Customer Reviews

Chinese Cooking Made Easy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent cookbook for those who are not familiar with cooking Chinese dishes. What I like most about this book is that the majority of recipes don't call for ingredients that are hard to find. Since I don't live anywhere near an Asian food store, this is a big plus for me. In addition, I'm a vegetarian and my husband is a big meat eater. This book has several vegetarian recipes in the back, so it satisfies both of our palates. To date, I have 18 Wei-Chuan cookbooks and I put this one in the top 5.

I have written a joint review for 15 Wei-Chuan culinary publications. That review discusses what it is I like about all these books and can be found in the review section for Chinese Cuisine.

This particular book exemplifies all that I like about these publications but it is a little different than the others (at least those dealing with Chinese food). Firstly, the book employs techniques and foodstuffs not normally associated with Chinese cooking. Roasting and baking are featured in many recipes and this is unusual as ovens have never been common in Chinese homes (although perhaps this may be changing). Quite a few recipes rely on dairy ingredients (which is again unusual in Chinese cookery) and, while the book is about 'Chinese Cooking' reflect obviously foreign tastes and, in some cases, are almost unrecognizable as Chinese cuisine except for a slight Asian slant, such as in using soy or rice vinegar where western renditions would likely use something else.

The book strives to simplify Chinese cooking by presenting the aspiring chef with a repertoire of sauces and dressing that can be prepared in advance and used in many of the recipes later in the book. It is certainly a departure from the more standard approach and I rather think that the home cook is being introduced to cookery techniques used in restaurants. It is an interesting approach though, and I enjoyed it as much as I did the little series of useful mini' recipes at the back.

I have been looking for a basic Chinese cookbook that I can use everyday and this one is it. It has many stir fry recipes and they are mostly homestyle items I remember from my childhood (e.g. beef and oyster sauce; corn soup). There are also some restaurant dishes (e.g. Peking duck; stir fry meat wrapped in lettuce) that require more time and expertise. The recipe for tofu and egg drop soup is worth the cookbook alone. I love this soup and I did not realize how easy it is to make until now.

This is a great reference book that is perfect for beginners. It explains ingredients in the beginning of the book, with small sections on preparation of seasoning sauces and salad dressings.

One word of caution: if you do not live near a good Chinatown or an Asian grocery store, some of the ingredients are hard to find and the book does not offer substitutes.

This is the best cookbook I own because the dishes are realistic enough that I will actually make them. This book is amazing!

This book is one of a series put out by Wei-Chuan Publishing from Taiwan. I bought this particular title while living in Taiwan in 1992 and have used it continuously since. Part of the draw for me is that this book (like most of the Wei-Chuan publications) is bilingual (as I was studying Chinese in Taiwan). More importantly, the recipes are easy to follow, have good pictures of what each finished dish should look like, and has a front section on mixing various sauces that can be used with whatever you want to stir-fry.