Chinese Books - Page 3

Martin Yan's China

Martin Yan

Amazon Price: $14.52 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chronicle Books Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $12.92

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good so far! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

There is a good variety of recipes, and most of the ingredients are easy to find in regular grocery stores. I recommend the red and gold rice. It's easy and quite satisfiying!

Editorial Review:

The world's foremost expert on Chinese cooking is back with a brand-new cookbook to whet the appetite of anyone who's ever picked up a pair of chopsticks. As the companion volume to the PBS series, Martin Yan's China brings the ancient country's beauty to the table with gorgeous dishes, breathtaking photographs, and fascinating information about the food, history, and culture of China. Just in time for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Yan is poised to charm and entice a new generation of readers with his expert knowledge of Chinese traditions and his flair for Asian cuisine. As always, Yan's 100 recipes introduce new flavors and techniques to the kitchen, yet are simple enough for any home cook to effortlessly embark on a culinary journey through China.

Quick & Easy Enjoy Chinese Cuisine (Quick & Easy (Japan Publications))

Judy Lew

Amazon Price: $9.56 List Price: $11.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Japan Publications Trading Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $5.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Quick & Easy -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

FOREWORD
The title of this book expresses the intent and purpose for which it was written. You will find that the key to great Chinese cooking lies in learning to enjoy yourself foremost and letting everything else follow.
This book will guide you through the simple techniques necessary for preparing the basic ingredients contained in the easy-to-follow recipes. The recipes have been developed and tested in Chinese cooking classes, along with a few personal favorites that have been handed down from family generations. Suggestions for meal planning have been reduced to a simple chart, for quick and easy reference.
The highly nutritious ingredients and quick sealing cooking methods of Chinese cooking are consistent with the emergence of a health and diet oriented society. The informal Chinese dinner is especially suited for today's life styles. Nutritious, economical and easy to prepare, Chinese food also happens to be very delicious. Thus, this book's emphasis has been placed upon the preparation of dishes used in everyday Chinese meals.
As you gain proficiency and personal confidence in Chinese cooking you will find this book helpful in adapting various recipes to your own personal tastes and experimenting with different ingredients to achieve a desired result. I encourage all my students and readers to go beyond the recipes, substitute ingredients, and - most importantly - have fun and Enjoy Chinese Cooking.
-Judy Lew

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook

Gloria Bley Miller

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fireside Amazon Marketplace: 102 new & used starting at $2.64

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

An essential resource in the American kitchen and a classic for nearly four decades, this is the definitive Chinese cookbook, perfect for cooks at every level

Here is the largest, most comprehensive Chinese cookbook ever published for the Western world. A Tastemaker Award winner, Gloria Bley Miller distills centuries of Chinese recipes and techniques into concise and easy-to-follow directions that will enable any cook to produce dishes that please the eye, delight the palate, and suit the budget.

With verve and wit, Miller tells you how to prepare everything from egg drop soup and drunken pork to sizzling rice and delicate wontons. There are 150 recipes for chicken alone, plus dozens of variations on pork dishes, vegetables, and noodles, as well as other Chinese favorites. Using Miller's recipes, ordinary meat and seafood become delicacies, while vegetables retain their color and texture. And Miller's delicious recipes are splendidly high in nutrients and low in calories.

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook contains everything the cook needs to know about Chinese cooking, including how to:

• Use special Chinese cooking techniques such as steaming and stir-frying
• Create unique seasonings and sauces
• Substitute hard-to-find ingredients with those available in any supermarket
• Plan menus suited to every time constraint, budget, and occasion

The classic Chinese cookbook, this is the only book you'll ever need to master one of the world's greatest and most versatile cuisines.

Chinese Snacks (Wei quan shi pu)

Su-Huei Huang, Wei-Chuan Publishing

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wei-Chuan Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $7.91

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Meals -> Appetizers

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not a Reliable Cook Books 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 24 people found this review helpful.

I tried to make some snack on this book and follow the instruction, but turn out not what I expected and not look like the result on the picture.

