No comments about Cooking Chinese Style (100 Recipes).

5 comments about All the Tea in China.

1. I found this tea book to be a very good reference book on tea's origin, how and when it's popularity spread to other realms, how to enjoy tea and what kinds of utensils are used to make and drink tea. I would have enjoyed more pictures and the ones that are here are in black and white, but this is an information packed read.



2. No fetishism nor fussiness in this volume, just excellent information and tips for the tea drinker and interested historian/gardener/travel buff/philosopher/health-seeker. If anything, this book demystifies Chinese teas with its clear and readable presentation -- instructive but not school-bookish. If you think there's more to life than powdered iced-tea mixes -- or even if you don't -- this book will tell you the rest of the story of your favorite brew.



3. This book might be useful to someone looking for a book with general information about tea, but for someone who wants to learn about the real art of Chinese tea, this book is useless . The book does not go into any detail about important elements of Chinese tea drinking such as Yixing teapots and the gongfu brewing method; it just tries to explain them in a few sentences. After reading this book, you will hardly have gained any knowledge of Chinese tea at all.
   The book is obviously an imitation of John Blofeld's "The Chinese Art of Tea", which is an excellent book on the subject of Chinese tea. This book even copied the format of "The Chinese Art of Tea" by inserting small drawings in the margins, and they also copied the teahouse section of "The Chinese Art of Tea". The only thing they forgot to copy was all the good information.

   The section in this book on tea brewing, entitled "How to Make a Nice Cup of Tea", provides instructions on making tea that could only be used to make tea for your dogs. The book does not explain any of the Chinese brewing methods, it seems like the authors just read the back of a Lipton box and copied into their book. If you are interested in Chinese tea, it is much better to find a few good websites on Chinese tea than to buy this book. Anybody who has even a small amount of knowledge of Chinese tea can see that this book is very badly made.




4. A great general introduction to the topic of tea. The title may be a bit misleading as the book broad-brushes tea on a worldwide basis not just Chinese tea. It covers origin, history, production, health and techniques. Well illustrated, with plenty of useful lists in the back of the book including names of many teas in both English and Chinese.



5. I have a dozen or so tea books, but this is pretty much my favorite. Partly because I prefer Chinese teas, but also because it covers the production of tea in great detail. It also has a good overview of many famous tea varieties.

5 comments about Chinese Cookery.

1. I bought this book when I was first learning to cook because I love Chinese food and wanted to do my own fried rice. While the other recipes are very good, this is the best fried rice you will ever eat. I no longer eat fried rice in restaurants because it cant match this.



2. This is the best Chinese cookbook I've used. There are lots of delicious and pretty easy recipes. Once you buy a good set of the major ingredients (ginger, hoisin, rice wine, soy sauce) and get a decent wok/any big pan, you can make a lot of delicious meals that are as good as any Chinese restaurant, for very cheap. The Mongolian Beef is really good. It tells you the basics of Chinese cooking, like how to make tofu and how to cook really good white rice. Highly recommended from an amateur cook on a budget like myself who loves flavorful Chinese food.



3. This is a decent, if unspectacular book.
   
   STRENGTHS:
   * The authoress covers a fair amount of ground.
   * Many of the recipes are very tasty, and well honed.
   
   WEAKNESSES:
   * The authoress glosses over many areas that are important for westerners ... such as how to evaluate, buy, season, and care for a high quality wok. The authoress just seems to assume you have one. The authoress also glosses over most of the finer details regarding the essential differences in regional styles of Chinese cooking. Disappointing for a book having a title that implies exhaustive depth that doesn't actually exist within.
   * The authoress doesnt always remember to give enough of the aliases for various ingredients, leaving readers to rely upon educated guesses based on photos.
   * The recipes and instructions are not always laid out in logical order, nor are they clearly and adequately explained in all cases. Her recipe for classic pork dumplings, for instance, takes a bit of re-reading, and a fair amount of trial and error (and cursing) in order to make the indicated amount of dough appear even remotely adequate for the amount of filling she calls for. This book could have benefitted from some much needed polishing by an independant chef/editor.
   * The authors doesn't really give any insight into preferences and background, or her cooking philosophy ... she just plowed ahead and dumps a bunch of recipes into her book. Then again, this book was written some time ago, and cookbook styles have since been chaging and evolving - chefs are now allowed to inject themselves into their books. That wasn't always true.
   
   In any case, the book appears a bit dated by today's standards. There are more exhaustive, more entertaining, better photographed, and better edited books available than this one. It's adequate, and it'll serve it's function if it's your only book on the cuisine, and that's about as much as I can say about it.



4. I have used this cook book for years it is the best I have found for good Chinese cooking. Directions easy to follow.



5. I've had this cookbook for about 20 years & its my best used cookbook. I have a couple other chinese cookbooks; but they are overly complicated and just overwhelming with too much information. I orginally got this cookbook for the Fried Pork Dumpling (potstickers) recipe. It is spot-on the best recipe for these kind of dumplings. I usually make up several hundred at a time & they freeze wonderfully!!! Alot of trial & error resulted in the following: Make dumplings (but don't cook). Put on a lightly floured pan. Flash freeze for about an hour. Put 6-8 in a quart canning jar & vacuum seal. When needed, pull out jar from freezer, lightly flour a plate, remove frozen dumplings & set on floured plate (not touching). Put in freezer overnight. Next day, fry up as in directions. They are just as wonderful as the day you made them fresh.

1 comments about The Food of China.

1. This is a beautiful book for the coffee table, and there are recipes that are not difficult to make and very tasty. All you need is a wok and a steamer.

4 comments about Dim Sum: Delicious Finger Food for Parties.

1. Truly a beautiful collection of Dim Sum in a small book, only 64 pages. Don't let the small size bother you, though this is serious great food.
   
   30 recipes of asian inspired snacks from potstickers to egg rolls to wraps to soup to custard tarts, this is just beautifully done photographed and step-by-step instructions.
   
   Feast your tastebuds on such as: Steamed Dumplings with Kaffir Lime and Lemongrass; Fish Balls with Shredded Wonton Coating; Salmon and Asian Pesto Packages; Jicama and Lime Salad; Shrimp and Scallion Fritters; Peking-style Duck Pancake Wraps; Orange and Almond Fortune Cookies; Five-Spice Custard Tarts; Steamed Pear and Ginger Puddings.
   
   There are five great dipping sauces recipes included.
   
   Great gift idea for party giving friends or for yourself to throw that casual finger food party.



2. Beautiful little book with a treasure of recipes. Dim sum translates from the Chinese as "heart's delight". Tiny dishes that make up the great yum cha lunches served in Chinese
   Restaurants. Yum cha means drink tea. Dim sum are usually, little bits of deliciously seasoned foods wrapped in a delicate dough and either steamed, boiled or fried. Nowadays, some dim sum are wrapped in lettuce leaves instead of dough. Dim sum are served with savory dipping sauces.
   Just think of Dim Sum as Chinese Tapas.
   It is a great little cookbook and one I am very pleased to have.



3. From the title of this book one would expect to find real dim sum recipes inside. Instead, most of the recipes are Asian-inspired finger food, which is not at all the same thing. Dim sum is a Chinese food, not a general Asian-ish type of cuisine. To call these recipes "dim sum" is almost as inaccurate as calling French hor d'oevres "dim sum" simply because they are small, bite-sized treats.
   
   I might come across as a bit pedantic here, but this is not simply a matter of semantics. If the author had used a more accurate title such as "Asian Finger Food" I would not have lowered my rating by 2 stars. The actual recipes are good and certainly creative, but they do not fit the title of the book.
   
   Bottom line: if you are looking for true, traditional dim sum recipes, look elsewhere. There are better books on the topic. If you are thinking of getting this book, know ahead of time what you are getting and you will not be disappointed, because this is a good recipe book.



4. Every recipe comes with an artfully arranged photo as background, showing what the recipe will (ideally) look like when you're done with it. The photos are gorgeous and wonderful to look at, and sometimes aid you in figuring out exactly what the author means when she gives an instruction on how to put something together. (Not that her instructions are confusing, but sometimes pictures can say things that are difficult to get across through words.)
   
