The Food of China, Hardcover - Deh-Ta Hsiung, Nina Simonds

I lived in Taiwan for three years and traveled extensively around China, so I am frequently disappointed with restaurants in the United States that allegedly serve Chinese food. Most serve a very weak imitation of Chinese food that has been hopelessly compromised by humoring the American palate. The literature suffers from the same flaws: either painfully basic or elaborately contrived foods--never capturing the true cuisine and eating habits of ordinary Chinese people.This book is a truly amazing reversal of that trend, and therefore, of course, it is out of print. Gorgeous, lush pictures beckon you in and expertly selected dishes described in pragmatic English keep your attention riveted. I cried out to see the turnip cakes that every street vendor in Taiwan offers for breakfast prominently featured in the first pages. Then dumplings! And steamed buns! Every chef in America that proports to do Szechuan cooking should be dragged kicking and screaming to inspect the simple and elegant recipe for Kung pao chicken on page 130.Did I mention the gorgeous fold out pages? The treatment for Peking Duck describes in great detail the proper way to make the dish and gives a case study at Quanjude Restaurant. (Update: I've bought and gifted several copies of this book, and I was surprised and dismayed to discover that some copies of the book do not have the fold out pages. I was hoping to be able to mention different ISBNs so that readers could distinguish, but both copies that I have, one with the foldouts and one without, have the same ISBN #1-74045-284-4. You could ask the seller of the book if the pages following page 134 and page 190 have foldout sections. Or inspect yourself if you have the book in hand, of course. Very strange! Still a wonderful book, either way, but given a choice, the extra fold outs are well worth the effort.)Speaking of gifts, I gave this book to a Shanghainese Chinese friend and she said that the recipes were very authentic. She said it was the first cookbook that she felt like she could make something out of and serve to her parents. That's a better endorsement than anything I could say.This is truly a book created with love and knowledge. I am bewildered as to why it is out of print.

I bought this book beacause I wanted more recipes than contained in the Dehta's 'The Chinese Kitchen' and Simonds 'Classic Chinese Cuisine', both which are excellent. This book is absolutely amazing! The scope of it is jaw dropping. I am a newbie to chinese food and before this book with its abundance of photos and recipes, I was relatively lost. There are pictures for most if not all of the recipes. The instuctions are masterful and clear so that anyone can create wonderful dishes. There are recipes from northern china, southern china and everywhere inbetween. There are recipes for everyday consumption and those that make up the chinese table during the holidays. And, there are many vegetarian dishes - traditionl recipes that can be enjoyed using wheat gluten. They even teach you how to wash the starch out of flout. So simple. Being new to chinese cooking I feel so comfortable being guided by the words of two masters. This book has made me so excited about chinese cooking. And the pictures of everyday life in China are so beautiful. They make this a fully rounded, well realized encyclopedia of chinese life et culture. Enjoy!

This is absoultely one cookbook that everyone should own. We own the entire series and there is no other cookbook like it. There are beautiful pictures for every recipe and the recipes are very unique, interesting, and delicious. Several recipes will suggest ingredients that may be difficult or expensive to find but the recipes can also be simplified. My husband loves to cook and looooves this entire series of cookbooks. This cookbook will help any chef tap into their creativity and explore their passion for cooking and take it to a new level.

I came across this book at a local bookstore and browsed the recipes to be sure they were authentic and not tweaked for a western palate. Anyway, I took note of a fairly easy dish (the crispy roasted pork belly), went home and tried it. It came out great - the flavor was similar to the roasted pork I can get from one of the Chinese bbq spots in China Town. Granted, this was an easy dish to prepare, but I've come across many cookbooks that screw up the simplest recipes and get the flavors completely wrong. Not the case here. The roasted pork was on point. Which made me wonder... how many other recipes are on point??So now i'm sold. I decided to purchase the book (and also The Food of France) on Amazon, and I received them both yesterday. The cookbook is awesome, in that there's lots of pictures and the authors explain the different regions and the cooking methods, ingredients, and flavors associated with each. I was about a quarter of the way into the cookbook when I noticed the entire binding came apart!! WTH?!?! When I purchased this book, I did see other sellers with "Good" condition books where the binding was loose, but I had purchased this brand new. Looks like I'm going to glue it back together... *sighs*.... Hence, 4 stars. Luckily, the French cookbook stayed intact. Besides this disappointment, the cookbook itself is great.

This is a beautiful book. It includes not just recipes, but the lore of food in China. The recipes, photos, and insights are in harmony with my memories of the time I spent in China. Though perhaps not for beginners, cooks who have experience with authentic Chinese food and can read between the lines will find this book invaluable.

Love it has good dim sum recipes that I have been looking for them for a long time.

Excellent book. Great recipes. They are authentic and hard to find. Can't believe it's out of print. Grab a used one while you can. It'll be handy if you like cooking Chinese food.

Loved looking at the pictures. Too complicated for a simple cook like me but a beautiful book I do not regret purchasing. Hopefully will inspire me to get into Asian cuisine even more.

This is my most favourite cookery book. Has actual AUTHENTIC RECIPIES from China, non of this modern fusion stuff you see a lot of nowadays with obscure ingredients that you have to source. Written very well with easy to follow instructions and amazing photos that make you drool before you've even started the recipies.

This book has very many different recipes to make and they are with not very long lists of items, so rather easy and stress free to cook and already fun during during the cooking.

Love chinese food & love this book. Old but has all the classics. Go back to it time after time

Excellent condition, competitive price, faster delivery than indicated

Quick delivery and pleased with my purchase.