Customer Reviews

Chinese Cuisine: Recipes and their Stories: Traditional Chinese Culture and Art (Chinese/English edition)

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I like this little book. It contains entries for 84 different dishes from across China. There is a little introduction which provides some historical facts or mythology behind the origins of each dish, a recipe for each, and a decent photograph of the finished product. Many of the 'stories' behind a dish are not especially gripping, if the truth be known, and many seem to be minor variations on the same basic theme, but the recipes are actually pretty good. My only disappointment with this book is that it did not mention many dishes that are familiar in Chinese restaurants in the West (General Tso's Chicken, Egg Foo Yung/ Fu Rong, for example) but, to be fair, this book was not really written for a western audience. The book is published in China and in Chinese (albeit, side-by-side with an English translation). Quite a few of the dishes are rather obscure but I still liked reading about them and there are some recipes that I wish to try. All in all, this book will be a decent purchase for people who enjoy more from food than simply eating it.