   The recipes are fairly simple and short, and simply arranged. Ingredients are nicely separated from directions, and directions are divided into short paragraphs. Each recipe comes with a brief paragraph commenting on some aspect of the recipe or the tradition behind it.
   
   The book includes a very brief introduction to the idea of dim sum-this really isn't an introductory text, and would not be best as a first dim sum book unless the cook using it is experienced and confident in the kitchen in general. (Ellen Leong Blonder's Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch makes a great starting text.)
   
   Recipes range from "crisp vegetables with roasted salt and pepper dip" (read: tempura), to sweet and sour pickled vegetables, wilted bean sprout and peanut salad, salmon and Asian pesto packages, mussels with egg noodles and black bean sauce, shrimp and scallion fritters (which are "based on a Mexican original" with "a Chinese twist"), little Szechuan chicken steamed buns, steamed dumplings with kaffir lime and lemongrass, peking-style duck pancake wraps, and a decent spread of dips and sauces-as well as other dishes.
   
   The recipes don't call for a lot of unusual ingredients. We can find many of them at our local generic grocery store (and it doesn't have a lot of odd stuff), and sometimes substitutions are suggested. For example, when making sticky rice in banana leaves with chicken skewers, it's suggested that you could use foil instead of banana leaves.[...]can be a good source of some harder-to-find ingredients such as lemongrass.
   
   The recipes come out uniformly delicious and delightful in our experience. The chile beef wontons are, so far, our favorite of the various fried wonton recipes we've made. The tiny pork, tofu, and broccoli spring rolls are delicious. The mango wontons with lime sauce were to die for. And this book is one of the best sources, among the dim sum books we have, for sauces and dips. There are only four of them (technically there are a few additional ones to be found among the other recipes), but they're perfect: a sweet chile sauce that goes well with almost anything, plum sauce, soy and ginger sauce, and a sweet and sour sesame sauce that's even better than the sweet chile sauce (and beats every other "sweet and sour" sauce we've tried so far, hands down).
   
   Fiona Smith's approach to dim sum may be slightly unorthodox, but if you enjoy dim sum in specific or small appetizer foods in general, it's well worth a look. The recipes are fresh and creative, fairly easy, and absolutely delicious!

5 comments about Chinese Cookery Secrets: How to Cook Chinese Restaurant Food at Home (Right Way S.).

1. At last, here are recipes for some of our favorite dishes from every-day, non-gourmet Chinese restaurants! Among these are Lemon Chicken, Chicken Chow Mein, Sweet & Sour Pork, Kung-Pao Chicken, Twice-cooked Pork, and Hot & Sour Soup. You won't find every dish on your favorite restaurant's menu, but there are several good mainstays. On the down side, there are also some recipes for items I've never seen in a Chinese restaurant, like squid and lamb dishes. Also, in a few recipes, the measurements are difficult to translate, like "1/3 pint of chicken stock (200 ml)"...how much is that in cups? But most recipes are fairly simple and easy to follow. Overall the book is very thorough, covering specialty Chinese ingredients, cooking equipment & methods, and even authentic Chinese serving and drinking customs. I bought the book hoping to be able to re-create my favorite Chinese take-out dishes at home, and there are enough recipes for these that I am satisfied.



2. This is an essential book - don't let the unknown author and the low price fool you.

   This book is the only book I've found to have the proper marinades. That is a good part of the battle of Chinese cooking.

   The book also contains the correct cutting instructions.

   If you are just starting out, or an advanced Chinese cook, you need this book on your shelf. The recipes are reliable and consistent. The technique that this teaches you is just as indispensible as La Methode!

   My only regret is that the publisher cheaped out on illustrations - a few good colour plates would be a welcome addition.




3. I've been looking for a cookbook on american chinese restaurant cooking. I had thought this was the one. It's not. HOWEVER, if you tweak the recipes a bit you can get good results.
   
   Their chow mein is made with pan fried noodles, which would make it a lo mein. Their sweet and sour is immensely more sour than sweet. My brother who can handle just about anything didn't like it. And there were only about ten recipes out of at least seventy that were truly something as a main entree in an american chinese restaurant, but they weren't exact.
   
