Customer Reviews

Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge: The Ultimate Guide to Mastery, with Authentic Recipes and Stories

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After purchasing this book, I have had a hard time cooking from any other. To date, I have made: minced pork in lettuce cups; stir-fried beef & broccoli; stir-fried chicken with pineapple and peppers; chinese trinidadian chicken with mango chutney; five spice chicken with sugar snaps; chinese jamaican stir-fried chicken with chayote; stir-fried chicken with carrots & mushrooms; chinese burmese chili chicken; stir-fried salmon in wine sauce; dry-fried pepper & salt shrimp; singapore-style stir-fried lobster; spicy long beans with sausage and mushrooms; fried sweet rice with mushrooms; and singapore noodles. No dish has disappointed. The recipes are clear and concise, the backgrounds giving more appreciation for each dish, and the photography approaches the pornographic for glorious color & close-ups of the food. That said (I may be biased), my dishes have looked remarkably close to the pictures.
I haven't had this much fun cooking from a book in a long time. So. . .buy the book, find those tiny Mom & Pop Asian grocery stores, & don't be afraid to ask questions. You're going to eat well!

Back in the 70s and early 80s, the wok was all the rage. Then in one of my many youthful moves, I lost mine and never thought about it again. Not, that is, until this book came along.

Grace Young's book is great for the first-time wok cook, or for those like me who are rediscovering Asian cooking. The opening section has clear explanations and color photographs on the different kinds of woks, how to season a wok, wok tools, and wok variations in different countries. She provides a very handy list of Asian ingredients, with explantions for each and substitutions that can be used for some. The recipes are clearly written, accessible to the western cook, and lots and lots of color photos which I particularly appreciate. At the back is a resource list of stores and web sites.

I called one of these -- The Wok Shop in San Francisco's Chinatown -- and the store owner, Tane, who is also featured in one of the pictures in the book, was very helpful in helping me choose the right wok for me and my stovetop. A mere sixty bucks and a few days later, I had my wok, wok cover, all my wok tools, and was ready to roll. (I bought a lot of extras but you can get a wok from Tane for as low as $15) Since then we've been using the wok several times a week, and really enjoying the many things that can be made in it, especially the vegetables, which I'm trying to eat more of.

what I appreciated most about Young's philosophy is that wok cooking is extremely inexpensive AND healthy. It is the chosen cooking tool for humans in most parts of the world, and once you learn how to use your wok, most of those other pots and pans really are not needed. Wok, heat source, something to move the food around (spatula or whatever), and some food from the garden or local market and you are good to go, anywhere on the planet! Highly recommended for novice cooks and chefs alike!!

I loved this book. Stir Fying to the Skys Edge. I have been cooking for 30 years with what I thought was a pretty good knowledge of stir frying. I love my wok and use it a couple of times a month. This Book without a doubt has helped me bring my cooking to a whole other level. The recipes are great but there is so much more to be learned in this book. Grace Young makes you want to run to the store and prepare a great healthy meal. She makes it interesting and easy to cook all your old favorites plus and ton of new dishes. Lets face it what cook does not love a one dish meal??? Great Book. I am buying this book for all my future wedding shower gifts.

I probably should use this cookbook a few more times before writing a review, but my first meal turned out so well, that I am confident that the others will too. I am new to stir-fry, and this book is absolutely perfect, especially since I'm an older guy who's only real exposure to cooking is throwing burgers and chicken onto a grill, and getting into his wife's way when she is trying to get supper ready. The first 70 pages of this book are spent explaining what stir-fry is, and what equipment you will need. More importantly, she explains how to use and care for it. I found those pages indispensable. If I can follow her instructions and have the food turn out well, ANYONE can. There are no Chinese cooking classes available where I live, so I really needed to have all of the basics spelled out for me. Besides, her prose is very enjoyable to read; lots of good stories about how Chinese cooking developed as people emigrated from China to other parts of the world. My only difference of opinion with Ms Young is that she feels that most American cast iron Woks are too heavy for comfortable use. I bought a Lodge Wok at Amazon, and it is perfect for me. I don't plan on flipping food in the wok, so the extra weight is ok, and it does hold the heat well. Thank you Grace Young for this outstanding cookbook.

Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge is what a cookbook about stir frying should be. I have lost count of the number of such books on the subject which I have read through and I have cooked from at least ten and this is the finest for some of the reasons described below.

First, all recipes can actually be made; the ingredients used are available at most supermarkets and the few which are not are available at any metropolitan area asian grocer or from many mail order vendors for those of you living in rural areas.

Second, the quantity of ingredients and directions are detailed and straight forward. The author goes so far as to write up techniques and tools for preparing the proteins and vegetables such as the best ways to cut matchstick sized vegetables, slice proteins, etc. There is no guess work needed to make the recipes. The author avoids this very common failing of cookbooks.

As a consequence of the foregoing, even a novice cook can actually make the recipes as intended by the author and they are delicious.

Third, I have loved the flavors, textures and smells of all of the recipes which I have made. The dishes written up are excellent.

Fourth, there is a great variety of dishes covering all of the usual proteins and vegetables. Whatever one you favor, you will find a preparation including it, and most likely featuring it, be it chicken, fish, seafood, beef, pork, noodles, rice, and all sorts of vegetables.

I do wish that the recipes contained nutrition information. However, this is common among non-diet books.

I expect that I will make at least 90% of the recipes in this book and expect to love them all. This book is a keeper and worth adding to you cookbook collection. I am grateful to the author and anticipate that you will be too.

I have purchased all 3 of Grace Young's cookbooks. From her original "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen" with its black and white pages, to her newest Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge, with color images that wet my pallete just to look at them, I love them all! My daughters were adopted from China at birth and these are one of the treasures that I will hand down to them one day for thier kitchen library. On one of our trips to Shanghai, China we went in search of the "wok man" that she writes about in her "The Breath of a Wok" (page 26) and watched/listened as he hand banged a wok for us. My daughters and I enjoy learning to cook Chinese together going through Grace's recipes as she helps us with photos even of techniques in which to slice/prepare the food as well as what it should look like served. Do we have a favorite recipe, "Oh my, no" there are so many. If you are an experienced cook in need of inspiration for a dinner or a novice learning as we did, you will enjoy her books and stories woven within the pages.

This is a wonderful cookbook which is educational on many topics, including ingredients, preparation techniques for ingredients, and woks.

But here's what I love about it -- the recipes produce unbelievably delicious results. I'm in a rut now . . . I buy my ingredients, put rice in my rice cooker, and make the next recipe. They are uniformly great.

So, if you want amazing, tasty stir fries with authentic taste, you can't miss with this book.

Recently, I went on a cookbook buying binge. I collect cookbooks, and decided to add Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge to my collection. I am so glad that I did!

This year, at the last minute, it became impossible to go to our usual restaurant to celebrate the Chinese New Year by eating all the good luck foods. So, I had to cook them myself! This book was a tremendous help!

I had previously collected Eileen Yin Fei Lo's books, but was appalled when I looked at a Jai recipe, and it was missing the key ingredient. In Cantonese, one says Kung Hee Fat Choy or Gung Hee Fat Choi, to wish someone Happy New Year. The Jai recipe properly had the Chinese name, Fat Choi. But, Eileen Lo's recipe had no Fat Choi in the recipe entitled Fat Choi. It is the critical ingredient! If you have ever had Jai, Fat Choi is the black moss in Jai. Jai is a good luck food which is a composite of many many good luck components. At that point in my frantic luncheon preparations, I skipped the Eileen Lo portion of my Chinese collection and opened Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge to carry me through the other dishes.

Thanks to Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, I was able to throw together a Chinese New Year luncheon where the food disappeared as if inhaled, and the Chinese guests had triple servings. We were all able to eat the various good luck foods, and enjoyed ourselves and the food tremendously!

