Book Review: The Key to Chinese Cooking

        Have you ever tried to make dumplings? Have you ever drunk Chinese tea? Have you ever ate Aromatic Beef? If your answer is negative, The Key to Chinese Cooking introduces ways of cooking Chinese food and Chinese culture to us.

        Irene Kuo, the author of this book, was born in one of the oldest families in China and she has a large amount of knowledge about Chinese food. She covers each area of the Chinese food, and brings knowledge of the food’s history, social customs, and cookers. She has a thorough understanding of the food culture. Her beautifully written articles are fun and concise, and her directions are exceptionally clear. It is an essential book for people who want to get to know about Chinese food. The recipes in this book are widely varied and are well organized. Some of the recipes are classics, such as Roast Pork, Peking duck and Tea eggs, and others are less familiar for me, although I come from China, such as Sliced Pork with Tiger Sauce, Rainbow Fish and tangerine peel chicken.

      The book is divided into four sections, and these sections offer the cooking techniques, the recipes, appendix and index. The initial chapters are arranged to introduce how to use cooking tools, general cooking methods and different kinds of Chinese food. For example, the author introduces how to hold and use chopsticks step by step. Just as the author says that, “I will show you method by method, using detailed and explicit recipes to illustrate both major points and those subtle fine points that create Chinese cooking.” She gives detailed steps to people who do not familiar with Chinese food. The rest of the book goes through plenty of recipes, including vegetables, meat, shrimp and so on. Most importantly, some recipes start with background history and readers not only can learn how to cook Chinese food, but also realize some Chinese food culture.

        The Key to Chinese Cooking is an excellent cooking book.