Best chinese cooking, food & wine books according to redditors
We found 105 Reddit comments discussing the best chinese cooking, food & wine books. We ranked the 53 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 105 Reddit comments discussing the best chinese cooking, food & wine books. We ranked the 53 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
That's my monthly budget, too! (and as a 200 lb guy I do not have a dainty appetite so you can get plenty of food with that much)
Basically, this limits you from nice steaks and fresh seafood. Everything else is fair game.
My wife and I keep a list of what we've made so if we have trouble thinking of what to cook we can look through a bunch of options. (Note: the $200 monthly budget covers only me, not both me and my wife.)
In a given month, we'll eat:
A couple caveats: I buy very few prepared foods, very rarely have sandwiches so no lunch meat (it's spendy), and I don't eat breakfast. I do most of my shopping at Aldi and only go elsewhere for things they don't carry like specialty Asian ingredients. We have a couple big Asian groceries nearby that are good for that - we count a few basic sauces as staples that we find it's not too expensive to keep on hand that really open up our options for Asian recipes (soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and fish sauce).
Edit: because this has gotten a good bit of attention I'll mention that we do have a good selection of cookbooks to work from. Not a huge number, but a well curated set that is mostly based on recommendations from friends and the internet, were gifts, or ones we knew were good because former housemates had them.
But if you don't have many and don't want to spend the cash don't worry! Your local library should have a bunch, and many resources (that are less hit-or-miss than e.g. allrecipes.com) are available online. Good and Cheap, budgetbytes, and seriouseats (The Food Lab) are in my top 3 (I do have a paper copy from all 3, because I want to support what they do). Other cookbooks that I like, also listed in the "Source" column of the linked google doc:
From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.
Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.
Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.
Recipes (although I didn't follow all of these):
Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.
Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!
Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.
With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.
Japanese
Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.
Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.
If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.
Chinese
What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.
For your reading pleasure:
Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.
Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.
Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.
Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.
Go forth, make bao.
Korean
Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.
You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.
Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.
Thai
David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.
Vietnamese
Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.
TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?
You might try books published by Wei-Chuan Publishing, they have several bilingual, English-Chinese, editions. Chinese Cuisine features dishes from several regions, and Chinese Snacks has many of the goodies you find on the street or at a dim sum restaurant.
I can highly recommend either of Fucshia Dunlop's books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook and Land of Plenty, as excellent recipe and instruction books for Chinese cooking. In the front matter she lists the equipment you'll need to get started as well as goes over the techniques. I cook out of both of them several times a week.
I purchased my wok and cleaver from the Wok Shop and was very happy with their prices and service.
The last apartment I lived in had an electric stove so I picked up a cheap butane stove from the local asian grocery store for ~$20 that worked fine. It's nowhere near as powerful as a high-end gas stove or a turkey fryer burner but it gets the job done. An electric stove will not work for Chinese, you need something with a flame.
Edit: I also own a rice cooker which is well worth the $20 I spent on it. I'd pick one up if you're serious about Chinese.
Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.
Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.
You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.
Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.
Also they're sexy as fuck.
The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.
Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.
Happy wok'ing!
Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.
Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!
I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...
Real Thai (McDermott)
I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.
Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop
Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop
I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.
General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)
Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.
My favorite new, specialty cookbook is
Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)
which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.
I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:
Pan-Asian
Burmese
Cambodian
Chinese
Indian
Indonesia
Japanese
Korean
Malaysian
Middle Eastern
Philippine
Russian
Sri Lankan
Taiwanese
Thailand
Turkish
Vietnamese
(edit: screwed up a couple links)
On the left is Bear's Paw Tofu from Every Grain of Rice and on the right is Peng's Home-style Bean Curd from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.
Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!
Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.
For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).
Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.
Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.
And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!
Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.
My mom's Chinese and we've always had this one in our family Chinese Cuisine (Wei-Chuan's Cookbook) (English and Traditional Chinese Edition)
On Amazon:
The Yunnan Cookbook
Cooking South of the Clouds
Simply Yunnan
Also, GoKunming.com has recipes for Yunnan dishes for free
You've read this, I presume?
