Customer Reviews

Modern Asian Flavors: A Taste of Shanghai

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"Modern Asian Flavors: A Taste of Shanghai" is a delightful journey through author's, Richard Wong, heritage and upbringing. The recipes are simple and sophisticated, and like the back cover of the book declares, "bursting with flavor".

Wong's recipes are easy-to-follow and show a more modern approach to Asian cuisine. The photographs are gorgeous making each dish look mouth-watering.

Chapters included in this book are: Shanghainese Sauces; Cocktails & Appetizers; Soups & Salads; Poultry & Meat; Fish & Shellfish; Vegetables, Rice and Noodles; and Desserts. Some of the tasty recipes you can find in here are: Ginger-tini, Hot and Sour Soup, Skewered Sesame Chicken, and Peach Wonton Crisps.

This is a wonderful book!

I purchased this book on a whim thinking that it would have some authentic Shanghainese recipes. It was a waste of money. Rather, the book is a random collection of not so impressive recipes that the author knows how to make, with no connection to Shanghainese cuisine at all.

The author's descriptions of his life throughout the book is absolutely charming. His reasons for cooking the way he does brightens all the recipes.

Maybe Richard Wong is from a different part of Shanghai than my family, but I've grown up eating Shanghainese food and saw nothing I recognized as specifically Shanghainese in this book. Some recipes weren't even really Chinese. I was looking for an English cookbook with some basic Shanghainese recipes and was hoping this book would do the trick. Unfortunately, this was your typical Americanized Chinese cookbook. Shanghai is used as a marketing hook, but the recipes don't live up to the title.

"Modern" seems to be code for "Americanized" and "taste of Shanghai" means "my family is from Shanghai and I wrote this book, so by the transitive property, this book is a taste of Shanghai". I have nothing against non-Shanghainese food. This may be a great cookbook, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

I found another book called "Chinese Cuisine Shanghai Style" which does seem to have authentic Shanghainese recipes based on the table of contents. It also appears to have Chinese writing which may make it a little too authentic for me, but I plan on purchasing it in the near future.

You can say I am biased being a fan of chinaBlue having known Richard since 1999. However, although I have tried a few dishes in the past, I never had the chance to prepare one of his recipes until recently. This weekend (July 2008), I had the pleasure of joining Richard in the kitchen as part of a fundraising event and preparing some of the recipes in the cookbook. That was so much fun! He took the guests and his three sous chefs through an amazing and flavorful food journey that evening. He prepared eight dishes 2 appetizers, 5 entrees and a dessert (baked wontons filled with ice cream and topped with peaches); 6 of which are highlighted in the book. The meals were colorful, flavorful, healthy and so delicious. Needless to say, I immediately looked through my book the next morning to make sure that I could share some of these wonderful dishes with a good friend flying in from Los Angeles in August. The recipes are simple enough for anyone who loves cooking to follow. Cheers and Bon Appetit!