China: The Cookbook Hardcover – Illustrated, 19 Sept. 2016

Firstly I'd like to sincerely thank the authors for achieving what they describe as an ambitious task, you achieved it. I have searched long and hard for an encyclopaedia of Chinese cuisine.Written by Kei Lum Chan & Diora Fong Chan published by Phaidon.Phaidon seem to be on a crusade to create encyclopaedias on world cuisines. A crusade worth fighting and so far they've produced some outstanding books written by brilliant authors with lots of contributions from local cooks.Having bought Thailand the cookbook & India by Phaidon I've not bought a takeaway and struggle to find decent restaurants.This book is beautiful, quality paper with gold edging. The book is over 700 pages presented with a variety of photographs and a really insightful introduction and explanation of regions, ingredients and cookware so on.Generally there are two recipes per page, there are no filler pages or excessive pictures to pad the book out.The recipes are easy to follow and there is a good variety of recipes for each meat, veg or seafood etc. Like any good cook book this is relevant to all levels of cooks. Like I say the authors and publishers have worked hard and with passion to create what is a rarity in Chinese cookery a book that is an encyclopaedia.The subject matter is varied and offers great opportunity to cook something different.Go on a exotic culinary adventure and buy this book, you won't regret it! It's cheaper then a boring and takeaway.I have really enjoyed this and would defy anyone to find a similar quality book, Phaidon seem to believe in high quality and set a market standard. These books will become very collectible in the near future.I also have Phaidons India by Professor Purpesh Pant & Thailand the cook book. Please Phaidon produce books on Japan, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Korea.I live in the Uk and use 'Thais R Us' in Canterbury as my walk in store and to get advice from the lovely staff, if they don't have it I use the following online stores. All of these stores are cheaper and better then any major supermarket.wing yipstarry Asian supermarketTradewindsoriental storeAmazon keeps removing web addresses so search for the above.

This book is huge, almost A4 in size and 2 inches thick. There are a huge amount of recipes with beautiful photos of the finished meal, or traditional Chinese fishermen and so on. The gold ended pages give the book a luxurious feel that I’ve rarely seen outside of Folio Society books. The textured cover is laminated so small spills will wipe off. I wouldn’t use more than water though in case it spoiled this beautiful book.A couple of things did disappoint me a little. All recipes are shown in full Chinese script and English translation, but I would have liked to have seen the pinyin transliteration as well. Also, some of the item names are written in their Japanese form, such as daikon radish, instead of the Chinese term, mooli that I see in my oriental grocer. Being in a small Somerset town, I can’t get all the fresh ingredients very well unless I get the bus to London which is a bit of a pity but there’s still enough to keep me busy experimenting for ages yet.I’ve yet to come across anything too complicated or needing some cooking tool I can’t get here on amazon or in a supermarket, and it all seems a lot simpler to prepare than I expected. Whether this is true to life or it is simplified for the target market I don’t know, but I find very little to really complain about in any real way. I’m loving reading it and trying out new recipes.If you like Chinese food and want to try traditional recipes that are different from the local takeaways options, then this is a bargain at the price of £22 at time of reviewing. I can’t recommend it enough.

This book is excellent a great for inspiration to broaden my own repertoire of Chinese cooking. It covers everything from basic dishes to more complex and things like Chinese soups which have always been daunting for me. I finally have a guide that helps me to re-create and even challenge my mum’s cooking! I can imagine that for a non-Chinese/ East Asian who is unfamiliar with the ingredients, it could be a little off putting. But really, most of the dishes are uncomplicated and once you have the base condiments - you’ll find them used over and over. Also I’m not sure to the other reviewer’s comment - but southern Chinese cuisine is a lot about sweet and savoury - ketchup is actually quite a commonly used ingredient in Cantonese cooking - nothing inauthentic about that!!

Well written but would prefer more recipes and less general info

This book "China: The Cookbook" is superb , with so many recipes from different regions. It becomes difficult to select what to cook when you are presented with numerous tempting options to select from. I am so glad that I bought it as now I have new dishes at home. Really good book & an asset.

Authentic recipes. which mean there are ingredients that are hard to get or you just wouldn't eat - but if you want authentic this is it. Tasty food, and most ingredients can be sourced online if you look. Also informative about different cuisines and a good glossary of ingredients.

I love this cookbook. It looks nice on my bookshelf and it also has amazing recipes. I cannot wait to test them! Not going to lie, you will need to buy quite a lot of ingredients in order to make the dishes.

Super thrilled with this. Gorgeous to look at. Great range of recipes too. A great addition to my library. Recipes take a bit of time and some ingredients need tracking down- but that’s why I love it. Authentic stuff

If you are thinking of flipping through this while cooking, you probably can't because this is a THICK book. However, it covers every category you can think of from broths to meats to veggies.

Bel libro in inglese, originale e con belle immagini

Regalé este libro a mi hijo porque le encanta todo lo relacionado con la cultura china. Ha probado todo tipo de recetas y está encantado. Es una manera de practicar el chino de forma divertida.

Um dos melhores livros de culinária de minha coleção. Todas as receitas que fiz desse livro fizeram sucesso, além de achar receitas que comia em minha infância no China Lake e Golden Plaza. Não é um livro com muitas fotos, então se você escolhe a receita pela foto, esse não é um livro pra você. Mesmo assim, recomendo, porque também adoro fotos e esse livro tem o suficiente pra te fisgar e testar as outras receitas. Sou descendente de chinês e pelo que eu comi na minha vida e o que é apresentado no livro, está aprovado!

Llego en excelente condiciones