Wrapped, rolled, or filled; steamed, fried, or baked–Asian dumplings are also surprisingly easy to prepare, as Andrea Nguyen demonstrates in Asian Dumplings. Nguyen is a celebrated food writer and teacher with a unique ability to interpret authentic Asian cooking styles for a Western audience. Her crystal-clear recipes for more than 75 of Asia’s most popular savory and sweet parcels, pockets, packages, and pastries range from Lumpia (the addictive fried spring rolls from the Philippines) to Shanghai Soup Dumplings (delicate thin-skinned dumplings filled with hot broth and succulent pork) to Gulab Jamun (India’s rich, syrupy sweets). Organized according to type (wheat pastas, skins, buns, and pastries; translucent wheat and tapioca preparations; rice dumplings; legumes and tubers; sweet dumplings), Asian Dumplings encompasses Eastern, Southeastern, and Southern Asia, with recipes from China, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Tibet, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Throughout, Nguyen shares the best techniques for shaping, filling, cooking, and serving each kind of dumpling. And she makes it easy to incorporate dumplings into a contemporary lifestyle by giving a thorough introduction to essential equipment and ingredients and offering make-ahead and storage guidance, time-saving shortcuts that still yield delectable results, and tips on planning a dumpling dinner party. More than 40 line drawings illustrate the finer points of shaping many kinds of dumplings, including gyōza/pot stickers, wontons, and samosas. Dozens of mouth-watering color photographs round out Asian Dumplings, making it the most definitive, inviting, inspiring book of its kind.

    Why did the medieval Church bless William of Normandy's invasion of Christian England in 1066 and authorize cultural genocide in Provence? How could a Christian army sack Christian Constantinople in 1204? This title unravels the story of the Christian military expeditions that have perturbed European history.

    Wave adieu to predictable journeys and escape the clutches of tourist traps. The time has come for different travel rules and The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel is your passport to a new world.Do you yearn for the glories of yesteryear? Pack an octogenarian guidebook and replace the subway with a penny farthing for an Anachronistic Adventure. Do you like to gamble? Taste the real thrill of adventure with Trip Poker or Monopoly Travel. Are you desperate for a holiday but strapped for cash? To undertake Budget Tourism low funds are not an obstacle but a prerequisite.With over 40 experiments to try, an enthralling history of Experimental Travel, interviews with our expert authors - including the founder of Latourex, an organization dedicated to Experimental Travel - and reports by intrepid experimenters, you'll be perfectly equipped for the open road. It's just up to you to fly the flag, pick up the mantle and fire up your experimental engine. Good luck!

    - An exciting new anthology of travel literature - Features international authors, including Alexander McCall Smith, Joyce Carol Oates and DBC Pierre - Brings to life the idea that travel can inspire, entertain, enlighten and change lives

    Learn what to do when the tarantula crawls up your leg, the riptide pulls you out to sea, the sandstorms headed your way, or your camel just wont stop. Find out how to pass a bribe, remove leeches, climb out of a well, survive a fall onto subway tracks, catch a fish without a rod, and preserve a severed limb. Hands-on, step-by-step instructions show you how to survive these and dozens of other adventures. An appendix of travel tips, useful phrases, and gestures to avoid will also ensure your safe return. Because you just never know...

    DK's Eyewitness Travel Guides: Chicago set the standard for the balance of sightseeing, historical and practical information. Whether going to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field, looking for a Chagall at the Art Institute, or heading to the top of the John Hancock Building, there is no better guide to show you what the "Windy City" has to offer. Includes a spectacular bird's-eye view of the Magnificent Mile, floor plans of the major museums, with excellent coverage of the city's nightlife, shops and markets.

    "DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Barcelona and Catalonia" will help you make the most of your trip and every lingering hour of the day and night. You'll find detailed listings of the best hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets in this revised and updated guide. Plus, insider tips on living la vida Barcelona, from enjoying sangria in the Park Guell to sunning yourself in Port Olimpic's lesser-known corners. It also includes in-depth coverage of all Barcelona and Catalonia's unforgettable sights, such as Gaudi's extraordinary La Sagrada Familia church and the historic avenue of La Rambla. And, don't miss the suggested "Four Great Days in Barcelona." Each day maps out an itinerary ranging from "Gaudi Greats" to "Family Fun.""DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Barcelona & Catalonia" includes unique illustrated cutaways, floor plans and reconstructions of the region's stunning architectural marvels, plus 3-D aerial views of Barcelona's best districts to explore on foot. There's even a chart showing the distances between major sights for walkers.The guide's indispensible pull-out city map is clearly marked with sights from the guidebook, to lead you straight to the best attractions Barcelona has to offer. You'll also find detailed street views of all the key sight seeing areas, transportation maps, and information on how to get around, from the best bus routes to the most useful tickets to buy for your stay.With beautiful, newly commissioned photographs and spectacular 3-D aerial views revealing the charm of each destination, "DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Barcelona and Catalonia" shows you what others only tell you."

