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Cooking South of the Clouds: Recipes and Stories from China's Yunnan Province
Yunnan is the other China, the one you do not hear about on the news. It has been called the China "beyond the Great Wall." Twenty-four of the country's minority groups call Yunnan home, each retaining their own traditions. Stretching from the Himalayan plateau down to the subtropics, Yunnan encompasses extremes from alpine meadows to rainforest. It is the most diverse region in China culturally, biologically,and meteorologically.
On a culinary level, this means Yunnan is one of the most delicious places on earth. The region is famous for its mushrooms, hams, pickles, edible flowers, its use of potatoes, and its love of chiles and Sichuan peppercorns.
Yunnan's food is exciting and unfamiliar, but much of it is actually quite easy to make, using simple techniques already familiar to Western cooks. Each chapter covers a different area featuring its cardinal recipes such as Tibetan momo dumplings, Dai cucumber salad with peanuts, the famed "crossing-the-bridge" noodles of Kunming, Eastern-style fried rice with ham, potatoes, and peas, and roasted eggplant salad from near the Burmese border.
Complete with profiles of local cooks, artisans, and farmers, as well as breathtaking on-location photography, Cooking South of the Clouds takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the land of Shangri-La and introduces a new world of flavors.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 4, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 11, 2021
Saveur used to be one of my favorite food magazines. Before it went to on-line only and started reading like a marketing blog, it was a fabulous deep dive into the cultures and foods of the world. Sort of a Fine Cooking meets National Geographic. Georgia Freedman was once an editor of the magazine, and this cookbook makes me nostalgic for back when the magazine was really, really good.
All of that is to say that I took a chance on the cookbook based solely on name recognition. If Georgia Freedman was involved with it, it was probably going to be good. It is not merely good: it is terrific. The book is rich in details of Yunnan province's history and culture, but not so much that it forgets that it is, primarily, a cookbook. I went into the book as an "armchair cook" read, pretty sure I wouldn't be cooking from it -- my brief forays into Chinese cooking have led me to think it's best left those with better knife skills than mine -- but hoping to learn something about a region of the world completely unfamiliar to me. That didn't entirely work out as planned because the recipes are so approachable and sound so good that I've got a bunch earmarked to try.
Some do use ingredients that are not going to be found at your average America grocery -- culantro, fish mint, banana blossoms, and courgette blossoms come to mind -- but most employ items that can be found at most larger US groceries. Freedman also provides explanations of the more unusual ingredients and suggestions for appropriate substitutes.
If there is a flaw with the book, it is that some of the links in the Kindle edition aren't reciprocal. In other words, if you tap on a link that goes back to discussing a specific restaurant or person, there's no link to take you back to where you came from in the text. However, I only found this problem in the descriptive text of regions or introductions, not in the recipes themselves. All the links in the index and the recipe links at the beginning of each region's chapter seemed to be fine.
And, counting toward a minor miracle for a cookbook (or ANY book) these days, I only found one typo, and that was in the acknowledgements. Not to say there aren't others; but I can't remember the last time I read a cookbook and didn't find numerous errors and typos jumping off the page at me.
All of that is to say that I took a chance on the cookbook based solely on name recognition. If Georgia Freedman was involved with it, it was probably going to be good. It is not merely good: it is terrific. The book is rich in details of Yunnan province's history and culture, but not so much that it forgets that it is, primarily, a cookbook. I went into the book as an "armchair cook" read, pretty sure I wouldn't be cooking from it -- my brief forays into Chinese cooking have led me to think it's best left those with better knife skills than mine -- but hoping to learn something about a region of the world completely unfamiliar to me. That didn't entirely work out as planned because the recipes are so approachable and sound so good that I've got a bunch earmarked to try.
Some do use ingredients that are not going to be found at your average America grocery -- culantro, fish mint, banana blossoms, and courgette blossoms come to mind -- but most employ items that can be found at most larger US groceries. Freedman also provides explanations of the more unusual ingredients and suggestions for appropriate substitutes.
If there is a flaw with the book, it is that some of the links in the Kindle edition aren't reciprocal. In other words, if you tap on a link that goes back to discussing a specific restaurant or person, there's no link to take you back to where you came from in the text. However, I only found this problem in the descriptive text of regions or introductions, not in the recipes themselves. All the links in the index and the recipe links at the beginning of each region's chapter seemed to be fine.
And, counting toward a minor miracle for a cookbook (or ANY book) these days, I only found one typo, and that was in the acknowledgements. Not to say there aren't others; but I can't remember the last time I read a cookbook and didn't find numerous errors and typos jumping off the page at me.
October 16, 2020
Purchase Cooking South of the Clouds here for just $20!
This is a great Chinese cookbook that shows food from another region in China, Yunnan. Recipes for flatbreads, breakfast noodles and pineapple sticky rice are just a few of the wonderful foods on offer. With beautiful photographs and stories to match, this is one cookbook that will broaden your culinary world.
Alicia - The Book Grocer
This is a great Chinese cookbook that shows food from another region in China, Yunnan. Recipes for flatbreads, breakfast noodles and pineapple sticky rice are just a few of the wonderful foods on offer. With beautiful photographs and stories to match, this is one cookbook that will broaden your culinary world.
Alicia - The Book Grocer
October 26, 2020
Georgia Freedman unveils China's best-kept culinary secret, giving us a rare glimpse into the cooking of Yunnan province. More than a cookbook, it's an intimate journey through culinary traditions almost unknown in the West. Josh Wand's photos of the region's countryside, villages, markets, and dishes paint a stunning portrait of Yunnanese cuisine and life. Cooking South of the Clouds deserves a place of honor in every collection of Chinese cookbooks.
Grace Young
Grace Young
April 7, 2020
Getting a signed copy of this masterpiece from Ms. Freedman herself - in Beijing, on my BIRTHDAY - was a real treat. Yunnan is fab and the food is what life is all about. I look forward to returning. Anyway the book - lovely.
September 19, 2019
Brings back so many good memories from Yunnan province.
February 6, 2021
Really interesting and recipes, but above all such a rich and informative exploration of the culture and cuisine of Yunnan and its many people.
August 26, 2021
Simple recipes, not as interesting as what some of the other regions of China have to offer.
July 7, 2025
Authentic recipes, gorgeous gallery. This book is bittersweet for me because it brings me closer to the years I spent in Yunnan but it also makes me homesick. Well done.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews