Customer Reviews

Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking: 200 Traditional Recipes from 11 Chinatowns Around the World

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

 

 

This ranks as one of Martin Yan's best, with lots of well written recipes. If you're not yet into Chinese cooking, this is a great place to begin. While I have not tried a large number of the recipes yet, and while a few of them require a really extensive Asian grocery for the ingredients, everything so far has been straightforward and delicious. There is also fascinating material about different Chinatowns and Chinese culture scattered randomly throughout the book.

I've been a fan of Martin yan's ever since seeing him on PBS some 15 years ago or so. Before Emeril came along Yan was one of the few TV cooks who tried to entertain as well as educate on cooking. I'm quite disappointed he's no long on the Food Network anymore as I just don't see him pop up on PBS that often but maybe I am just missing him.

I was able to pickup this book on the bargain Rack at the local Mediaplay for just a few bucks so it was well worth the price. Different than his other books, Martin takes on a guided world tour to various Chinatowns around the world including San Francisco, Sydney and Yokohama, complete with brief histories and Yan's recommendations on restaurants to visit in each chinatown.

The Recipes are grouped by course. Some of the recipes are pictured; all included a brief introduction, telling a bit about the recipe or hints to making the dish. The directions are easy to follow once you became acquainted with the ingredients. Any questions are easily solved by a trip to the Asian Market or a quick look at the Chinese Pantry section. The Chinese ingredients and many other less common ingredients in the recipes were covered in this Section.

The index, an important area of any cookbook, is great! If you want a duck recipe, look up duck. If you want an appetizer, you got it. Recipes can also be found under their name as well as various main ingredients. You would be able to find "Roast Duck Nachos", under any of these headings.

All in all, not only is this a good cookbook, but a good history into some of the world's finest chinatowns.

Martin Yan is a true pioneer in bringing Chinese cuisine to our living rooms via his TV shows, with his sense of humor, blazing knife skills, and a teaching style that makes him a real pleasure to watch. But Yan also is a prolific writer who has written 10 best selling cookbooks. With an easy-to-follow style, the books is a real treasure for anyone wanting to learn more about Chinese cuisine. And even if you're never been to a Chinatown, this book will help educate you into the many variations of this wonderfuol cuisine.

This cookbook contains 200 recipes from 11 Chinatown's throughout the world. Recipes are clearly written, and each step is numbered to make it easy to follow. Yan also clearly describes the size of each ingedient. As an example, "large eggs", "unsalted butter". As a result, the recipes produce the intended results with such clear instruction.

The beginning of each recipe includes a short paragraph that provides useful informaiton about the dish preperation, serving suggestions, or recipe variations. Although some recipes contain a large list of ingfredients, that shouldn;t deter you. Yan has done an excellent job of making each dish seem simple to make. And for those of you who are pressed for time, some can be made with just a few ingredients. The book also includes a unique recipe called Char Siu Quesidillas, that combines a Mexican recipe with a Chinese twist. And some recipes have been adapted by Yan for those readers like myself who may not live close to a Chinatown.

I also found the index to be quite helpful, with some dishes listed in multiple locations depending upon it's ingredients. As an example, a fish custard is listed both under eggs, as well as fish. The recipe names also are straightforward - I dislike recipes with names that tend to obscure the recipe's ingredients.

Who should buy this book? Anyone who wants to expand their culinary repjitoire and enhance their knowledge of Chinese cuisine. Yan has done a superb job of covering the many different stlyes of Chinese cooking that can be found in Chibatown. For novice cooks, a 10-page section covering equipment and techniques provide manyn helpful hints, But even more seasonedf cooks like myself found this secion useful. As a case in point, Yan talks about what to do when buying a clay pot. Now, I finally know how I am supposed to prepare the pot before using it - something the manufacturer and store never told me.

The book also includes related informaiton on Chinese culture and celebrations such as celebrating Chinese New Year. Yan talks about his personal memories as well as typical traditions, and how the food is a huge part of the celebration.

I also liked the section on "How to Order in a Chinese Restaurant," that include 11 helpful tips on making your next visit to a Chinese restaurant more enjoyable.

The book is richly illustrated with color photos that make me hungry just looking at it.

Still, I was disappointed that I didn't find some traditional American-Chinese favorites suchs as egg foo yung, and chicken chow mein, that while aren't considered authentic Chinese cooking, nevertheless are probaly some dishes that many of us are most familiar with. Nevertheless, the book is well worth it, and certainly expands one's culinary palette.

This is a great cookbook. The recipes are simple, the execution is easy, and the food is yummy. Every recipe we tried did not disappoint. We have cooked clams, eggplant, and fish using recipes in this book, and they all turned out great. We have been to a couple of the Chinatowns from which Mr. Yan harvested these recipes, and when we cook this food, it is like a trip back...without having to buy a plane ticket. We have now stocked our kitchen with hoisin sauce, fish sauce, five spice chinese powder, and other tools and ingredients so we can be ready to cook Chinatown style! If you want fancy Chinese food for a big Chinese wedding, look elsewhere. If you want great tasting Chinese food that comes close to what you would get on Mott Street in NY, then give this book a try!

I found this book in the library. After reading it, I decided I got to own it. This is a really great book on Chinese food! I am Chinese, grew up in Hong Kong & Macau. I saw his shows in Hong Kong's English TV channel when I was in highschool. I think he was good on his show and we Chinese back home were very impressed that Martin Yan was able to demonstrate authentic Chinese cooking in such an entertaining and easy to understand format!

