CHINA CRISIS

Lost in the aisles of the supermarket? ‘Chinatown Kitchen’ is here to help By Holly Williams

Ever waltzed into a supermarket searching for a little something to make your stir-fry more authentic, only to blanch at the eight shelves of noodles, 32 varieties of soy sauce and hundreds of mysterious jars of bean paste? Don’t worry if you can’t tell your pak choi from your choi sum — you’re not alone. It was with this in mind that Lizzie Mabbott wrote her first cookery book, Chinatown Kitchen. Based on her successful blog, the book offers nononsense advice on everything from the kind of wok you need to essential store-cupboard ingredients.

Mabbott grew up in Hong Kong, but moved to Britain at 13. “I missed the food from my childhood,” she says — her mum wasn’t much of a cook, and the British Chinese takeaway didn’t exactly live up to her memories. But as an adult, with the help of internet message boards and plenty of hit-and-miss adventures in the UK’s Chinatown supermarkets, she embarked on a voyage of culinary rediscovery. Her appetite for Asian food soon extended beyond nostalgia-rich dishes, and the book includes Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Korean grub as well as Chinese.

Chinatown Kitchen is out now and available for about 1,000 baht. For more from Lizzie Mabbott, visit lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.co.uk.