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The Art of Escapism Cooking

A Survival Story, with Intensely Good Flavors

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In this inventive and intensely personal cookbook, the blogger behind the award-winning ladyandpups.com reveals how she cooked her way out of an untenable living situation, with more than eighty delicious Asian-inspired dishes with influences from around the world.
For Mandy Lee, moving from New York to Beijing for her husband’s work wasn’t an exotic adventure—it was an ordeal. Growing increasingly exasperated with China’s stifling political climate, its infuriating bureaucracy, and its choking pollution, she began “an unapologetically angry food blog,” LadyandPups.com, to keep herself from going mad.

Mandy cooked because it channeled her focus, helping her cope with the difficult circumstances of her new life. She filled her kitchen with warming spices and sticky sauces while she shared recipes and observations about life, food, and cooking in her blog posts. Born in Taiwan and raised in Vancouver, she came of age food-wise in New York City and now lives in Hong Kong; her food reflects the many places she’s lived. This entertaining and unusual cookbook is the story of how “escapism cooking”—using the kitchen as a refuge and ultimately creating delicious and satisfying meals—helped her crawl out of her expat limbo.

Illustrated with her own gorgeous photography, The Art of Escapism Cooking provides that comforting feeling a good meal provides. Here are dozens of innovative and often Asian-influenced recipes, divided into categories by mood and occasion, such as:

For Getting Out of Bed
Poached Eggs with Miso-Browned Butter Hollandaise
Crackling Pancake with Caramel-Clustered Blueberries and Balsamic Honey

For Slurping
Buffalo Fried Chicken Ramen
Crab Bisque Tsukemen 

For a Crowd
Cumin Lamb Rib Burger
Italian Meatballs in Taiwanese Rouzao Sauce

For Snacking
Wontons with Shrimp and Chili Coconut Oil and Herbed Yogurt
Spicy Chickpea Poppers 

For Sweets
Mochi with Peanut Brown Sugar and Ice Cream
Recycled Nuts and Caramel Apple Cake

Every dish is sublimely delicious and worth the time and attention required. Mandy also demystifies unfamiliar ingredients and where to find them, shares her favorite tools, and provides instructions for essential condiments for the pantry and fridge, such as Ramen Seasoning, Fried Chili Verde Sauce, Caramelized Onion Powder Paste, and her Ultimate Sichuan Chile Oil.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 1, 2019
      Lee, who vents about living abroad in her Lady and Pups blog, fuels this stunning cookbook with the ferocity of Sichuan peppercorns and chili oil. Lee, who moved to Beijing when her husband relocated for work, despised her six and a half years there. Only her dogs and her cooking beat back encroaching depression. What could have been a slog is instead an energetic confessional, for Lee is as gifted a writer as she is a cook. Breakfast is too jovial a concept for her, tasting like “denial buttered up with overcompensating enthusiasm,” so the opening chapter is instead entitled For Getting Out of Bed and includes clams over oatmeal with pickled chilies and grated ginger. Declaring that ramen is a “judgement-free zone,” Lee proves the point with truffle lard-infused ramen with fennel pork belly and sauerkraut. “Good food can be remembered badly if shared with the wrong people” is the warning that prefaces a chapter of crowd-friendly dishes including cumin lamb rib burgers. Lee concludes her innovative work not with cocktails but with treats for her beloved dogs, including a birthday meatcake. Desperation breeds contempt, but also confit, in this unique and deeply felt debut.

    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2019

      It is clear from early on in this debut cookbook that Lee did not always enjoy her six years living in Beijing, after her husband relocated for work. She turned to the kitchen for escape, ultimately creating a blog, Lady and Pups, to share her culinary adventures. The resulting collection of tried-and-true meals leads to thrilling food and, though not all ingredients may be readily available, Lee's conversational writing makes the recipes and dynamic flavor combinations feel chievable. Born in Taiwan, raised in Vancouver, and now living in Hong Kong, Lee willfully blends cuisines and ingredients to suit her tastes, and scoffs at any notion of what should or cannot be done because of tradition. Dishes such as mochi with peanut brown sugar and ice cream, Italian meatballs in Taiwanese rouzao sauce, and wontons with shrimp chili coconut oil and herbed yogurt will draw in fans of Lee's blog and attract new ones. Loneliness, or in her words, self-abandonment, should always taste so good. VERDICT If ever a cookbook could be described as exciting, this one would be it. Highly recommended.--Peter Hepburn, Coll. of the Canyons Lib., Santa Clarita, CA

      Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2019
      The self-described "angry blogger" behind Lady and Pups, Lee describes the calm of making an elaborate pastrami sandwich in her Beijing apartment, when she had a realization: "When and how had I gone from a moderately motivated home cook who hovered in the aisles of frozen pizzas and dumplings over the edge into an obsessive kitchen extremist?" She answers her question over the course of her first cookbook, which shares her story of discovering cooking's healing powers during an extremely difficult time, alongside more than 100 recipes, many of which are boldly influenced by Chinese, Korean, Thai, and other cuisines. She divides the collection by moods like "for getting out of bed" (a gloriously custard-filled toast called "Pandora's Box") and "shit I eat when I'm by myself" (spamocado toast and haung fei hong spicy cold peanut noodles). True to her blog's name, she concludes with a few dishes "for pups." Recipes are generally complex, with instructions in Lee's inimitably wry voice, notes on sourcing specialty ingredients, and both metric and imperial measurements, when applicable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

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Languages

  • English

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