"Award-winning cookbook author Jacki Passmore has spent years traveling across Asia, collecting 200 of the very best hot and spicy recipes. In the chapter introductions, she tells the stories of her culinary adventures. As she traveled the Sichuan region of China, training ground for China's greatest chefs, the dinner banquets included no fewer than 30 courses including the Sichuan hotpot - everything from oyster mushrooms to freshwater eels are dunked in the Sichuan pepper-spiced broth." "In Malaysia and Singapore the food is cross-cultural, a blend of ingredients and cooking styles from India, China and Indonesia. Curry and rice are eaten in the traditional way, using no cutlery, just the fingers." "In India, restaurant food for tourists is delicious, but the real culinary delights are found in the marketplace, where Jacki sampled the chili-laden vegetarian foods of the South and the pungent mustard oil-cooked foods of the East. In a small Indonesian village, a local family took her into their home where she learned to prepare everything by hand, from husking rice to pounding chilies with salt to make sambal ulek." "Jacki Passmore also discusses ingredients - peppers, spices and chilies - including how to buy them and how they are used and served throughout the Far East."--BOOK JACKET.