Easy chinese recipes: family favorites from dim sum to kung Pao, pretty much says it all. This cookbook is full of the kind of recipes one would get out in a restaurant, from egg drop soup to orange chicken, only you, yes you, can make these at home. Low has demystified the sauces, the ingredients, and the techniques to make the recipes achievable, and yes, easy. This isn't a huge cookbook but the recipes included are the ones most people do seem to favor. When I read the recipe for shrimp toast I was thinking that no way would this taste like anything I'd get in a restaurant, it was too easy. As my sons and I chowed through the toast I kept thinking, wow, I made this! wow! and it was as good, if not better, than any restaurant.
We have a place here, pushcart dim sum, that is delicious (and fairly pricey) At home, from this cookbook so far, I've made the ribs, the black bean clams, and the pork bun filling, and it's all been really doable. I am not a stranger to Chinese cooking, I've been doing it for many years, but I still like to eat out because restaurant food is just different, and now I am making food that tastes like I ordered it from our favorite Chinese take out.
Pros:
well laid out recipes with ingredient list and directions that are easy to read and follow
Pictures of every recipe
pictures of some of the trickier techniques
a good basic explanation of techniques and ingredients in the front of the book
delicious easy recipes
Cons: none that I've found. quibbles- I like plain white background paper but that isn't really star reduction worthy.
*ETA April 12, 2012. I can't tell you how much I love this book. Everything comes out delicious and looking pretty much like the picture. Out of 14 chinese cookbooks this has become my go to book. I recently did a cook book purge and got rid of over 300, including several Chinese, I just didn't need them anymore because this is the book I turn to. I make something from it weekly, and it's such a winner. Make this your fist Chinese cookbook, or your last, either way you will be happy you bought this book.