I came here to recommend the same, and link to it on amazon. Unfortunately, it's out of print and used copies are too expensive. So, I'd recommend her China Moon Cookbook. It's almost as good. Her very detailed recipes may be intimidating, but their well worth the time.
Chinese Cuisine is also excellent and as authentic as it gets, though it's a bit spare on explaining technique.
I've recently purchased this one https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
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I've been really wanting to learn chinese cooking and find it difficult finding recipes online as I don't know the chinese names for any dishes.
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This one seemed authentic. I've made some delicious meals out of it but some I havent liked. I am curious though if I havent liked them just because of my taste (e.g. boiling rump steak for 30 minutes).
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My knowledge is chinese cooking play around alot more with textures and it doesn't always translate well to westerners.
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anyway, /u/mthmchris do you know this cookbook too and what are your thoughts?
I picked up this book, which taught me a bunch about different methods for stir frying. It's a good read and every recipe I've made from it had been delicious.
Served with jasmine rice and broccoli.
Recipe from Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003M5ILXS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Recipe online here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sichuanorangebeef_89287
As someone with too many cookbooks for her own good, here are some of my favorites.
I am not a vegetarian, but Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the book that made me love vegetables. She doesn't approach vegetarian cooking in the way lots of people do, where you just substitute or omit meat from a dish, but creates recipes that center around and bring out the best from vegetables.
Gourmet Today is a huge book culled from the now-defunct Gourmet magazine. It's a good all-around resource with (as the title implies) a modern American bent to its recipes.
Steven Raichlen's How to Grill transformed me from a charcoal-shy indoors-only kind of cook into an aspiring grillmaster last summer. He lays the basics out in a very straightforward manner with lots of pictures and excellent recipes. It includes the basics of smoking as well.
I like reading cookbooks that blend recipes with a broader scope of information related to them, so I enjoy anything by Jennifer McLagan (I started with Odd Bits). She writes about ingredients that are less typical or even looked down upon, making the case that these are overlooked culinary treasures. Her chapter introductions include tidbits like history, cultural impact, and science behind the ingredients. The recipes are great but tend to be highly-involved.
For specific cuisines, a couple of my favorites are Bill Neal's Southern Cooking (the recipe for Shrimp & Grits is mind-blowingly good), The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, and Madame Wong's Long-Life Chinese Cookbook.
TL;DR: the first three are what I'd consider must-haves, the remainder are interesting and might broaden your culinary horizons.
THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.
I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.
my coworker just bought Korean Home Cooking but she has yet to try it out. we looked through it and it had some really great recipes in it. she said she bought it because NYTimes mentioned it as one of their favorite books of fall 2018.
> I'm using that, it's wonderful! The extension on my browser purely a reading aid. I'm what they call a 文盲 but as long as I hear it, I know what it means. It also has definitions on it. It's actually a really great tool. If your on Chrome, the extension is called "Zhongwen Chinese Pop Up Dictionary."
Yea I was going to recommend that as well, it must be perfect for you! I should probably do that more (play the sound of a text) to help improve my listening comprehension...
> 礼物 refers to the actual object, but 送礼 is usually used to refer to the act.
oh interesting, never heard that before...
> Wow. Not going to pretend to understand that. My dictionary is telling me it means "property, justice, integrity, and honor" (the four social bonds) when put together. You can read that?!
well, I just know about 禮 and 儀 from confucius, I studied 論語 (analects) for a short time and these are common themes and used as individual words. 廉I'm actually not too clear on. 恥就是「恥辱」的恥。I think it means 面子
> C'est l'internet. Si on n'utilise pas une dictionnaire, c'est un peu fou! et il y a beaucoup des personnes mechants qui l'utilise. And nope!
tu as raison! personnes méchants? qu'est-ce que ça veut dire!?
