Customer Reviews

Pei Mei's Chinese Cook Book

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Ever since the first television station opened in Taiwan (1958), Ms. Fu Pei-Mei started her cooking show. For most Chinese people, she *IS* the Julia Childs of Chinese cooking!

She is the first person who made recipes available to home chefs, and also demonstrated everything from how to select your vegetables and meat to how to prep fish and seafood, to basics such as how to stir fry, basic knife work (which is one of the most important skills).

She's the first chef to open a cooking school in Taiwan. Without her, there would be no Wei-chuan cooking school. And without her, recipes would only stay within families, or with the restaurant chefs who created them. She demystified Chinese cooking for Chinese moms, many of whom know only a handful of recipes passed down from their mothers.

And most of her students went on to become famous chefs and restauranteurs worldwide.

I have all her original cookbooks that my mother used in the 1960s and now I'm using them. Lifestyle changes and healthier cooking habits may make some of these recipes seem outdated, but if you moderate the amounts of salt and fat, the recipes still work extremely well. Not only that, but there are many dishes that are now lost (due to lack of being made in restaurants), and these are invaluable to any serious foodie collector.

Any of Ms Fu's cookbooks are well worth the investment. These and the Wei-Chuan cookbooks are now all that I use for Chinese cooking.

These are the best for authentic chinese cooking. The three volumes are filled with recipes from different regions, with pictures and very easy to follow instructions. I grew up with a a father who cooked gourmet food every day - needed something to help me "take the flavors" with me when I moved out and this is it! Perfect for the Chinese American wanting to re-create the foods from your parent's house (like me!) I originally borrowed these books, loved them so much and couldn't find them anywhere. Went all the way to Taiwan and scoured the bookstores to find them and never regretted the effort. Highly recommended.

and I have a HUGE collection of Asian cookbooks. These are the BEST of any. Very authentic and delicious recipes, well laid out and easy to follow. My only dissatisfaction was the quality of the paper and binding. Perhaps those produced today are of higher quality.

The recipes contained in the book are true to the regional style. This is a must have for true enthusiast of oriental style cooking. Every recipe that I have followed has been a success with guests.

I didn't grow up with this or anything, at least not that I know of. I did inherit a very old copy that my mom had and took it with me to college. When I moved later on, the postal service competently lost a number of my books in the mail, including my copy of Pei-Mei. Eventually I found a reasonably-priced used one here. As many said, Fu Pei-Mei is essentially the Julia Childs of Chinese cuisine. This was her first cookbook, originally published in 1969. It's by no means comprehensive, but it does cover a number of dishes grouped by regions of China. In a time (in the US) when the bastardization of kung pao chicken has become maddeningly rampant, this book provides a good reference to how some dishes are supposed to be, especially if you didn't grow up eating real Chinese food. Because it's so old, the flavors are quite strong, i.e. very salty. It also lists MSG as an ingredient in some dishes. I usually half the amount of salt listed and skip the MSG altogether, and still end up with excellent dishes. For authentic flavors and style with easy-to-follow recipes, this is my personal favorite. Volume I is becoming harder to find because it's so old; I suspect the subsequent, more recent volumes are just as good.