Customer Reviews

Chinese Cooking, Restaurant Style

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I am disappointed with this book. Aside from the promising title, it has nothing new to offer aside from basic cutting techniques, explained in a confusing and inefficient manner. The food therein bears no resemblance to that of any Chinese restaurant I have ever been to.

Perhaps I need to narrow down my criteria for good Chinese restaurants -- I do like authentic restaurants, but I think what I'm REALLY looking for in Chinese food is the type served in typical Chinatown restaurants -- not the stuff you get at over-priced hotel restaurants. The recipes listed in this book are of the latter variety, I suspect. In any case, I have never seen, nor would I ever eat at a restaurant who's menu consists of the following dishes:

Bean Curd and Fish Soup, Beef and Tomato Soup, Carp and Vegetable Soup, Dried Bean Curd with Peppers, Eggplant with Minced Chicken, Sauteed Cauliflower, Stir-Fried Carrots and Turnips, Boiled Wax Gourd with Vegetables, Baby Corn with Green and White Asparagus, Braised Oyster with Garlic and Bean Curd, Fried Fish and Pineapple, Sweet and Sour Fish, Diced Pork with Potatoes, Carrots and Green Peppers, Stuffed Green Peppers, Stir-Fried Liver and Sugar Snap Peas, Kidneys with Sesame Oil, Braised Beef and Turnips, Stir-Fried Tripe and Green Peppers, Stir-Fried Beef with Onions and Ginger, Stir-Fried Giblets with Celery, Stewed Giblets and Liver...

...and so on. Does anything in this list even sound appealing? I have no doubt that they're authentic to some region of China, but the book certainly doesn't grace us with this information.

Maybe I'm just biased towards Szechuan and Cantonese, but that doesn't excuse the book's lack of useful content. It's filled with... er, filler, and redundant/useless phrases like "Ingredients that should be cubed should not be cut into slices; those that should be sliced thinly should not be sliced thickly."

Although it has some nice glossy photos, most of the dishes don't look all that appetizing, and the meat looks dry. This is no surprise, since the recipes don't include proper marination procedures, and list only the bare minimum of ingredients, most of which are adapted for westerners who refuse to go to Chinatown or Chinese grocery stores.

Excuse the ranting, but I am a bit frustrated -- this is exactly the typical type of mediocre Westernized Chinese cookbook that I can't stand.