> 哈哈我也打错字了。我也没建构哪个”褴“。我想写"烂"。对不起啊！自己的中文这么差，还想帮别人。其实，我对中国城不是特别收。我妈等我上大学以后才搬到城市里。大部分得时间，我在学校呆。我只去过一两个餐馆。好像老城的吃的比新城的更地道。您能不能提出几个好饭馆？
呵呵，没关係， 我们都是从声音大出来的，至少妳的语言很流利，我在两个方面都很差。 你太谦虚了！嗯中国城没有那麽特别，但是那里有真宗中国菜，所以我常常去买东西或吃一顿饭。对於老城新城，我觉得两个都可以，depends what kind of food you want and how good the chef is... 比如说香港点心，万寿宫、名轩还好。两个都在“新城”（新城表示chinatown square 那个地方对吧？）的附近。。
你喜欢吃什麽菜？北方菜， 有一家叫「北国饭店」，by 31st and halsted, 那里的小笼包不错，週末有豆浆油条。在郊区有一些好的，都在Westmont 的附近，那边有些台湾饭店，也很便宜的。Also the new Korean place in "old chinatown" is actually quite good!
> Haha why do you think I quit. I have some old textbooks from Chinese school. Also, I'm going to try and qualify for the Chinese for Chinese speakers class at my university, and I'm taking some of my mom's old cookbooks with me and attempting to translate (I have to do it if I'm hungry, right?) Apparently once you learn 3000 words in Chinese, the language becomes very easy. Did you take formal classes or self taught?
I didnt think you quit, just wondered what resources you use to learn .. chinese school, that makes sense...
yes, you will starve if you don't finish the translation! I bought a really good chinese cookbook (in english) once but i never use it... it's much easier to pay someone else to make the food for me, I guess I'm lazy... this is the one i got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394496388/ref=wms_ohs_product_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
> Did you take formal classes or self taught?
I took classes with private tutors at first, which I think was very important. I had one teacher from mainland china and my current teacher is from HK (yes, part of the reason i use traditional characters, but I prefer to use them regardless as i study ancient culture and I find the system to be better). currently I don't have a chinese language class, but I study chinese calligraphy and other such courses wherein we use mandarin as a primary language, so this is greatly helping improve my vocabulary and conversational skills...
> Jealous, you can claim true loyalty. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be hard to label me as a bandwagoner since I didn't start watching until 2010, but in all fairness, I didn't know hockey existed until then. And yes. Very epic. Very amazing. Also very frustrating. That's pretty unfortunate that you don't have time :(
I watched the game last night. I chose a good one to watch !
Just picked up this book, it might be what you're looking for: Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees: Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking
Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.
While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.
I have been very happy with China: The Cookbook
This. I have this version: http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Cuisine-Wei-Chuans-Cookbook-Huang/dp/0941676080/ref=pd_sim_b_1 and it is a great book with traditional recipes. You'll definitely enjoy this book.
you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.
>廉I'm actually not too clear on. 恥就是「恥辱」的恥。I think it means 面子
I don't think 面子 by itself means embarrassment. Perhaps "respect" or "face." I usually hear it used negatively, but it can also be used to mean "save face" or "preserve self-respect." ”保存面子“或者”保持面子“ as opposed to “没面子” or “丢面子” meaning "no shame" or "loose face." To my understanding, 恥辱is more like "defeat" (KIND OF LIKE HOW THE BRUINS FEEL BURN. sorry had to), but that might just be modern colloquial?
> 我在两个方面都很差。你太谦虚了！
才不！好多你用的词儿，我连想都想不起来。像“谦虚”这种词儿，我连听都没听过。
>嗯中国城没有那麽特别，但是那里有真宗中国菜，所以我常常去买东西或吃一顿饭。对於老城新城，我觉得两个都可以，depends what kind of food you want and how good the chef is... 比如说香港点心，万寿宫、名轩还好。两个都在“新城”（新城表示chinatown square 那个地方对吧？）的附近。。
我也没觉得中国诚有什么特别的饭馆，但是老诚有个小点心店叫“Chui Quo Bakery“。我最喜欢是它们的肉松包（当然，它们的点心都好吃极了）。这个店以外，我也没有很深得印象对那里的饭馆。只有些随随便便吃饭的地方。我说的“新诚”是Chinatown Square.
