Customer Reviews

Chinese Cuisine: The Fabulous Flavors & Innovative Recipes of North America's Finest Chinese Cook

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love to eat Chinese food, but don't cook it, that is, until I got this cookbook. Great intro which you have to read to find how she got to Philly and melded Chinese cuisine with French especially.

Recipes are unique, light with usually one or two unusual items which nowadays are easily found. Great helps such as what to buy, how to use them, etc.

Try as an appetizer "One-hundred-corner crab cakes" or "orange Beef with sun-dried tomatoes" (mouthwatering stuff, this is.) Especially representative is an usual fare which has wowed my guests, "Steamed Crabmeat souffle."

This is a delight of a cookbook, to cook, serve and eat!

We bought this book after eating at Susannah Foo's restaurant in Philadelphia. I loved the subtle flavors and lightness of the meal, unlike any other oriental meal eaten. Her cookbooks encourages the use of some interesting although sometimes tough to find ingredients, but most of the recipes are memorable and fairly easy to prepare. Foo is a real innovator. I like this book much better than Barbara Tropp's book, as one does not have to spend three weeks preparing eighteen sauces for each dish in order to end up with some wonderful flavors.

So many of my childhood favorites are in this book, which I thought could only be bought and never made by me. Having been to her restaurant several times and college in Philadelphia, I was given her cook book as a present. Being known for fusion cooking, due to her culinary training, I was so suprised at how many traditional chinese recipes are in her book like marbled tea eggs, hot and sour soup, dumplings, various pancakes and really good instructions and diagrams on how to roll the dough, wrap the dumplings, etc. Hats off to Susanna Foo for compiling such a good cook book with interesting antedotes regarding how the various foods invoke her childhood memories, making it an interesting read as well.

Susanna Foo has proved to us that Chinese Food is not Soy Sauce, Baby Corn and Cornstarch. It is a simple combination of flavors just like Italian or French cooking, without complicated techiniques. I have always loved chinese food and I read this cookbook over and over again getting ideas of what kind of things to make and getting ideas about who can clean up after me! The best things in the book are the breads, and I cannot tell you how many times I have made Scallion Pancakes. I have only one complaint about her book. When making the scallion pancakes, disreagard the whole rolling and filling process. Just mix the scallions in with the flour and then add the boiling water.

THE SUSANNA FOO COOKBOOK IS ONE TRUE MASTERPIECE - A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS COOK (BOTH NEW AND EXPERIENCED). I HAVE BEEN COOKING FROM THE BOOK NONSTOP SINCE I BOUGHT IT LAST WINTER. THE RECIPE FOR STIR-FRIED RICE WITH TOMATOES AND BASIL IS WORTH EVERY PENNY OF THE BOOK'S COST. THE RECIPES ARE UNQUESTIONABLY CLEAR AND SIMPLE. THE INGREDIENTS ARE VERY EASY TO FIND AT LOCAL SUPERMARKETS AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES THE BOOK SOOOOO WONDERFUL, UNLIKE MOST INTERNATIONAL COOKBOOKS. NEXT TIME WHEN YOU NEED TO ADD A REFRESHING COOKBOOK FOR YOUR KITCHEN OR TO GIVE AWAY AS A GIFT, THIS IS THE ONE! TRUST ME BECAUSE I OWN AN ENORMOUS COLLECTION OF COOKBOOKS (OVER 1000 TITLES). YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED

We bought this book after eating in Susanna Foo's Restaurant in Philadelphia, and both the restaurant and the book are fantastic. Every recipe works beautifully, and some have become very regular meals for our family. We have no problems getting the ingredients at our local grocery store. We've found that the subtle flavors and combinations are best if you follow the recipes closely - they have obviously been tested and optimized already.

I've owned the 1995 edition for years and am delighted the 2002 edition is still available to purchase for my children! I have never been to one of Susanna Foo's restaurants but am primarily of Chinese descent. Replicating the subtle flavors of Chinese cuisine is difficult, and most Chinese restaurants here on the west coast miss the mark.

Susanna Foo successfully introduces to the home cook flavors and methods to create memorable, flavorful Chinese cuisine. Sometimes she accomplishes this by substituting or adding one or two non-traditional ingredients to replace those that are difficult to find in the US; other times she updates a dish, often improving upon it's flavor and home accessibility.

Followed correctly, her recipes are both delicious and complex on the palate. They leave my family's taste buds dancing. We really enjoy the mandarin Pork with Brandy-Infused Hoisin Sauce (I use orange flavored brandy) wrapped in Scallion Crepes or accompanied with Scallion Pancakes, the noodle dishes, and the sauces used in the recipes that can often be used for one's own personal creations.

I still use these recipes as my "wow" or keeper Chinese dishes - the ones that leave guests understanding how Chinese Cuisine is one of the great cuisines in the world. Great care is taken to ensure these recipes reflect incredibly delicious, light flavors as opposed to the ovely salty, corn starchy, greasy stuff found in many neighborhood restaurants.

Half of these recipes will require you to read the instructions twice before making them the first time. But it didn't take me too long to understand her approach and substitutions. The incredible food memories she pens here explain all. And her stories are a great read in and of themselves.

I bought this book to fill in a gap in my cookbook collection--I had none about Chinese cooking. It was a pleasant surprise to find that many of Susanna Foo's recipes have become standby's at home, for everyday cooking and for special dinners. As others have written, the recipes fuse chinese and french cooking techniques. Although there are occasionally difficult-to-find ingredients, more often than not the author provides substitutes. Favorites are the soy-braised cornish hens (so easy and so flavorful) and the tea-smoked cornish hens. There are plenty of seafood dishes, most served with delectable sauces that could be easily transplanted to poultry or pork dishes.

The writing style is engaging, with reminiscences of dishes the author ate or prepared as a childhood. I love this book !

So many of my childhood favorites are in this book, which I thought could only be bought and never made by me. Having been to her restaurant several times and college in Philadelphia, I was given her cook book as a present. Being known for fusion cooking, due to her culinary training, I was so suprised at how many traditional chinese recipes are in her book like marbled tea eggs, hot and sour soup, dumplings, various pancakes and really good instructions and diagrams on how to roll the dough, wrap the dumplings, etc. Hats off to Susanna Foo for compiling such a good cook book with interesting antedotes regarding how the various foods invoke her childhood memories, making it an interesting read as well.

I had been looking for a chinese cookbook that doesn't mimic the dishes on most generic chinese restaurants in america. Susanna Foo and all the collaborators on this book have done an excellent job of describing not only the recipes but the history and culture behind them. She mixes recipes with stories about her experience growing up in China, going to college in Tawain, and then finally moving to the United States. I love her blurb about eat dish and introduction to each section. It really personalizes the whole cooking experience. There are also highlights of specific foods like lotus seed, soy bean, star anise, etc. The dishes range from very simple to quite involved but all have a great flavor that is missing in most of the dishes you get at most upscale chinese restaurants.