Great book for snacks 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book contains a lot of good dim sum recipes and are very authentic. The instructions are easy to follow and the pictures are faithful to the recipes. The recipe for potstickers or jiaoze dough I use is from this book. The har gau and shiu mai recipes are quite good as are the several others I have tried. Be warned, however, dim sum is not something you can whip up quickly. Having this book will not replace going to your favorite Chinese restaurant for dim sum. This is not the fault of the book but the nature of dim sum. There's a reason so many Chinese people go out for dim sum instead of cooking it at home--it takes time and effort to do!

Editorial Review:

This beautiful collage of Chinese Snacks has become a "must have". Clear instructions on utensils, ingredients, and preparation steps make recipes easy to follow. Photos of steamed dim sum, dumplings, egg rolls and more, invite cooks to try their eager hands at mouthwatering creations.

The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco

Cecilia Chiang, Lisa Weiss

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ten Speed Press Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $13.41

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good read & recipes 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a very interesting story about Cecelia Chang's life in China, as well as has some very good Chinese recipes integrated throughout the book. I would highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

A pioneer in the food world, Cecilia Chiang introduced Americans to authentic northern Chinese cuisine at her San Francisco restaurant, the Mandarin, in 1961, earning the adoration of generations of diners, including local luminaries such as Marion Cunningham, Ruth Reichl, and Chuck Williams. In THE SEVENTH DAUGHTER, Chiang presents a classic collection of recipes framed by her gripping life's story. Beginning with her account of a privileged childhood in 1920s and 1930s Beijing, Chiang chronicles a 1,000-mile trek on foot in the wake of the Japanese occupation, her arrival in San Francisco, and her transformation from accidental restaurateur to culinary pioneer. The book's recipes feature cherished childhood dishes and definitive Mandarin classics, while showcasing Cecilia's purist approach to authentic Chinese home cooking.

Chinese Dim Sum

Wei-Chuan School, Wei-Chuan Publishing

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wei-Chuan Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $9.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

misguided 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

i am chinese and i love dimsum. my family would have dim sum every sunday morning in chinatown growing up. now i married and there's no chinatown or good chinese food around where i live. so i decided to learn how ot make them. however i can't read chinese very well. i bought this book because the recipes come in both chinese and english.

Anyway, this book tittle is "Chinese dimsum" but the recipes in there isn't as true to it's title. There are great variety of food in Dim-Sum food. most steamed meat dishes, variety steam dumplings and stuffed rice rolls, and rice cake. However, this book offers only 3 dumpling recipes. those dumpling recipes are definitely NOT the kind you get from a dimsum restaurant. Dim-sum is the heart of southern cantonese cuisine. it's originate from canton china and is a southern style cooking. mostly steamed cooking recipes. However, the dumpling recipes in the book are water dumpling, just like northern style. a lot more blend. Northern style are the dumpling called for boiling method rather than steam cooking. well those aren't dim-sum. northern chinese people eat them as a real meal. the basics such sui-mai, cao ji. ha-cao. si long bao, are not in the book. there great variety of appetizer size meat dishes are also missing. 80% of the books teaches you how to make chinese desserts. quite honestly, chinese desserts are the grossest thing on earth. only old chinese people like stuffs like black sesame past bun, red bean paste cake, red bean past sweet rice soup, peanut paste, and yam paste type desserts. it has 5 or six different king of steam buns recipes, same dough but different meat stuffing. well, i like steam buns, but it's not the main focus of chinese dim-sum.

i am very upset that i can not find a single recipe that i can call dimsum food.

Betty Crocker's New Chinese Cookbook

Betty Crocker Editors

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 By: Betty Crocker Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $0.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Home & Garden
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Restaurant quality food from your kitchen! 5 out of 5 stars.
51 of 54 people found this review helpful.

Every recipe I've tried tastes like it's from a quality Chinese restaurant. The recipes are easy to understand, I can find the ingredients in my local market, and the finished quality is consistently delicious.

Excellent first Chinese cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I came across this book recently and found it very useful for my initial experience at cooking Chinese. Although I'm a pretty proficient cook,, I've never had much success trying Chinese dishes before. The difficulty I'd had with some of the other well-known Chinese cookbooks is that they are too complicated if you've never cooked with some of the ingredients before -- too many variables for the novice. This book takes a somewhat simpler, yet satisfying approach. It doesn't lack interest. I think I'll learn a great deal from it.

