Customer Reviews

My China: A Feast for All the Senses

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

 

 

Having lived in southern China for nearly 3 years, our family had nearly given up on finding authentic Chinese cuisine here in upstate NY. Thankfully, there is this wonderful book. Our daughter made us a holiday feast (including dumplings, yum!) from a few familiar recipes found here and we were almost back in Xiamen! Outstanding photos, stories, and great recipes. If you've ever lived in China, this is for you. If you've ever wanted to visit or live in China, this is for you, too! Try some of these meals and you will understand what real Chinese food is about.

I have all of Kylie Kwong's books and they are all great but this is her best so far. The stories add to the book but the real stars are the recipes. I've only tried a few so far, but there are so many already on my do list. There is a fabulous rare beef with Ginger sauce which got rave reviews from the family. Last night we tried the Hot and Smoky chicken with Ginger and Chilli - YUM. We do have an industrial strength wok burner which probably helped with the smokiness, but it was very good on all levels. I am a bit of a cookbook collector (500 or thereabouts)and I have a shortlist of books I think are really excellent. This one has already made it to that list - I knew from the moment I opened it!

Kylie Kwong was born into one of Australia's oldest Chinese families. She is a 29th generation Kwong, and a 4th generation Australian-Chinese. Kylie is known to many Australians through her wonderful television series, as the proprietor of the Billy Kwong restaurant in Sydney and through her magnificent books.

`My China' is the fourth of Kylie's books, and invites the reader to travel with her as she rediscovers her Chinese heritage and explores the history, culture and cuisine of China and Tibet. This book contains magnificent photographs of places, people and food. The book is also a travelogue containing recipes specific to particular regions. There is a map, as well, so the reader can see where these places are.

The recipes themselves are easy to follow, clearly explained and are accompanied by delicious photographs. Ms Kwong provides serving numbers based of shared meals (ie a recipe will serve 4 to 6 as part of a shared meal) thus enabling someone to plan how many dishes they might wish to prepare based on the number of guests and type of gathering. I particularly like her section on ingredients, and found the paragraph on the relative uses of different soy sauces especially helpful.

In summary, `My China' is a delightful addition to the home library for anyone who enjoys Chinese cuisine. Those interested in Chinese culture and history will also enjoy this book. The photographs are simply stunning.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The feel of this book is what really pulls you in, the common quest for our ancestral roots, the need to know who our ancestors were and what they were like, so that we can ultimately know ourselves better. Kylie incorporates childhood memories of her family with her modern-day quest to finally visit the ancestral village of her grandfather and pay homage to him while rediscovering her heritage. A very touching and insightful look into Chinese culture which also contains some very authentic and (thank goodness) simple dishes so that you feel as though you were traveling through the Chinese countryside with her. The recipes are for the most part simple and tasty, and do not require an in-depth knowledge of Chinese cooking to be successfully completed. Definitely a must for anyone who is looking for authentic, Chinese home-cooking.

I have this book and enjoy the story of Kylie Wong's impressions of China as a Chinese-Australian unable to speak her own ethnic tongue. To venture into that past is the real interest for me, because as a cook she's more a business women than a chef.

On an "IRON CHEF" scale of 1 to 10 Kylie would rate a 3 or 4 as professional chef and a 2 or 3 in regard to cuisine history and origins.

She's a one-trick pony in her cooking style and the DVD of this book is human enough to show locals saying that they don't like what she's trying to get them to agree is her wonderful style and taste. Give her credit for that honesty. In terms of ingredients and history and the relationship of the four great cooking cultures of China, Japan, Italy and France Kylie is amazingly ignorant and I guess that's why she is not embarrassed to say the things that she does.

If you watch the DVD of the book's story you'll see that Kylie has developed that wonderful Australian habit of blundering into situations blithely unaware of local sensibilities. For example her appearances at various local cooking schools ("Chinese cooking schools" as she would say) excruciatingly highlights how her relative knowledge could be written on one side of one chopstick - just observe the faces of the teachers and students. Yet she powers on regardless - and good for her.

Her wonderful skill is as a business women and a showbiz chef, and there I give here 8 out of 10 on a world scale, as she's parlayed her chef's weaknesses into a series of successful income streams and that's terrific.

I enjoy this book as a cultural encounter and one with an emotional connection between the author and her experiences. As a cooking book you'd be better to save your money.

This cookbook has some great recipes although it devotes a lot of space to being a travel log as Kylie explores her heritage roots. If you want both significantly authentic Chinese recipes and a personal travel dialog this is a very good book.
I would encourage folks seriously interested in cooking oriental foods with a modern eye to look for and purchase some of her other cookbooks "Simple Chinese Cooking" and "heart & soul" for example.
If you are in Sydney you wouldn't go wrong visiting her "Billy Kwong" Restaurant and select "The Banquet". The food and service was marvelous while seated in a tiny and tightly packed space. Recommend you pay in cash rather than with a foreign Credit Card since my experience was that the Restaurant marked up the card usage fee much higher than others. All in all it was a worthwhile experience.

I thought it would be more of a cook book, but, it's a book about her experiences traveling and living in China. Yes, there are authentic recipes in the book, but, too few for my taste.

Outstanding book. I saw it at a freinds home and couldn't wait to get it. The recipes are so easy and the travle story of her life is intrieging. Anyone into Chineses cooking or China should have it.
M o