The Art of Escapism Cooking

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.

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.

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.)