Good for the beginner 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

My first Chinese cookbook for my first foray into Chinese cooking. The recipes here are simple and classic, if rather plain. I like that the ingredients are all easy to find in my area, and that the recipes are very quick! Important for me as a working person who still likes to come home and cook something interesting for dinner. I don't like recipes with ingredient lists that are a foot long. These recipes are short and easy to follow, although a bit cryptic, which led me to make a mistake in one recipe. But I was able to start over on the mistake and the recipe came out well. I would have liked more photos - one per dish would be ideal. I recommend this for the beginning Chinese cook, but not for the beginning cook.

Editorial Review:

More than 130 recipes highlighting Cantonese, Sechuan, and specialties are presented together with complete instructions on cooking style, utensils, preparation, and artistry.

Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture

Rosemary Gong

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Collins Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $0.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Holidays

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Basic Introduction 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book that gives a basic overview of Chinese traditions. If you want to know more details,(such as the myths and Gods that relate to every event) there are other books. It is written in an easy format, very assessible to people who are not Chinese. I give it 5 stars for what it is-- an introductory-style book on Chinese traditions.

Editorial Review:

Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.

Written with warmth and wit, Good Luck Life is beautifully designed as an easily accessible cultural guide that includes an explanation of the Lunar Calendar, tips on Chinese table etiquette for dining with confidence, and dos and don'ts from wise Auntie Lao, who recounts ancient Chinese beliefs and superstitions. This is your map for celebrating a good luck life.

Asian Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam

Bruce Cost

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: William Morrow Cookbooks Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $6.94

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Reference
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Buy This Book. Superb Presentation of East Asian Foods! 5 out of 5 stars.
43 of 43 people found this review helpful.

`Asian Ingredients' by Bruce Cost is one of those books like Patience Gray's `Honey from a Weed' and Claudia Roden's `New Book of Middle Eastern Food' which gets cited as THE authority on its subject by culinary heavyweights such as Ruth Reichl and Alice Waters. So, in my quest for the perfect culinary library, I really need to read and review this book. I am very happy to say that the reputation of this book is not overdone. It is one of the finest books on culinary ingredients I have seen on either Oriental or Occidental cuisines. The author states from the outset that his objective was not to give us an encyclopedic work. What we get is much closer to some of the finer books on Mediterranean cuisine such as Nancy Harmon Jenkins `The Essential Mediterranean'. In many ways, Cost's book is far more practical, albeit less analytical than Jenkins' work.

Cost deals with the fairly homogeneous food world of Japan, Korea, China, Viet Nam, and Thailand. He mentions India as an influence on Thai cuisine, but does not deal directly with Indian cuisine, as it is substantially different from the cuisine of China and the rest of the Far East. The book also does not deal with the cuisine of the Philippines or Indonesia, as the cuisines of these two nations are heavily influenced by European colonization beginning in the 16th century.

One of the best things about Cost's book is that it is organized in such a way to make it a pleasure to read for background information. While I have never sat down to read the Larousse Gastronomique for pleasure, I read Cost's book from cover to cover with great pleasure, skipping a very few subjects on which I was very familiar. Costs book is divided into the following seven (7) major chapters:

Fresh Ingredients including Herbs and Seasonings, Vegetables and Fungi, Meat, Poultry and Eggs, Fish
Preserved and Processed Ingredients including Dried Ingredients, Cured Ingredients, and Soy and Coconut
Condiments and Sauces including Soy based condiments, Fish based sauces, Chili based sauces, Vinegar and spirits, and Flavored oils
Spices, Sugars, Nuts, and Seeds, including Spices, Sugar, Nuts and Seeds
Rice
Noodles and Wrappers
Flours and Thickeners
Cooking Fats and Oils

One of the most dramatic lessons to be learned from this book is the fact that like the Mediterranean respect for dried and preserved ingredients such as salted cod, dried pasta, and dry beans, Asian dried ingredients such as seaweed, vegetables, fish, and mushrooms are highly regarded ingredients in their own right. They are not `second best'. By drying and concentrating their flavors, they bring something to the party that is simply beyond their fresh precursors.

Another fairly dramatic discovery is the fact that while so many of the spices prized by Europe and so greatly desired by Renaissance Europe were grown just next door to China and Japan, these spices such as black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon (cassias) really did not and still do not play a big part in East Asian cuisine, except for Thailand, which is influenced by the curries and other spices of India. Northern China and Japan almost totally reject the use of the `cookie spices' except for ginger, which is used heavily throughout the region covered by the book.

