Chinese Cookbooks?

Anyone have recommendations for chinese cookbooks? I've been getting into it lately and want to expand.

Fuchsia Dunlop: Land of Plenty, The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook

Sichuan and Hunan cookery, respectively

Breath of the Wok-Grace Young

Dunlop is definitely a great place to start, finish, and end. She'll keep you busy for quite a while.

You might also want to check out The China Moon Cookbook by China Moon
by Barbara Tropp and Sandra Bruce.

Best,
Michael

Awesome. Thanks guys.

BTW- Heard you on WGN tonight. Thats how I ended up here.

pei mei's chinese cookbook vol 1 and 2. old but worth seeking out. great starter books w/excellent photos

jazzfood wrote:pei mei's chinese cookbook vol 1 and 2. old but worth seeking out. great starter books w/excellent photos

Wow, I was about to post the same thing. There are actually 3 volumes of Fu Pei Mei's recipes. The great thing about these books is they were written primarily for a Chinese audience, and have the recipes and ingredient lists in both English and Chinese (traditional). The romanization used in the book is the bizarre Wade-Giles, so some of the transliterations can be a little confusing. I have original copies of the first two volumes, which my father bought for me in Vancouver in the 1970s (whoever heard of a dad buying his teenage son a set of cookbooks, especially 30 years ago?). The books were reprinted around 2000, but I prefer the original editions, which are well worth the investment.

Fu Pei Mei was born and raised in Manchuria while it was under Japanese occupation. This afforded her the opportunity to study food sciences in Japan. She also studied under some of the best regional chefs from all over China. After the revolution, she fled to Taiwan, where she established a school of culinary arts, which was dedicated to preserving and teaching traditional Chinese regional cooking.

During the 1960s, the Chinese living in Taiwan watched in horror as the cultural revolution on the mainland destroyed centuries of Chinese tradition. There was a genuine fear that Chinese culinary traditions would also be lost. The rapid modernization of Taiwan also contributed to that fear. In an effort to reintroduce modern Taiwanese housewives to traditional regional cuisine, soon after television was introduced to Taiwan in 1962, Fu Pei Mei became Taiwan's first TV chef. Her television show lasted decades. She was also appointed to head up a government organization that trained and certified Chinese chefs to work overseas; so her influence on authentic Chinese cuisine is felt worldwide. She is widely known as the "Chinese Julia Child".

Even if you never make a single dish from these wonderful books, they are fun to just browse through. As jazzfood stated, they have some great photos, and the ingredient lists and translations are a valuable resource.

i got them as a gift from a piano player i was working with in the late 70's that was an old china hand. rehearsals @ his house were incredible and i actually preferred his cooking to his playing. @ the time, the recipes seemed quite exotic, although looking @ it today not so much. mine are very stained and falling apart. circa 77, i was the only kid on the block knocking out ma po tofu, chix w/walnuts, camphor smoked duck, sze chaun pickle or doing any red cooking (chinese braising). some of these recipes/techniques served me well in my eventual career choice.

jazzfood wrote: @ the time, the recipes seemed quite exotic, although looking @ it today not so much.

I think the "Julia Child" analogy is quite accurate. Just as Ms. Child adapted and simplified traditional French cooking techniques for the modern kitchen using readily available ingredients, Miss Fu did the same for Chinese cooking. There is no doubt that Julia Child was capable of creating more sophisticated dishes, but her goal was to make French cooking accessible to the masses. Although she probably had more influence on contemporary cooking than any other individual, no self-respecting French chef would actually cook from one of her TV recipes. Both Julia Child's and Fu Pei Mei's recipes and instruction were primarily intended to introduce basic professional culinary skills into the preparation of home-cooked meals.

agreed. i know it helped get me more comfortable in a kitchen back in the day, so when i switched from enthusiast to pro, it wasn't such a leap.

"The Good Food of Szechwan" by Delfs is oop, but still available used. It's accurate and useful. Check e-Bay.

"Asian Ingredients" by Cost is an invaluable resource. It's still in print.

Geo

I recommend Eileen Yin Fei Lo's the Chinese Kitchen. The ingredient lists are long and some of the cooking methods may seem a bit too meticulous for everyday cookery, but the results and authenticity of the recipes are top notch.

I like the chapter where she lists westernized Chinese dishes, gives her own recipe for it, and points out the differences between the authentic and westernized version. If you ever wanted to know how to really make egg drop soup, sweet and sour pork, and general tso's, then you may want to check this out.

Geo wrote:"The Good Food of Szechwan" by Delfs is oop, but still available used. It's accurate and useful. Check e-Bay.

That's a fantastic book - I picked one up many years ago at the Printer's Row Fair (in my bag of books for $5:)). Amazon is worth checking too.

Depending on what you are after some of Martin Yan's books are worth a look. I've made some nice simple dishes - though I find the recipes to be a touch for 'non-Chinese'

wow guys. thanks for all of these.

I have some dated yet authentic chinese cookbooks that use some traditional yet exotic ingredients. If you are interested, you are welcome to take them for free. I think I have about 2-3 of them.

I would like to add Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook. The Kung Pao chicken is amazing. My favorite recipe is stir fried pork with preserved vegetables. Dry-fried beans, sweet corn soup, roast pork belly are also very good. The front of the book has an ingredient/picture guide and step by step "how-tos" for proper Chinese cooking.

I recently dragged out all my Chinese cookbooks to archive them on Facebook, and discovered I had about 50 of them and have even bought a few more since then (although a couple are not really cookbooks). I snapped up the three volumes of Pei Mei found at Open Books one day a few years back. I would recommend anything by the Wei Chuan cooking school, their recipes are in both English and Chinese, but old school. Most of mine are on Cantonese cooking, and most seem to be written by women. Have yet to acquire a Dunlop.
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