Because most good luck New Year foods involve ingredients, not actual dishes, this book can take you quite far, if you choose to make the good luck New Year foods. But, this latest Grace Young cookbook is mostly great for exceptional every day cooking. I used to dine frequently at the top Chinese restaurants in my city, which has really good Chinese food. But, I think that I can now easily make better dishes with Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. I have been shocked to learn just how cheaply I can do that too, despite using top grade and organic ingredients! This latest Grace Young offering allows one to create food far better than almost any Chinese restaurant will offer, and to do it effortlessly.

I have one caveat. I do not believe in adding iron to the diet by using metal woks. Most of us do not need the extra iron. I am planning to get some non-stick Lloyd woks (supposedly non-toxic) which are made in Spokane, WA. There is a YouTube video showing the pan being demonstrated at Bonsai Bistro. The wok being used in the video is a commercial wok. This kind of wok is not recommended for home use, according to the website. I think it is because of the way that the flames of the gas surround the wok. The home use woks sold by Lloyd have a flat bottom to contact the heat surface. However, having fallen in love with the commercial wok, I am seriously considering not only getting it, but getting the outdoor propane (ball) set-up, to use it. There are certain things that need to be cooked outdoors in Chinese cooking, like Tea-Smoked poultry. Also deep-frying whole chickens is safer done outdoors, IMO. In a power outage, it would be handy to have a propane cooking set-up, too.

In closing, there was an article in a Honolulu newspaper, which had the Jai recipe and background on the good luck ingredients, which will help anyone who decides to make Jai.

In about 1967 my "golden watch" was a wok that my co-workers bought for me. I had a party for them the next day, but of course this was 45 years or so before Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which I could have used. Ms. Young seems to be able to combine simplicity with high skill -- perhaps it's her, or perhaps it's just that woks and stir-frying are such an ancient and perfected art. Anyway, by skipping over the meats in ingredient lists, and by going with fish or even tofu, I can make stir fry to die for! I don't have $75 for a wok, but the steel one I have from 1967 has been seasoned and used for a long time, and it still does the job. I have even been able to do a few of the recipes on an electric stove, but of course a gas stove is best. Thank you, Ms. Young, for a book that amounts to getting at least a B.A. if not a Master's degree in stir-frying! You covered all the important points.

Grace Young's intent was to educate readers about all aspects of stir-frying, & she has certainly done that. The first 31 pages of the book are dedicated to the selection, benefits, care, storage & use of different types of woks before she ever gets to "pantry" ingredients. Each type of stir-frying (dry or moist) & different techniques (velveting, chopping, slicing) are carefully detailed.

Meats, Fish, Eggs & Tofu, Noodles & Rice recipes all have their separate chapters & are for the home cook (not too exotic). The stories & personal profiles of chefs, cooks, friends & geographic areas are interspersed throughout & some are very moving. The photography is terrific, the book binding (hardcover) great. My small criticism is on a personal level of warmth.

As a cookbook collector, I often read the books on a rainy day for entertainment & inspiration while daydreaming of travel to exotic places. Fuchsia Dunlop has an extraordinary talent for offering detailed, authentic recipes & warm, engaging stories about people & places. Grace Young's book has none of that charm for me. In fact, I was often jarred by a certain element of "food snobbery". Ms. Dunlop teaches & invites me to learn - Ms. Young lectures & invites me to improve.

Ms. Young repeats several times that in England & the US, she visited Chinese restaurants where owners advised her that the food "wasn't worth eating" because it catered to Western tastes.

She follows with anecdotes about how adaptive Chinese cooks have been as they settled in different parts of the world using new ingredients without access to the old (two recipes, for example, where prosciutto or pancetta are used rather than Chinese ham). Then she states how delicious they are!

She disparages Chop Suey in one section & devotes another to acknowledging that at least it introduced 20th Century Americans to the deliciousness of Chinese cooking. Mixed message, I think, but not overly off-putting.

An intelligent, detailed treatise on the specifics of stir-fry for serious cooks & serious foodies.