   The good side of this book; it teaches the basic format of how to cook chinese correctly, so you can go through any recipe you find else where and change it to fit. There's a seasoned oil, a basic stock, an egg/flour batter for deep frying and how to marinate meat correctly. These make a big difference in the flavor of what you get.
   
   It's worth it to learn how to cook correctly. But don't trust the ingredients if you're use to the chinese restaurant that serves bright red sweet and sour and chow mein that has more vegetables than meat.



4. This book does describe how Chinese food is made in many of America's restaurants. Unfortunately, making food this way AT HOME could be an ordeal unless one wishes to cook Chinese food day after day.
   
   Nonetheless, there are many bits of information that can be easily applied at home to make our attempts MORE like what we find in Chinese restaurants. Many of the recipes included are not the typical dishes found in Chinese buffet restaurants (at least in my region of the country), but some are,including twice-cooked pork and chicken with bamboo shoots and mushrooms. I would suggest using this book as a methodology and basics primer. You can then take other recipes, use the methodology, and add the ingredients almost always present in the recipes of this book (rice wine and the unique oriental soup stock, for example). Or, in other instances, you can almost guess the ingredients based on the patterns here!



5. 
   This is a wonderful book. It has lots of details and very easy to follow. There may be a need to tweek some receipes to suit your pallate. I have read this book time and again and written personally to to thank the author. He was kind enough to respond. Indeed a lovely book !! I just wish it had the photo of each receipe. But what more can we expect from such a low priced book. Congratulations to Deh.
   
   Nader Alnajjar

4 comments about Chinese Cook Book.

1. My current copy of this book is so worn out that I need to get a new one. The recipes are simple and delicious, the organization of the chapters makes sense, and the index is complete. The photographs are good too. All in all, the best simple chinese cook book I have used.



2. This is by far the best Chinese cookbook I've ever had. This is the third time I've bought a copy, I keep wearing them out!



3. I've had this book since 1983, when I was living in California. What I like about it is that the recipes use ingredients which are pretty easy to get, both in the US and Europe, and the recipes are easy to follow. I'm about to buy it as part of an engagement present for a friend; she's always asking about the chinese stuff I cook! My own copy is falling apart but I wouldn't trade it for the world.



4. I've got a lot of Chinese cookbooks and most of them gather dust on my shelf. This is the one I use over and over. In fact, I'm replacing my original copy because I've worn it out. The recipes are fantastic, the tips on how to prepare ingredients are priceless, and many of the sauces and techniques can be adapted for other uses. This book helped me go beyond its recipes and start creating my own. P.S. I heartily recommend the scallion pancakes.

No comments about Chinese Vegetarian Delights.

5 comments about Dim Sum for Everyone.

1. I expected a little more from this book. A little more storyline, a little more dialogue, a little more substance. I think for an early intro to Dim Sum this books does the job, but lacks a real story. The brief history at the end included good info.



2. This is a fantastic book to teach young children about the Chinese brunch called dim sum. It has excellent illustrations and even has the correct names for some of the most popular dim sum dishes. My husband who is Chinese loves to buy this book for our god children and read it to them before we have dim sum! I completly recomend this book for anyone but especially those who are interested in the Chinese culture.



3. I bought this book for a classroom lesson on Multiculturalism, I included a puppet with the book and the students loved it. This is a great book, and a must have for all teachers and classrooms.



4. My 3-year old daugher loves Grace Lin books with colorful pages. I think she likes seeing the same family in many of Ms. Lin's books.



5. We already have a number of other books by Grace Lin and decided to buy this one for my 5.5 year-old daughter. She kept thanking me for it! Being the Jie-Jie (older sister), she related to the one in the story while her younger 4 year-old sister related to the Mei-Mei. They tried to "pretend" they enjoyed the same food items as the sisters in the story. My daughter loved the pictures of the dim sum items and we all could recall our own dim sum adventures. I'm really hoping this sparks a creative cooking talent in both girls as well. The illustrations are cheerful and good enough to make me want some dim sum soon!

No comments about Chinese Garnishes / Adornos Chinos: With Platter Arrangements / Con Decoraciones Para Platillos (Wei-Chuan Cookbook Seris).