It is interesting to see both the harmony and the dissonance created when one lays Mediterranean and Far Eastern cuisine side by side. Some of the biggest parallels are the importance of garlic, pork, mushrooms, cilantro, and New World (capsicum) chilis. Some differences are in the relative importance of drying versus salt curing. As Nancy Harmon Jenkins points out, salt is much more important in the Mediterranean cuisines simply because the Mediterranean is saltier than the oceans, so it is a lot easier to acquire than on the Pacific Rim. There are some salt cured pork products, with hams very similar to Smithfield hams, but nowhere near as much of the Charcuterie / salume culture of Western Europe. The greatest differences between the two areas lies in the use of milk. There is simply no milk culture in East Asia from cows, goats, sheep, or buffalo. The Chinese and Japanese feel the same towards Europe's more aromatic cheeses as westerners may feel about fermented fish sauce, birds nests (dried bird saliva), and seaweed. Where the European uses animals' milk, the Asian uses milk refined from soy or coconut.

An important part of this book, more important than similar samples in most other books of this type, is the recipes, especially for things such as fish and chicken stocks, which are far simpler than comparable French stocks. They are not just simpler; there is a whole rationale in the Chinese cuisine against including vegetables in chicken stock recipes.

Two of the most useful aspects of this book are the recommendations on how to best use Asian markets and which commercial preparations are of a high quality. I had some reservations regarding a local Chinese run farmer's market with a fish counter until I read Cost's description of Asians' regard for freshness in fish. The `Iron Chef' episodes where virtually all seafood ingredients are presented live is not for the sake of show business. These people are SERIOUS about their fresh fish! Note that while this book was originally written and published in 1988, the new paperback edition was revised in 2000, so the numerous comments about which prepared brand name ingredients are the best should be fairly current.

This book is so good you will be remiss if you buy any other book on East Asian ingredients without first reading this new edition. Other books may offer better coverage of selected aspects of this subject, but this book is certainly the gold standard against which other books should be measured!

Very highly recommended, especially if you like to read about food as well as eat it.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1988, Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients was immediately hailed as one of the most comprehensive and fascinating books on Asian foodstuffs ever written. Now fully revised and updated, Asian Ingredients offers a wealth of information on identifying and using the often unfamiliar ingredients in traditional bottled condiments. This book's clear black-and-white photographs make it easy to identify ingredients in your local supermarkets or Asian grocery, while Cost's carefully researched notes explain how to select, store, and cook with these wonderful foods. Cost also includes more than 130 simple recipes for sumptuous Asian specialties. Cooks can create the dramatic flavors of China, Japan, and southeast Asia in their own kitchens with this indispensable resource. 

China Moon Cookbook

Barbara Tropp, Sandra Bruce

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Workman Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 121 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> Asian -> Chinese

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The "Julia Child of Chinese cooking" (San Francisco Chronicle), Barbara Tropp is the chef/owner of one of San Francisco-s most popular restaurants, author of a ?magicalO (Barbara Kafka) first cookbook, and a gifted teacher. She is also the inventor of ?Chinese bistro,O a marriage of home-style Chinese tastes and techniques with Western ingredients and inspiration, an innovative cuisine that stuffs a wonton with crab and corn and flavors it with green chili sauce, that stir-fries chicken with black beans and basil, that tosses white rice into a salad with ginger-balsamic dressing.

Casual yet impeccable, and as balanced as yin and yang, these 275 recipes burst with unexpected flavors and combinations: Prawn Sandpot Casserole with Red Curry and Baby Corn; Spicy Tangerine Beef with Glass Noodles; Pizzetta with Chinese Eggplant, Wild Mushrooms, and Coriander Pesto; Chili-Orange Cold Noodles; Sweet Carrot Soup with Toasted Almonds; Wok-Seared New Potatoes; Crystallized Lemon Tart; and Fresh Ginger Ice Cream.

It-s East meets Westódazzlinglyóin ?A truly original culinary mindO (Kirkus) Winner of a 1992 IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club-s HomeStyle Books. 146,000 copies in print.