Recipes from Beyond the Great Wall

Beyond the Great Wall Cookbook

In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai. But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppelands of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. The peoples who live in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions. In Beyond the Great Wall, the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid―who first met as young travelers in Tibet―bring home the enticing flavors of this other China.

Szechuan spice-rubbed pork loin covered with ground Szechuan peppercorns, condiments on the side

Szechuan Spice-Rubbed Pork

For this embarrassingly easy roast, a tingling rub of Szechuan pepper, black pepper, and nutmeg (yes, nutmeg) coats pork butt or loin before it’s roasted to tender incredibleness.

A brown bowl filled with ginger and carrot stir-fry on a wooden mat.

Ginger and Carrot Stir-Fry

There’s nothing wallflowerish about this stir-fry, not with its gingery zing of tongue-tingling, sinus-clearing, tummy-settling ginger. Nothing at all.