Customer Reviews

Basic Cantonese Cooking

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This is a simple, easy-to-read book of recipes. The author makes cooking chinese food at home a breeze! If you love asian cooking, and are sick of ordering in, try these recipes. I have made about 6 dishes including Shrimp in Lobster Sauce and Spring Rolls, and I was surprised how well they turned out. I reccommend this book to anyone who loves cooking with a wok.

My biggest complaint about this book is that is NOT a book about Cantonese cuisine as the title would appear to indicate. I have many, many Chinese cookbooks and I have been trying to collect 'specialist. publications that focus on a specific regional cuisines. Accordingly, I bought this book assuming there would be some discussion of what constitutes Cantonese cuisine and information about why various recipes are typical.I was, however, sadly disappointed. The word 'Cantonese' occurs inside the book only in a handful of recipe names ('Lobster Cantonese', for example) and, although the author, when he provided a Chinese translation of a recipe name, uses Cantonese rather than Mandarin, that's pretty much the only thing that identifies this book with China's southern province of Guangdong (Canton). There are a few recipes of obvious Cantonese origin but by and large this is a book on how to reproduce the sorts of dishes one would typically find in Chinese restaurants catering to western tastes. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, but it was very misleading to suggest otherwise in the title. I wanted to read about Cantonese dishes, not about Rumaki, for example (which is not even Chinese, let alone Cantonese), or be provided with the sort of Egg Foo Young recipe one might have found in a second rate American Chinese restaurant back in the 'fifties.

I also have to say that I was not impressed by this author's basic grounding in Chinese cuisine or techniques. In one place, he confidently advises us that 'some translate dumplings as dot the heart'. Well... some *might* translate it that way but then they would obviously not speak Mandarin or Cantonese, and would have pretty scanty knowledge of Dim Sum (Dian Xin) in general. Dim Sum, the usual rendering of a Cantonese term *does* translate as 'dot the heart' but Dim Sum are *NOT* dumplings. Dumplings are one component of a typical dim sum repast but so are steamed chicken's feet, rice in lotus leaves and a whole range of other little snacks. Some of the recipes are very poor and hardly Chinese even in spirit. There are three recipes for making chicken stock (one of which consists only of adding dried bouillon packets to water) but both of the 'from scratch' recipes advocate dumping chicken parts and pork bones in water and bringing to a boil before simmering. There is absolutely no mention (and presumably no knowledge on the part of the author) of parboiling to remove blood and impurities before discarding the original water and *then* simmering the stock ingredients. This is fundamental in all Chinese cookery and in failing to properly instruct the reader in a basic technique it is clear that this book is less about actual Chinese cookery but more about approximating Chinese-style dishes.

Finally, this book has absolutely no pictures of finished dishes and only a handful of ink drawings which don't really add much. All in all I was very disappointed with this purchase.

I feel so fortunate to own a copy of this useful book. I refer to it often! It's a must have for anyone who wants to try their hand at creating Chinese at home but doesn't find joy in toiling over a hot stove! Every recipie is simplified and so easy to follow. This is off the record, but even as a teenager, the author, who happens to be my cousin had a THING for teaching Chineese Cookery. His recipie for eggdrop soup couldn't be any easier. To a can of Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup, add a few slices of onion. When the soup is boiling ..."drop" in an egg stirring briskly with a whisk (or fork) followed by a few shakes of Soy Sauce. Voila. Kudos Jimmy from Cousin Gwen! reachgwenneville@yahoo.com