Customer Reviews

Chinese Cuisine, Made Simple

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

 

 

Dorothy Huang has been teaching cooking classes on Chinese food for 30+ years. Her first book was written in 1980. She has revised and perfected the recipes over the years and added more than 80 new recipes. She teaches her classes with recipes straight out of this book. Unlike many books that are just a collection of recipes that have only been tested a few times, Mrs. Huang has refined the instructions and ingredients in her recipes by cooking and teaching them hundreds of times. The book has nice glossy pages, several color photographs as well as a guide for package identification, ingredient substitution and descriptions to help as a guide when purchasing the ingredients. Very detailed instructions are provided for more complicated tasks such as making Wontons, rolling spring rolls, etc. Most of the ingredients in her recipes can be obtained from the international section of a local grocery store.

This book contains all of the recipes in which most Americans are familiar. Spring Rolls, Egg Rolls, several great dipping and stir frying sauces, Orange Chicken, Orange Beef, Moo Goo Gai Pan, several tofu dishes, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Sweet and Sour Fish, Lemon Chicken, General Tso's Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Kung Pao Shrimp, Kung Pao Chicken, Wonton Soup, Moo Shu, Potstickers, etc. This list goes on and on and does not stray away from the subject.

I have several hundred cookbooks in my library and this book and Stuart Chang Berman's Potsticker Chronicles are the best two books on the subject of Chinese Cuisine. Mr. Berman's book is a little more "Americanized" in the fact that there is a lot more sauce used on in his dishes.

PS: I don't review books unless I have cooked several recipes from them. You can't judge a book by its cover and you can honestly judge a recipe without cooking and eating it.

I have enjoyed Dorothy Huang's cooking classes for many years now, being fortunate enough to live here is Houston where she teaches. Dorothy has done an outstanding job of selecting excellent dishes to provide recipes for, and she has chosen a superior design and layout for her cookbook. This is a book that you look forward to using, and it makes you wish other cookbooks were designed this well. I know so many of these dishes from her cooking classes and I've had the opportunity to enjoy many dishes in that setting, so I can confirm to you that this book is full of really really really great tasting stuff!

I feel obligated to post this response to the other reviewer from San Jose. Something about the "lack of pictures" just didn't seem right to me, because, one of the wonderful aspects of this book is that in the front, Dorothy has great photos of the actual products she uses, so that there is no mystery about what to buy. So, I counted photographs. Here are the pages that photos appear on:

8, 9, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 40, 50, 51, 55, 77, 92, 93, 103, 117, 129, 131, 149, 152, 171, 212, 224, 225.

Most of these fall into the category of finished dish photos.

I met Dorothy Huang about a year ago when my mother and I took a cooking class from her at a local shop in Houston. We bought her book while there (a copy for each of us) and since then I have made almost every recipe. I am a beginning chef who is still learning a lot about making tasty meals, and I can say that every time I make something from this book it turns out wonderful and delicious. The recipes are fool proof and showcase a wide variety of well-known favorites. I also make things from this book for my extremely picky boyfriend, and he hasn't complained yet. I have yet to find a need to buy another Chinese cookbook (and I'm a cookbook junky) because this one is that good.

Some of the best recipes in there are: Seasame Chicken, Orange Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Broiled Chicken in Oyster Sauce, Beef and Broccoli, and the Fried Wontons.

where are the pictures of the finished dishes?????????
there were like 3 pictures total....????!!!!!???????
for nearly 30 bucks, i expected more....
very disappointed......