Customer Reviews

The Best of Taiwanese Cuisine

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This book was written by a woman who lived in Taiwan because her husband was transferred there for work. She is not knowledgeable enough to be writing a cookbook on Taiwanese cuisine. If you are Taiwanese or are familiar with Taiwanese cuisine, you will realize this right away when you look at her recipes. The recipes are MISSING KEY INGREDIENTS that make the dish taste the way it should. For example, the oyster omelet recipe does not have sweet potato starch in it. This is a key ingredient which makes the Taiwanese oyster omelet taste the way it does.

In addition, there are NO pictures and written from a point of view which would make me suspect that the author got the recipes from the internet or quickly jotted down the recipes instead of actually cooking/testing the recipes and trying them out.

Being half-Taiwanese, I was really interested in seeing (A)what recipes and (B)insights the author would have on Taiwanese holidays and holiday foods.

I was sorely disappointed, on both points. The author seems curious in Taiwan's culture, but only in a very pro-West, "how quaint" sort of way, without any deeper understanding of Taiwan's festivals and holidays. The recipes are also approached in a very Western manner, and the recipes themselves are also very Westernized.

In its place, I highly recommend books in the Wei-Chuan series, such as Chinese Snacks (Wei quan shi pu), Chinese Cooking Made Easy: With Simple Sauces and Dressings (Wei-chuans cookbook), Chinese Cuisine: Taiwanese Style, and Chinese One Dish Meals.

Although I cannot verify what the 2 previous reviewers have said about the authenticity of the recipes, I would suspect that they are correct based upon the author's description and recipes for sushi. Nowhere does she provide an appropriate recipe for sushi rice with appropriate vinegar, sugar, etc., ingredients.
Also her description of wasabi is just plain incorrect, i.e., wasabi is not a "spicy-hot, green mustard sauce", it is a root which is grated and served with sushi. The "wasabi" she describes is what is frequently at suchi bars because real wasabi is expensive and it is indeed usually made with mustard and/or horseradish.
However, some of the recipes seem to be decent Chinese recipes or Westernized versions of the recipes and they would most likely be good eats!