Book List

blusapphire

July 14, 2008, 04:33 PM posted in General Discussion

What are your favorite English cookbooks or books that feature authentic Chinese food? Some of mine are:

 

"The Intriguing World of Chinese Home Cooking: Cooking secrets from the Kitchen of Angela Chang"

This one is great for homestyle northern Chinese comfort food. (though not necessarily too health conscious)

 

"A Spoonful of Ginger" by Nina Simonds. There's a lot of great stuff in here about the health philosophy of Chinese eating. (There are also some things from Thailand, Malaysai, etc, but it's mostly Chinese.) It also has good adaptations for making things in American kitchens, but the dishes still come out pretty authentic. (e.g. baking chicken wings at high heat to get the effect of frying without frying, or steaming in the oven for those that don't have steamers. . .) Since it's health focused, the recipes also tend to use less oil.

 

"An Encyclopedia of Chinese Food and Cooking" No pictures and minimal directions, but a lot of more obscure ingredients and authentic dishes not found in a lot of English cookbooks for Chinese food. NOT health focused.

 

Not a cookbook, but I just got "Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini," by Elizabeth Schneider and am thoroughly enjoying it.

Not everything in here is asian, but she does cover a lot of stuff found in asian markets. What's invaluable is she tells you how to pick out stuff at the market - stuff your mom would've usually taught you if she ever even bought that kind of vegetable. The recipes are probably more American.

 

Not a book, but "Flavor and Fortune" magazine is a quarterly that often features articles about a specific unusual vegetable per issue, along with appropriate recipes. The last one was bitter melon. I think before that it was about Chinese pumpkins, and before that about dates and longans. They also usually have an article on different restaurants to eat at in one featured city in China (e.g. Shanghai.) The rest is usually a restaurant review for the U.S. and several reviews of Chinese cookbooks written in English.