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The Chinese Kitchen: Recipes, Techniques, Ingredients, History, and Memories from America's Leading Authority on Chinese Cooking
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$39.95
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$26.37
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Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5951
EAN: 9780688158262
ISBN: 0688158269
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 1999-12-01
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 1999-11-17
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Editorial Reviews:
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Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, author of award-winning cookbooks, menu developer for top Asian restaurants, and cooking teacher, presents her life's work. Reflecting on her life in food, including her childhood in Canton, China, where she learned to cook at her grandmother's side, Eileen has created an exhaustive cookbook of extensive scope. Everything about Chinese cooking has cultural significance, and much of what Eileen talks about in this book has never appeared in print before in the English language. There are more than 250 recipes in all, including many classic banquet-style recipes, quite a number presented for the first time in the traditional manner, from Peking Duck to Beggar's Chicken. Dozens of the techniques for preparing these elaborate recipes are shown in full-color photographs in the color insert as well. Eileen also includes many of her own creations, such as infused oils and rich, flavorful stocks, essential for cooks who are serious about mastering the ancient art of Chinese cooking. Everything is here: dim sum, congees, stir-fries, rice dishes, noodles, bean curd, meat dishes, and more. For anyone who loves Asian cuisines, this is the ultimate cookbook, and for cookbook lovers and aspiring food professionals, this is required reading.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: I hate to burst the bubble, but...
Comment: Overall, it seems the cookbook is geared for westerners (note the wine list discussion at the end of the book) but at the same time it seems to make it overly difficult for them to cook the recipes.
I've read many of the reviews here before being enticed into buying this book because of the many high praises for 'authenticity' and pro level quality of the recipes. I have to say I was sadly disappointed. There are many problems with this book, which some of the more critical of the reviews have mentioned, such as: haphazard organization, overly complicated ingredients lists meant for people with kitchen staff, and no pictures of the finished dish for the uninitiated. Talking about self praise, the first sentence in the front cover fold is that she is the 'Cantonese Julia Child'. But, while Julia Child actually trained in kitchens in France, all I could discern from the book of Eileen Lo's training is that her grandmother, Ah Paw, taught her while she was growing up. Her grandmother, the auther notes, "knew instinctively, without ever having had to personally put a spatula into wok, how things ought to be cooked..."
But, let's go to the crux of a good cookbook, the recipes. My definition of good recipe writing is that in Jacques Pepin's or Julia Child's books: no mistakes, succinct with good professional hints. You KNOW they had tested the recipe many times.
Pros:
- description of ingredients (but again, where's the picture?)
- Chinese characters for ingredients and recipes (but why in cursive Chinese. Printed form of Chinese is so much easier - and yes, I read Chinese)
Cons:
- A biggy: some of the Chinese is wrong. Sometimes it is so obvious such as when the number of Chinese characters are more or less than the 'pinyin' version. If you have the book, try counting the words if you can't read them. Critical because it suggests copying the characters to bring to your Chinese grocer (or restaurant?) for ordering.
- Instructions are overly complicated. For example, after sauteing veggies you are told to towel wipe the pan down. Not necessary unless you need to change the flavor.
- Some recipes are definitely not traditional. Authentic? Well, maybe.. but to where? Example: steamed bread or 'man tau' is traditional made with yeast but a modern quickbread version using baking powder is used here. Personally, I dislike the quickbread version. It doesn't have the proper bread fragrance. But many Chinese bakeries currently use it for speed.
- Overuse of oyster sauce. For example, marinating the lobster in Cantonese Lobster in oyster sauce: do you really want the lobster to taste like oysters? Not me.
To give some of my background, I'm a cooking enthusiast, have worked in a number of Chinese restaurant kitchens, cook mostly Chinese but eat and cook international foods, and own many a cookbooks some of which are very good (but not this one).
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Truly authentic recipes, but what kind of people are they for...
Comment: This book has authentic recipes. But they may be 'authentic' in a way that I suspect most normal Americans (and many Chinese in China to some extent) will be unable to really embrace. What I mean by this is that these are authentic Cantonese aristocratic recipes; i.e. food for the kind of people that can afford servants, or at least have a stay at home mother or father who has enough time to devote multiple hours to cooking dinner each day. Even when the recipes venture into other areas of Chinese cuisine, it holds that same kind overly epicurean complexity.
I grew up with my grandparents cooking Cantonese food for me, and though preparations can get quite complex in the Chinese kitchen, dinner rarely feels like a burden. This book simply calls for too many ingredients, oftentimes obscure ones, oftentimes in trifling amounts. Currently I live in Beijing and the agricultural market is right down the street, but generally speaking I can hardly motivate myself to go gather all the many ingredients in these epic recipes. I feel in many ways that Ms. Lo neglects an important, but certainly not all encompassing, concept in Chinese cooking, which is straightforwardness and letting good ingredients speak for themselves.
To compare, Ms. Lo's recipe for Mah Paw Daufu (not a Cantonese dish) has 22 ingredients listed. Whereas in the "Land of Plenty" cookbook the Ma Po Doufu calls for 12 ingredients. Both recipes create a wonderful dish, but as the recipe in "Land of Plenty" is much less complex I use it 95% of the time. Having grown up with Chinese food and having lived in China for 3 years I would say that "Land of Plenty" is more 'authentic' in that its the home style cooking that most Chinese people do.
Notice I did give this book 3 stars which means I think it is good, just not great. I have tried a good number of the recipes and all of them resulted in very nice dishes. Ms. Lo understands Chinese cooking, Chinese food, and Chinese culture, so the essays about food in this book are extremely informative. I also appreciate that she tries to cover the many regions of Chinese cuisine. Yet in the end, if you are like me, work full time, don't have enough money for an in-house chef, or don't have a stay at home spouse, I would recommend looking for other Chinese cookbooks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent- and difficult
Comment: The recipes I've tried in this volume are indeed all excellent, and taste like what I'd expect in the more authentic Chinese restaurants I eat in. The Hainan Chcken Rice is very close to the recipe that was taught to me by a Chinese friend from Hong Kong. Now few of these recipes are easy; this is not a "dinner from your wok in five minutes" sort of Chinese cookbook. Some take preparations that span over two days, or more. If you can take the time to do a proper job, though, you'll be rewarded for your efforts.
But as others have noted, this book does have its problems. The list of ingredients in the beginning is incomplete; many ingredients don't make an appearance until they show up in the instructions for a specific recipe. While there is a small photo section in the middle of the book, showing some of the more obscure techniques (like inflating a Beijing duck) it is woefully inadequate, and in some instances doesn't really help. The photos on making Bao (buns) show the beginning of pleating the top closed, but if you've never seen this demonstrated the photo is not of much help. Many other reviewers have rightfully noted that when cooking an unfamiliar cuisine it's very useful to have pictures to guide you in making a dish that looks right.
So this is a good, but flawed, book. If you're already familiar with many of the dishes presented here, and with the basic techniques of Chinese cooking, and Chinese ingredients, and you're ready to plunge into some time consuming techniques, you'll find this volume very useful. Those with less experience might look elsewhere for a while.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My best cookbook
Comment: I was always intimidated by the prospect of Chinese cooking. But now among my dozens of cookbooks, for many types of cuisine, I value this the most. I learned techniques from the pictures and descriptions I otherwise could not have understood. And I found the ingredients in my local Asian market thanks to Eileen's "Chinese Larder" section. And the recipes are delicious.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fried Milk recipe!!!
Comment: I'm very happy to have bought this book. There may be some redundant recipes but I still feel that everone should buy ALL her titles. I trust her knowledge so I am very happy that she has included a Fried Milk recipe.
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