Cookinig with the ones who know

Apron Strings
by Jan Wong

What a delight! Mother and son go in search of home cooking in three countries, and find it by living with the ordinary people who host them. France and Italy were best--who can resist Chiara and Maria Rosa's Two Stir Risotto al Porro?

Here is how she introduces it:
Cookbooks tiresomely insisted you stand over the pot, constantly stirring risotto, one reason I rarely made it. Restaurants back home made a fuss about risotto: they charged a fortune, forced you to order it for a minimum of two persons, and warned you it would take forty-five minutes. In Italy, just as there was no cult of pasta, there was no cult of risotto. It was just rice. I watched Maria Rosa toss in half a cup of hot broth, give the rice a couple of stirs, cover the pan and turn down the heat. That was it. Every now and then, she checked on the rice. When it dried out, she added more broth.

In addition to teaching you an easy way to make risotto, that passage gives you an idea of how Jan Wong writes. I just love it. Chatty, informative, and .  Plus I learned that Italian people eat dried pasta, just like we do. French people--or at least the ones she stayed with--do indeed drink wine with their meals, but the amounts were scanty. The best of cooks occasionally favored a recipe that most of their friends would call hideous. And most of all, if you cook for a cook, even if you have to substitute or omit half o the ingredients, they will be extremely appreciative.
right there

Their trip to China was strange. The family that was hosting them was either extremely wealthy or extremely overextended on credit--they lived in a 5-bedroom, two story penthouse full of antiques and art. But the kitchen fare was meager--the hostess was on an eternal diet and her maid was timid and lacking in self-confidence. She could cook, all right--they both could--but the hostess was too busy with her beauty regimen and the maid was too scared.