As a sidebar to this month’s Chinese Buffet series, throughout August, One for the Road will highlight travel guides, reference books and other recommended reads related to life or travel in China.
The final two books from the True Run Media team that I’d like to mention this week are their brand new restaurant ordering guides: Healthy Chinese Cuisine and Spicy Chinese Cuisine are compact glossy flip books that are handy for making sure you order what you really want to eat. Each book includes color photos of popular dishes, and is accompanied by the name of entrees in Chinese and Pinyin, as well as an English, Russian and French translation of all the meals.
A variety of culinary regions are represented — Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Xinjiang. Ingredients for each featured dish are also included, so you know exactly what is supposed to be in what you are ordering. No guarantees, of course — but a book like this might be especially useful for folks with food allergies. The spicy book has dishes like sour lotus root, Kung Pao chicken, spicy cucumber and all kinds of hot stir fry. These guys love their spicy food so much that they also host a Chili Pepper Eating Contest each summer. Is your mouth watering yet?