Customer Reviews

The Yan Can Cook Book

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

 

 

Practically every recipe I've tried from this book has been delicious. I especially like the supplementary information on how to make tofu and growing bean sprouts, which I've not seen covered in other Asian cookbooks. My only criticism is that there is no alphabetical index; it makes it a little hard to look up specific recipes.

Yan can be a little hokey at times, but that's part of the fun. I really enjoyed this book and every recipe I have tried has been excellent. Ingredients and other tidbits are thoroughly explained. As it's one of the older Yan books, I found it enjoyable not to have to wade through a glossy "picture book" cook book so popular today that seem to leave the recipes in as an afterthought.

So this was the first cookbook I ever bought, and my first attempt to learn to cook. As what motivates most men to do anything at all, I was trying to impress a girl. I picked a shrimp stir-fry that involved rehydrating dried peppers. I thought all shrimp came in a can. By the time I was done, the little canned shrimp had all but disintigrated into a fine yellow mush that was BLAZING hot. Think Dante's Inferno at Farenheit 451. It was like grits from the depths of hell. My poor date spent a few minutes just pushing the gruel from one side of her plate to another with her fork, bravely pretending to eat some of it. Then she left. I presume to get a cheeseburger, but I never saw her again, so I couldn't ask.

I got back on the saddle and now, years later, I am fearless in the kitchen. The only thing I can say for this book is that it wasn't a good place to start if you are as dumb as I was. Since that is so unlikely as to be hardly helpful, I'll throw in a recommendation: Barbara Tropp's Chinese cookbooks are fantastic for teaching techniques.

My grandmother and mother has passed away, so I've searched high and low for authentic Chinese recipes. Granted the recipes may be salty (you can reduce the salt), but many are truly authentic. Just one look at the meat marinades and batter and I knew the dishes were going to taste wonderful. And, they were.

A couple of Martin Yan's cookbooks appear to cater to Americanized tastes or more modern tastes due to the larger audience to cater to. That wasn't what I was looking for because there are too many Chinese cookbooks out there already that covers this area. This one is authentic and I haven't found these wonderful flavors in any other cookbook so far.

I wonder about the tastes of people using Martin Yan's recipes. Everything is so salty. True, they may look "traditional" but what good is that if all of the restaurants we've gone to don't make them this way? And we go to Chinatown, Boston to feast! Okay, I've tried to make hot and sour soup. Seems like a great recipe. But the amount of ingredients is insane. I cut more than half from it and made okay H&S soup. I used Kenneth Lo's recipe instead and made great H&S soup, just like two good local Chinese restaurants make. You know, the kind you usually get, not the kind that would make most Americans gag with woodear. I tried the hunan recipe. Did he test this recipe? I thought the number of spoons of soy sauce was outrageous so I cut the amount in half. Guess what? Had to throw it in the trash, which is where this book will end up. It was so salty. Dark and light soy sauce. How many spoonfuls of the light soy sauce? Light soy sauce is very salty. Dark mainly just gives color. Does this guy test his recipes first or does he pull it out of his head because he usually just wings it? This was the first of three Martin Yan cookbooks I bought. All of them are lousy. This is the only one I've not thrown out. I use Chinese cookbooks by non-Chinese authors because they seem to have tested the recipes first, dim sum and main dishes. Funny how I can use so many recipes from Ellen Leong Blonder. Oh, the only good Martin Yan recipe was for dim sum meatballs that I got from a website, not in any of his cookbooks. I got that for free. Ironic. And another thing, I'm Chinese and I know how to cook Chinese and Chinese-American food well. All his books should be titled "Yan Can't Cookbook."

Just like his Jerrie Lewis-like show to entertain the audience, this cook book is trying very hard to be funny and wastes lot of pages and spaces in gimmicky blabbings. The ingredients are okay, the mix of all marinading and battering ingredients and portions are not so good and actually not even authentic. Buy since this book is also treating readers like the TV show audience, entertaining and marketing purposes are well served.