In 1969 my Berkeley friends and I got ahold of Emily Hahn's book about Chinese cooking...at the time Mao was devastating old China, but somehow Hahn's cooking connected us with the lives of real people used to surviving one natural and political catastrophe after another and making time to cook for family. We spread a clean sheet on the apartment living room floor because there was no dining table big enough...and turned out one rather complex dish after another to eat sitting cross legged on the floor. Since then the world has changed, China and the US both are transformed. There are still natural and political catastrophes, but the recipes still work. Best eaten on a clean sheet spread out on the lawn or floor with family. With google, I was able to look up Emily Hahn's biography, what an amazing woman she was, scientist, traveler, writer, she affected the lives of people she never met, and all for the good.... ( )

Includes illustrated hardback and also spiral-bound recipe booklet