    DK's Eyewitness Travel Guides have increasingly become the most sought after guides by seasoned and novice travels alike. Featuring up-to-date information and spectacular 3-D aerial views -- all photographed in full-color -- each location is shown at its best. Recognized as the most unique and comprehensive travel guides on the market, Eyewitness Travel Guides create the new standard for travels. Every guide in the series is updated annually. 3-D aerial maps help you make the quickest journey from one place to the next. Red star sights help you get the most out of the shortest visit. Full-color photographs are taken specifically for each travel guide, and cut-away & floor plans present unique drawings of historic buildings and museums to show exactly where you are and what you see. All the sights in each area are described in depth with special keyed icons, and there's no need to buy an A-Z guide with our fully indexed street maps. Eat and shop with confidence with our reliable listings of hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops in all areas and at all prices. When it comes to entertainment, Eyewitness Travel Guides contains complete listings of theaters, music venues, cinemas, clubs, sports facilities, and activities for children. A special survival guide shows you how to use local currency, public transportation and telephones through pictures. Before your next trip, pick up one of our best-selling Eyewitness Travel Guides today!

    Inside you'll find cross-country routes and road-tested advice for adventurers who want to see part of America that the interstates have left behind. Mile-by-mile highlights celebrate major cities, obscure towns, popular attractions, roadside curiosities (if you're looking for the world's largest jackalope, you're in luck), local lore, and oddball trivia. Exit the interstates and create your own driving adventures on America's two-land scenic highways. Features include: a flexible network of route combinations, extensively cross-referenced to allow for hundreds of possible itineraries; essential tips for the road: call letters of lively radio stations, Survival Guides for two dozen cities, and details on where to eat and sleep; and more than 125 detailed maps.

    British actor and comedian Michael Palin -- best known to American audiences for his work in Monty Python and the film A Fish Called Wanda -- follows in the footsteps of Jules Verne's fictional adventurer Phileas Fogg and circles the globe in 80 days.

    So prepare yourself for such not-ready-for-prime-time heroes as Bee Man (Batman, but with bees), the Clown (circus-themed crimebuster), the Eye (a giant, floating eyeball; just accept it), and many other oddballs and oddities. Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The League of Regrettable Superheroes will appeal to die-hard comics fans, casual comics readers, and anyone who enjoys peering into the stranger corners of pop culture.

    They want you to serve the best fried chicken and the fudgiest brownies, and they test recipes, equipment, and methods toward that goal on their PBS television show. This companion book to the show illustrates what can happen when cooking experts look under the hood and start to tinker productively with the most basic, everyday recipes.Each recipe starts out with a small introduction on what the cooks want to achieve, then details the various steps -- and missteps -- taken en route to developing the perfect recipe. Of course, the missteps are fun to read about, and the whole process has a food-science/science-fair aspect that is quite engrossing.With Home Fries, for example, the cooks wanted "cubes of potatoes that would be deep golden brown and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside." Fair enough. First they dabbled with different kinds of potatoes, then experimented with cooking methods, kinds of cuts, and cooking oils. Their final recipe uses Yukon Golds, diced and briefly parboiled, then drained and fried in a mixture of butter and oil (peanut or corn). This same exhaustive approach is applied to pizza, hamburgers, fajitas, spaghetti and meatballs, tuna fish sandwiches, margaritas, roast turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and Key lime pie. When you think about it, there are plenty of ordinary dishes that often come out tasting, well, ordinary, so you really welcome experts taking a long look at them. Sometimes, though, you just want to tell them: Hey, guys, lighten up, it's just a grilled cheese sandwich. But, I have to say, their approach -- grated cheese; butter on the bread, not in the skillet; medium-low heat -- makes a really good grilled cheese sandwich!Interspersed through the thematic chapters (Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, pizza night) are very useful tests of kitchen equipment -- blenders, vegetable peelers, etc. -- and canned goods. I loved finding out that the $40 basic blender beat the $120 classic I've been eyeing, and all the fancy new zillion-speed blenders too.(Ginger Curwen)

    Discover the vibrant regions of Spain from the outstanding art of Madrid to tapas in Barcelona and foot-stamping Flamenco in Southern Spain. New full-colour features explore the best Spanish wine, walks in Spain and Spain’s key fiestas whilst an increased Spanish language section will get you started on Catalan, Basque and Gelego. Find detailed practical advice on what to see and do in Spain whilst relying on up-to-date descriptions of the best hotels in Spain, bars in Spain, restaurants in Spain, shops in Spain and Spanish festivals for all budgets. You’ll find expert tips on exploring Spain’s varied landscapes, from the rías of Galicia to the coves of the Balearics; and authoritative background on Spain''s history and wildlife, with the low-down on every major fiesta. Explore all corners of Spain with the clearest maps of any guide.Make the most of your holiday with The Rough Guide to Spain.