficult to rely on the book as authority for other culinary propositions as well.

Finally, even though I recognize that the author claims only to offer ‘Hunan-style’ recipes and limits himself to easily-available ingredients, it is still difficult to regard this book as a good introduction on Hunan cuisine. In more than one place the author refers to ‘pickled chili’ and in one recipe in particular (Beef Shreds with Pickled Hot Peppers at p. 89) he calls for these as an ingredient. Surprisingly, however, the Mr. Chung never identifies them further and the reader is left to guess at what should be used. Chopped chili peppers, which are then salted and allowed to pickle by lactic acid fermentation, are a fundamental mainstay of Hunan cookery known as duo la jiao. This is something that can easily be replicated outside of Hunan, even using non-native chilies, and I find it curious, to say the least, that a chef with his roots in Hunan, could write a book about his native cuisine and make no detailed mention of this simple, yet fundamental ingredient.

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 Overall

There are a number of very good books on Hunan cookery available these days (some of which will be reviewed here in due course). This book, for the reasons I have discussed above is not one of them and, indeed, if it were a recent publication, I would likely award it only one or two stars. As it is though, Mr. Chung is one of the pioneers, if you will, in the export of Hunan cuisine, both as a restaurateur and an author. As such, this book has a certain historical value, particularly to those with an interest in how Chinese food has developed once it was introduced to places beyond its traditional borders. I am very glad to own a copy.

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