Since I moved to America, I had been trying to find a Chinese cookbook that I can cook from to soothe my craving for foods from back home. I brought with me Chinese cookbooks from Hong Kong, written in Chinese. But the measurements and ingredients from those books are difficult for me to follow here in America, mainly because people back home cook with different measuring system and they have different terms for the ingredients, thus creating problems for me when I go shopping. I'm glad I found this book, the recipes are great. They are clear and precise and easy to follow. All the ingredients are readily available in grocery stores here in California, Asian or not, like Trader Joes, Gelson or Wholefood where I usually shop!

Of course, the book can't possibly include all the recipes of all the dishes or dim sums back home. But all the recipes in the book are really good and authentic Chinese classics that we Chinese love! Recipes from Macau and Hong Kong are very authentic, like the Mintzi Beef (from Macau, a chinese dish influenced by Portuguese cooking), or the Hong Kong Wonton Bowl... Also the book got my favorite "Pine Apple Bun" that I always ordered 4 dishes and more whenever I go to Dim Sum. (can't go all the time because dim sum is only good with several friends and in L.A. it's not easy to gather several friends like it was when I was in Hong Kong. I only went 2 times this year versus I went twice every week with either my family or my friends in Hong Kong!) So during days when I crave for my "Pine Apple Buns", I refer to Martin Yan's book, and they all came out just the way they taste in the restaurants, only fresher from my own oven!

The book also helps me teach my American friends about Chinese food. I use the book often whenever I entertain at home so I can share with my friends some of the classics that I ate growing up in Hong Kong and Macau. They all love my "Pineapple Buns!", which was always my favorite, as a kid and now as a grown-up! I'm glad I could share one my childhood goodies with my American friends, thanks to Martin. I'm the only one in my Chinese family who knows how to make these buns now! Because they have no need to learn and it is convenient for them to get them from bakeries, Chinese retaurants and everywhere back home.

For those of you who don't cook but who love to eat Chinese food or are interested in the culture, this book gives you a very good education on Chinese food and dim sum. While you may not want to be cooking Chinese, but you will be ordering like a Chinese person whichever Chinese restaurant you go and you will impress the dim sum ladies and the waiters with the fact that you know what you are ordering and that you are ordering items, very often only Chinese people would order! Like my American bf, he now knows how to order in Cantonese because of Martin's book, and of corurse I taught him the prounciation for the dishes he loves (mostly the dishes that I love too because I got him into them), and the Chinese pepole were always shocked when he ordered, and I enjoyed watching the Chinese people's reaction, so I just let him order every time so he can have fun practicing. The Chinese thought he was fluent and were very impressed, but he only knew how to order the dishes he loved! The waiters always talk to me in Chinese, "Your bf is no typical American, has very good taste in Chinese food, just like a Chinese!" I agree, after what I showed him with Martin's book, he can't go back to "Panda Express" or those crappy Chinese take-outs which he used to love.

First of all, I love how beautiful the cookbook is with many pictures throughout. I also like how Martin Yan explains various ingredients and describes what makes each Chinatown he visisted unique. I agree that some ingredients are more difficult to get and require a trip to the Asian supermarket, but I also figured out how to vary recipes to be more convenient for me. (This is based on the fact that I already have several basic Chinese ingredients around the house.) One reviewer felt that the cookbook didn't include many dishes from Chinatown, but there's such variation in what Chinese food is that it's hard to capture it in one book. Many of the dishes are familiar to me, so I guess Martin Yan's taste is a good fit for me! The dishes are tasty and fairly easy to make -- I think it's important to be flexible and experiment with any recipe you come across, and the recipes are simple enough to allow for you to experiment and still taste good. We use this cookbook a lot more often than other ones we have at home.

I'm an experienced western cook, but Chinese food has been my downfall. With the exception of a few reliable recipes, I had almost given up on being able to cook good, simple Chinese food. I've been to Chinatowns all over the world, and never thought I'd be able to duplicate what I ate there. The recipes in my cookbooks either called for too much deep frying, too much equipment or tasted like nothing I had eaten before.

Then I found this great cookbook! Martin Yan is a gifted teacher and cooking writer. I knew his show was entertaining. When I began to use this book I discovered that his show is the least of it. Here is a Chinese chef who genuinely wants to impart his knowledge to others.

What's good about this book? The recipes and techniques are not difficult. The equiptment is easy to find and, in an American kitchen, a deep rounded frying pan will usually serve as well, or better, than a wok. Most ingredients can be found in today's supermarkets. Best of all, many of the recipes can be made quickly. Once you get the hang of it, many of them are far easier and faster than those in western cookbooks.

Our favorite recipes include Broccoli Beef, Beef Stir-Fry Over Golden Pancake and Walnut Chicken.

Having just returned from Chinatown, NY recently, I can say that this is definitely Chinatown eats! If you do not have Asian ingredients, there will be alot of special buys from an Asian store. But I have a full stocked international pantry, so the recipes here seemed to ask for pantry staples.

I highly recommend for anyone with an already-stocked Asian pantry.

This book gives a good basic overview of Chinese recipes, places, ingredients, and culture. Martin has many other Chinese cookbooks including Chinese cooking for Dummies, which give completely different recipes. I decided to order this book after watching episodes of Martin Yan's Hong Kong on [...].

This ranks as one of Martin Yan's best, with lots of well written recipes. If you're not yet into Chinese cooking, this is a great place to begin. While I have not tried a large number of the recipes yet, and while a few of them require a really extensive Asian grocery for the ingredients, everything so far has been straightforward and delicious. There is also fascinating material about different Chinatowns and Chinese culture scattered randomly throughout the book.