In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai.

But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppelands of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. 

In Beyond the Great Wall, authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid — who first met as young travelers in Tibet — bring home the enticing flavors of this "Other China", far from the crowded coast.

A beautifully photographed book, Alford and Duguid have conveniently arranged the work by food type rather than ethnicity, and have included an eclectic array of intriguing recipes celebrating the culinary and cultural diversity of the Tibetan, Mongol, Tuvan and Kirghiz people.