Beyond the Great Wall...

Sitting down with one of Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford’s cookbooks is not something you want to do with a few spare minutes of time. It requires a big cup of tea (or maybe a glass of wine) and several uninterrupted hours.

The traveling couple’s latest big, beautiful book, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in The Other China, has looked lovely on my coffee table since I got it this summer, but has not made its way into my hands outside of the occasional browse, much to my chagrin. The day with nothing to do but read and sip has yet to come, so I’ve instead relinquished myself to taking it in in bits and pieces, and very satisfying bits and pieces, at that.

Duiguid and Alford, who live in Toronto, have carved out quite a niche for themselves in the cookery book genre. Self-proclaimed “professional travelers,” they say the rest of their crafts – photography, research, cooking and writing – started as hobbies. Put them all together and this is what fills their award-winning hardcover tomes – stunning photography, musings on food, history and culture and, of course, recipes. All are based on a theme –Hot, Sour, Salty Sweet took readers on a culinary journey through Southeast Asia; Home Baking documented their travels into kitchens around the world to learn the art of bread making (and more).

Beyond the Great Wall – well-timed to be released during a spring and summer when China was very much the hot topic – looks past the culinary traditions of Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai (the Chinese food we’re familiar more with). Instead, it examines how people live and eat in China’s outlying regions – places like Tibet and Inner Mongolia – and the effort their people put forth to preserve their food and culture.

On October 21, Duguid and Alford (or possibly just Alford – they haven’t worked it out quite yet) will be participating in a dinner celebration of Beyond the Great Wall at Hannah’s Bella Bistro in Waterloo, part of a new food and book series the restaurant is putting on in collaboration with Words Worth Books. For $110 (or $155 per couple), hungry participants will get a copy of the book and enjoy a four course meal chosen from its pages by restaurant owner Hannah Santos. There will be a slideshow, commentary on the menu and, inevitably, some great discussion.

Though they’ve traveled extensively to promote the book since its release in April, Duguid told me recently that no two events have been alike; the dialogue has flowed in countless directions.

“It really depends on the crowd,” she says. “You know how conversations can take shape.”

That said, Duguid admits that she and Alford have a special fondness for university towns. “They’re not enormous cities,” she says. “And people are interested in the wider world. Those are our favourite venues, where you’re not fighting for attention in a huge city and people are prepared to come out and engage and not be so cool that they can’t show they’re having fun.”

Among the items on the menu for the evening: cheese momos with fresh tomato salsa (Chinese-style, with sesame oil), Mongolian hotpot and chicken pulao with pumpkin. Choosing what to make wasn’t an easy task for Santos, who describes herself as more freestyle chef and less recipe follower.

“It was actually really nervewracking,” she says. “I’ve never really cooked someone else’s menu. These are celebrated authors and in picking the menu items, I wanted to best represent them and honour them.”

For Duguid, seeing how chefs put the menu together is part of the fun in this type of event. “To have someone take a fresh look at it is always interesting. They can take a recipe and pair it with something new.”

This event is the first event in what Hannah and the Words Worth’s Bronwyn Addico are hoping will be a series. Next month, they’ll play host to Bonnie Stern, who will be coming in support of her new book, Friday Night Dinners. The evening will follow a similar format.

“We had done author events and book readings before, but nothing specific to cooking so this is sort of new,” says Santos. “We’re really excited about them.”

As for Duguid, she and her husband are just happy to be involved in introducing readers to new cultures and experiences. “That’s our job – and our pleasure,” she said. “This isn’t Chinese food. It takes place in the People’s Republic of China. But it’s not even going against stereotype. It’s just something that people don’t know exists. We’re happy to have them see that.”

More information on the Words Worth Eating events at Hannah’s can be found at http://www.hannahsbellabistro.com/ or www.wordsworthbooks.com. And do check out Alford and Duguid’s recently launched website/blog, too, at http://www.immersethrough.com/.
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