Customer Reviews

Classic Chinese Cuisine

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After many years of Chinese take-out, I decided to take a stab at Chinese cooking myself. I got a few books and took a shot at it. The results were less than satisfactory. I found that my cookbooks left me unsure and confused about certain ingredients. Then, I picked up a copy of "Classic Chinese Cuisine". With this book, I was able to come up with some pretty impressive meals. Rosemary Moon clearly explains ingredients and cooking methods. Although ingredient preparation still takes time, I'm confident that once I have everything at hand, it all comes together in a flash. Basic ingredients blend wonderfully to create uniquely pleasing tastes - even in the hands of a beginner like myself. Anyone just starting out in Chinese cuisine would truly benefit from having this book

I started with Rosemary Moon's High Fiber cookbooks which were stellar. Then, researching her, I found her Classic Cuisine series. Italian, French, Indian, Chinese, and Irish.

This Classic Chinese Cuisine book (the English version, not the Spanish) is quite good, uses authentic ingredients, and very little soy sauce. IMO, there are two types of Chinese cookbooks, those which use lots of soy sauce (starting with 1/2 cup and going up from there) and those which use very little. Rosemary Moon ascribes to the latter school of cooking. So, typically, her recipes call for 1-2 Tablespoons of soy sauce, or a pinch of salt. Needless to say, her recipes are MSG-free, unless one uses a soy sauce or other Asian sauces with MSG added or which formed MSG in the manufacturing of those sauces. However, San-J soy sauce and Tamari are MSG free, and substitutes for the other sauces abound. Also, the quantities are so small that they are easily dealt with through one means or another.

I am Asian, Rosemary Moon is not. However, after assembling a collection of noted Chinese chefs' cookbooks, I wish that I had known about Rosemary Moon first. The ground that she covers and her recipes are that good. Her recipes are more in the spirit of the vintage Chinese cookbooks I found describing the authentic Chinese food of the great Chinese cities and villages. On the strength of this Chinese cookbook, I bought Rosemary Moon's Classic French Cuisine and Classic Indian Cuisine books as well! She made Chinese Cuisine very accessible, and easy to make at home. I am hoping that the other books will be as good. I also bought her highly rated cookbooks on Eggplant, Onions, and Frozen Desserts.

Although it says Spanish edition, there was not a single Spanish word in this book. And, all ingredients and cooking steps were written (typed) with no pictures at all, which makes it impossible for Spanish speaker to learn anything from this book. But the seller was kind enough to give me a refund and let me keep the book.