>你喜欢吃什麽菜？北方菜， 有一家叫「北国饭店」，by 31st and halsted, 那里的小笼包不错，週末有豆浆油条。在郊区有一些好的，都在Westmont 的附近，那边有些台湾饭店，也很便宜的。Also the new Korean place in "old chinatown" is actually quite good!
我喜欢山东湖南菜（北京菜应该算是山东菜吧？）你去没去过“Katy's Dumpling's" in Westmont? 我对韩国和台湾的菜不是特别的熟悉。
>I didnt think you quit
Sorry forgot I never mentioned I went to Chinese school. I hated it. As a 7 year old I never understood why I had to sit in a hot class room on Saturday while all my friends were chilling in their backyards.
>it's much easier to pay someone else to make the food for me, I guess I'm lazy... this is the one i got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394496388/ref=wms_ohs_product_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1[1]
Damn no preview. Oh well. I am looking into an English one. Understandable though, Chinese food can be obnoxious to make. Some families cook in the garage because it's so messy. Learning is a must for me though because I'm horribly picky.
>I took classes with private tutors at first, which I think was very important. I had one teacher from mainland china and my current teacher is from HK (yes, part of the reason i use traditional characters, but I prefer to use them regardless as i study ancient culture and I find the system to be better). currently I don't have a chinese language class, but I study chinese calligraphy and other such courses wherein we use mandarin as a primary language, so this is greatly helping improve my vocabulary and conversational skills
Wow. Dedication. It's nice that your teachers are from China and HK though. Taiwanese instructors tend to have accents. Since your studying ancient culture, do you learn how to interpret ancient Chinese? Or is the class English based? Haha you're going to end up more eloquent than the majority of the population.
>I watched the game last night. I chose a good one to watch !
What are you a good luck charm?
>tu as raison! personnes méchants? qu'est-ce que ça veut dire!?
J'ai parlee de les "trolls" et les "grammar nazis" et les autres personalites ennuyeuse de l'internet
I disagree with your statement that Min cuisine has any influence on American Chinese food. As a Fujianese immigrant I'm constantly lament lack of any Min food in American Chinese cuisines. The fact that American Chinese food is sweet is NOT a homage to Min or Yue style but fucking American sweet tooth. What people on earth would have eaten such sugar filled fried abomination as donuts?
Your statement about first wave of Chinese immigration to the US consisted of Fujianese was factually wrong. The Fujianese immigration to the US is more recent phenomenon dated from 1970s to present. Fujianese in 18th, 19th, and 20th century overwhelming emigrated to Southeast Asia. You were correct in identified Cantonese as major immigrant to the US. To be more specific these Cantonese were from Taishan. To be even more specific they were from four counties within Sze Yup.
I also disagree with your statement that American-Chinese food is not reflective of Chinese cuisine. American-Chinese food was heavily influenced by Chinese cuisine but also heavily modified to American palates. It might not satisfy purist's taste, but to consider American-Chinese food not to be part of Chinese cuisine was an inane statement. Hell, do you even consider Pizza to be Italian food? How about meatballs and spaghetti? Do they also need to be made by a living breathing Italian in Italy before it can be considered to be Italian food?
Food change, language change and everything change with distance and time. You don't have to like it, but there's nothing wrong with change.
> American-Chinese places serve dumplings with soy sauce, which is an abomination and unheard of in China.
You have eaten your way from Harbin/Qiqihar to Shenzhen, seriously? You never saw soy sauce with dumplings? Did you even traveled to China?
I would suggest you get off your mighty "imma authethic chinese food connoisseur" horse and educate yourself before making so many ignorant statements again.
