Dim Sum (Essential Kitchen Series) (Hardcover)

~ Vicki Liley (Author) "A sure sign that a cuisine has evolved to its highest form is when its devotees refer to it as an art..." (more)
Key Phrases: gow gee press, medium wok, medium bamboo steamer, Hong Kong (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What could be more exotic than dim sum, those small taste treats served at teatime and on weekends in Chinese restaurants? More than appetizers yet less than entrees, the world of dim sum fills a peculiar culinary role when a little bite of something is absolutely in order. And while you're up, would you please make that unusual?

Vicki Liley's Dim Sum, published as part of the Essential Kitchen series, strips much of the mystery away. The combination of color photography and careful instruction gives even the novice cook permission to blunder along. But the ingredients are so flavorful that even the blunders are going to taste great. And with practice, the style of carefully made dumplings and potstickers will come together.

Dim Sum begins with a section on how to serve what you have so lovingly prepared, followed by a section on drinking tea, perhaps the best accompaniment for dim sum. The author suggests that as you explore the ways of making dim sum, you can explore a wide variety of tea, too. Then there follow sections on utensils, common ingredients, and a step-by-step, illustrated section on basic methods--how to deep-fry, how to steam, how to make dumplings, how to make buns.

And then the recipes, each one accompanied by a beautiful photo that gives the novice a clear idea of the target. You'll find Golden Shrimp Balls, Flower Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Shanghai Dumplings right off the bat. Then there's a section devoted to dumplings, another to steamed buns, one for wraps, one for seafood, one for pork, one for vegetables, and finally a section on desserts. Oh yeah, and the ever-important dipping sauces, too. Anyone who lives anywhere near an Asian market will benefit from Dim Sum. --Schuyler Ingle

Review

"A contemporary collection of delicious morsels with inspiring photography and recipes." -- North Carolina Builder/Architect

"An elegant, extremely informative and beautifully styled book about what is perhaps the most ultimate entertaining food." -- Gourmet Retailer

"An impressive and delicious array of hot appetizers." -- The New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Periplus Editions (August 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9625935282
• ISBN-13: 978-9625935287
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #239,920 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #77 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Meals > Appetizers
  #81 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Chinese

• This item is part of The Essential Kitchen Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars westernized dim sum recipes, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

For the price, this book gives less recipes than any you would find on any ethnic food site! Almost half the recipes for dim sum involved DEEP-FRYING. For anyone who has actually experienced the traditional brunch menu in chinatown, you'll know the vast majority of dishes are STEAMED. Except for the a scant handful of the basics (i.e., pork buns, shrimp dumplings, etc.), i didn't recognize ANY of these recipes! somewhat of an oddity, given the fact that i am actually chinese. it was particularly galling to see someone try to pawn a glossy, overly westernized 'chinese' cookbook as an authentic representation of dim sum.

while it's understandable that most people who buy this book will not be chinese, this is NOT the book to get if you want to duplicate the dishes you've tasted before.

And why did i give it 1 star instead of the 0 it deserved? it has nice pictures.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dim Sum Lite, February 26, 2005

By	F. Liljeblad - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a REALLY bad book. I was very disappointed in the complete lack of authenticity of the recipes. That they should be simplified is something I've come to expect, but that they should be so inauthentic is inexcusable in this day and age when Chinese ingredients are so widely available--in supermarkets, Chinatowns, or online. Here are some examples:

In the section on ingredients, Ms. Liley includes (Vietnamese) rice paper wrappers (although the Chinese do in a very few cases use a type of rice paper wrapper, it bears no resemblance whatever to the hard, glassy Vietnamese kind); she states erroniously that Spring roll wrappers are made of rice flour (see Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's "The Dim Sum Dumpling Book" for the authentic recipe and method); and she labels as wonton wrappers, which are square and egg-based, potsticker/gyoza wrappers, which are round and water-based.

In the recipe for Pearl Balls (p.26), she lists short-grain rice instead of glutinous rice for the coating, and suggests that the rice be soaked for 30 minutes. I have been making pearl balls since I was 16 years old, and you *must* use glutinous rice, because even short grain non-glutionous rice won't soften in the relatively short steaming. Also, the rice needs at least 1.5 or 2 hours soaking.

Finally, Ms Liley in recipe after recipe suggests fish sauce (widely used in Vietnamese, Thai, and Filipino cooking, but never in mainstream Chinese) as, presumably, a substitute for light soy sauce, since most Chinese recipes specify light soy sauce (or a combination of light and dark soy sauces) for fish or seafood-based dishes.

The photos are exquisite, but what good are glamourous photos when the content is so falsified? Better to take the extra money and buy Lo's dim sum book, or the book "Dim Sum" by Rhoda Yee (the text is excruciating, but the recipes are good and really work), or for those who really want to get into this in depth, the dim sum books by Wei-Chuan Publishing.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty pictures, but..., January 16, 2002

By A Customer

A friend of mine has given me this book as a gift because she knew I love dim sum and eat it every week with my Chinese family every single Sunday. It is a Chinese tradition to have dim sum frequently with friends and family, especially in a city like Vancouver that is so filled with so many excellent dim sum restaurants. This book does have plenty of pretty pictures of what the food should look like when it is made and also has an excellent section on how to prepare and cook the food. Most of the recipes in this book are not even found in dim sum restaurants. Recipes that are most common in dim sum restaurants like ha gow, sui mei, chicken feet, low bac gow (chinese turnip pancake) and many others that are not even in this book at all even though they are some of the most eaten dishes in the restaurants. It is extremely disappointing to have a book that is specific for dim sum but hardly have any of the most common dim sum dishes in it. There are recipes in the book like "salmon money bags" and grilled mushrooms that are not even heard of in the restaurants. I do have to admit that the instructions are easy to follow and most of the ingredients are quite easy to find in the markets.