The Asian Market Cookbook

January 3, 2022
“How can you choose a brand when you cannot even read the Chinese label?” asks Aronson, a Chengdu native and MasterChef alumna, in her debut, a delicious tour through Asia’s cooking staples. Armed with years of experience in Chinese food markets, Aronson provides answers by way of recommendations for condiments, pastes, and noodles, as well as recipes for using them at home. Names of the dishes—which hail from all over the continent—are transliterated, with their origins explained in headnotes; dressed romaine leaves called Phoenix tail in sesame paste (ma jiang feng wei), for instance, gets its moniker because of its resemblance to the mythical bird’s plumage. Throughout, signature dishes of Aronson’s family abound, including her mother’s braised pork belly and Cantonese golden fried rice with preserved mustard stems (a preparation that dates back 1,500 years). While recipes for such Chinese classics as mapo tofu, red-braised eggplant, and scallion pancakes hew closely to tradition, other dishes use ingredients in unexpected ways: Coca-Cola takes the place of rock sugar in a glaze for chicken legs; cream cheese enriches the topping for bubble tea with molasses-infused tapioca pearls; and silver ear mushrooms and goji berries are simmered in a velvety sweet soup. No matter how well versed one might be in Asian fare, this offers something for everyone.