Food of China
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
Yeah. Shoot me your email and I’ll send some photos out of the cookbook I have. My parents suffer from there’s-no-written-recipe-itis, but I found an excellent Cantonese style cookbook. Every recipe I’ve tried is solid and some have been vetted by my folks (with a few personal tweaks).
https://www.amazon.com/My-Grandmothers-Chinese-Kitchen-Recipes/dp/1557885052
A couple of years back, I took a recipe for char siu bao from this book and substituted the roast pork with chopped Morningstar brand Vegetarian sausage patties. It was a pain to make, but INCREDIBLY delicious. Tasted just like the meat version. I ate the entire batch of buns in 1 day. The book has pretty much any dim sum recipe you can think of. I've tried many of them (substituting fake meat) and they've all been great. Easy to follow step-by-step instructions too. I would use the book more often if the recipes didn't take so long to make.
The Food of China by E.N. Anderson
Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives by K.C. Chang
You can find them used, and for a reasonable price, on AbeBooks.com too.
Also if you are the culinary type, Wei Chuan offers one of the definitive texts on the subject.
I highly recommend the entire series of their texts. We're talking the real-deal authentic Asian dishes, complete with bilingual recipes for westerners.
I've been having a blast lately with Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. It focuses a lot on technique and has few enough recipes you could probably make it through in a reasonable amount of time.
Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.
Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking
Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province
Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking
https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
A bit off topic, but I highly recommend The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It follows the history of Chinese food in America as it tries to track down the birth of fortune cookies.
The author didn't provide a direct answer as to why there aren't more widespread chains, but does go into how General Tsao's Chicken tastes pretty much the same everywhere despite not having a corporation govern the recipe.
For Chinese Cuisine, China: The Cookbook is what you're gonna want. It came out last year and has over 600 authentic recipes.
http://www.amazon.com/Madame-Wongs-Long-Life-Chinese-Cookbook/dp/0809280302 I really like this book.
I've been cooking recently from Kian Lam Kho's Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. Super delicious recipes, lots of basic instruction and techniques - a great intro to Chinese cooking.
that's why i cook my own or go to china town.
this is one great source for recipes:
http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Chinese-Cookbook-Recipes-Province/dp/0393062228/ref=la_B001IGLRVG_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343350265&sr=1-2
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
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Hmm... so in general I think there's two main approaches for learning cooking: (1) trying your favorite dishes and throwing yourself into them or (2) finding something a bit more systematic that your can build your skills on. Personally, I like a combination.
For English language sources, unfortunately there's a lot out there that's pretty variable. Online, I'm biased but I do like to think we do a good job. There's also the blog China Sichuan Food which's also quite legit. And while it's in Chinese, the ever popular Wang Gang is always an awesome source... a handful of his vids even have (poorly translated, but still) English subs.
Regarding something a bit more systematic, unfortunately the English language is a bit more barren on that front. I think Kiam Lam Kho's Pheonix Claws and Jade Trees is probably the best out there.
Other decent sources with cookbooks are Grace Young and Fuschia Dunlop.
Check out this cookbook for easy and authentic recipes. Bonus: it also has history and background on all the recipes. I love it!
https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-South-Clouds-Recipes-Province/dp/1909487783
Yet, here's the UK cover:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Every-Grain-Rice-Chinese-Cooking/dp/140880252X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417385612&sr=8-1&keywords=every+grain+of+rice
I recently picked this up: https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
It's a neat overview of many Chinese regional dishes, promoting authentic recipes.
Und für Leute die noch tiefer in chinesische Küche einsteigen wollen: die Bücher von Fuchsia Dunlop sind sehr empfehlenswert. Every Grain of Rice ist ein genereller Überblick, Land of Plenty beschäftigt sich mit der Küche Sichuans.
Ingredients are important. I suggest purchasing Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and vinegar to start.
Looked at a few recipes from this book and it seems pretty legit.
Since it's from a cookbook, I don't think it's OK for me to post the recipe. It came from Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Claws-Jade-Trees-Techniques/dp/0385344686/
I found this recipe, which is extremely close.
https://omnivorescookbook.com/lions-head-pork-meatballs