Rating: 
Summary: Simply a great Chinese cookbook!
Review: I've read and tried a lot of Chinese cookbooks and nothing really worked (not even ones written in Chinese)! Until this one! It is full of recipes that are true to the Chinese way of cooking (not altered to make it easier for the Western world). The step-by-step instructions are great (my mom thinks so too). The best part about this book is it includes some festive dishes which can be tricky to make! Now I can surprise my mom and mother-in-law with some really good festive dishes!
Rating:
Summary: Singapore Noodles
Review: In response to Mike Simm's comments on the recipe on page 32, here's a contrasting view. I'm from Singapore and am cantonese. There are lots of cantonese hawker stores that sell food for eating in or take out, prepared a la minute. For tourists, the best food isn't at fancy cafes or restaurants, its in the neighbourhood hawker centres or our version of coffeeshops under housing flats.Go to any of these, and order Hong Kong noodles. Go another day and order Singapore noodles. There's a high chance you will get the same thing. I asked the chef (A cantonese) at a RedHill shop why the Hong Kong mee is called Singapore noodles and he told me that the noodles were being cooked in Singapore, so why call it HongKong noodles? The cantonese took the foods from the different cultures they met and made it their own. They moved to other countries and it becomes associated with the new country. Case in point being Hainanese chicken rice, made famous in Singapore with roots in Hainan. Curry was just another spice they incorporated into their repertoire. Also, by using the words Madras Curry Powder, it would be more easily understood by Western readers. What if they had used the red African curry powder also available in USA? Migration of humans and food have happened throughout history, some recorded and some not. Take for example fish sauce originating from China and made famous by the Thais. Another would be Catherine De Medici from Italy kicking off French cuisine like we know it today by introducing techniques and foods such as truffles and quenelles to the French. The former was unrecorded, but the latter was. So who's to say Singapore noodles is not a cantonese dish? Sure as heck all the chefs here that cook them are cantonese. Maybe it was made famous here. Let the people in HongKong throw their jokes. Between Hong Kong noodles and Singapore noodles, which one appears in cookbooks more and is more likely to be recognized by westerners (Eileen Yin Fei Lo's Chinese Kitchen book has Singapore noodles too)? I'd say Singapore got the last laugh, because we stole their recipe and made it ours. And yes, I've tasted fish sauce in some Singapore noodles too. Does that make it any less authentic? Who cares, as long as it tastes good right?
Rating:
Summary: Finally, found a book with authentic homecooking recipes!
Review: My parents are from Hong Kong and I was born in Canada. I grew up with the foods Ms. Young describes in her book, but because of my limited ability to read Chinese, I have never been able to follow any Chinese recipe books written in Chinese. When I first bought this book, my aunts thought it was pretty funny. They said "how can a book that is written in English be authentic?" - and considering my spoken Cantonese is accompanied with a fairly strong "Canadian" accent, they were sure the book was full of "westernized" Chinese foods. Well, after looking through the book themselves, they were sold and bought their own copies. The recipes are good. But what I find most helpful is the inclusion of the Chinese name for the dishes and some ingredients - written in Chinese characters and translated phoentically into "English"(between the combination, I can usually figure out the dish or ingredient and relate it back to what my Mom used to prepare).
Rating:
Summary: Singapore Noodles
Review: My wife and I came from Hong Kong a LONG time ago and we miss a lot of the Chinese dishes. We found most of them in this book and we had been using it quite often. The instruction is clear and dishes are relatively easy to make. However, I would like to see more pictures (of the final product and the preperation steps) in the next edition. We like the book so much that we purchased multiple copies as gifts to friends. Highly recommended. If there are more pictures, I will give it a 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Chinese cooking book
Review: My wife and I came from Hong Kong a LONG time ago and we miss a lot of the Chinese dishes. We found most of them in this book and we had been using it quite often. The instruction is clear and dishes are relatively easy to make. However, I would like to see more pictures (of the final product and the preperation steps) in the next edition. We like the book so much that we purchased multiple copies as gifts to friends. Highly recommended. If there are more pictures, I will give it a 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak on Technique
Review: The stories, recipes and information about home style Cantonese cooking have great appeal. The book strikes a balance of soups steamed and stir-fried food. The writing is a pleasure to read. In one chapter, Grace Young, goes to great length to emphasize the need to cut food properly to achieve a balance in taste. Here is where the book fails to live up to its promise. While the author explains the need to cut food properly, she fails to provide complete descriptions, illustrations and photographs of exactly how the food should be cut. Cutting techniques for Cantonese food may not be a mystery to those who already know the dishes, but for those of us are new to Chinese cooking, they are. While there are some descriptions of how to cut in the recipes, no where are the kind of helpful, explicit details that might be learned by a novice learning French cooking by reading Jacques Pepin or Julia Child. Pictures dealing with other aspects of preparation are also scarce. The chart identifying food is too small to be of much use. The photographs showing finished dishes are too few and, again, too small to be helpful to a novice looking for clues about a dish's preparation.
Rating:
Summary: Review of the author's style and content
Review: This book is excellent in it's style and content. It is easy to follow and clearly organized to let the readers understand the traditional Chinese cooking style. I found the pictures delightful!
Rating:
Summary: Genuine Chinese Recipes
Review: This book is unlike other Chinese cookbooks. It contains some real Chinese recipes and is the best for Chinese homecooking. Since I am Chinese that's why I know those recipes are original. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Needed information
Review: This cookbook is not just a list of recipes but an interesting biographical journey into the interior. Grace Young writes well about her family providing a personal context for the recipes that she provides. I found the information very good indeed. It is rare to find in one location certain details about buying produce and items from an asian grocery store. The section on what the sauces, vegetables and other items that you can find at the grocers is nice indeed. Usually you would have had to buy a book dedicated to this, but Young provides a good section to get you through. This is my favorite Chinese cookbook so far this year. I find material for personal reflection and also, a source for Chinese food information (almond soup being good for the skin). I agree that Young could have been more lavish with technique and photos but she did very well otherwise. Also, the indexing could have been more detailed, but these are small quibles. Good stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Good Tips
Review: This is one of the few cookery books which I have enjoyed reading, as opposed to referring. I benefitted from the many tips that were woven into her story telling and the description of her dishes. For example, I now choose the more flavoured end-parts when buying a winter-melon (not forgetting to prefer those with more white powder on the melon surface too). I no longer throw away the water used to soak dried mushrooms, scallops & oysters as I could use it to add flavour to soup. I will remember to start with low fire when using a sand-pot and gradually increase to high if needed - not high straightaway - so as to avoid the sudden temperature changes that would crack and ruin the pot. Although it was obvious physics, I cannot help laughing at myself for not seeing, on my own, the simple logic of Grace's father's method of using a bowl to ensure equal parts of egg and water for the Steamed Egg Custard. However, this book is written, I opine, for the benefit of experienced cooks, esp Chinese and Cantonese, who can picture the dishes from their names - be it English, Chinese or Cantonese. If you have limited experience in Cantonese cooking, little exposure to Cantonese dishes, or if you are not a Chinese or a Cantonese, think again before buying this book. But if you have other Chinese cookbooks with pictures to give you an impression of the end-state of the dishes in Grace's book, then this book will be suitable for you, especially her tips. Otherwise, this book may not be as beneficial although the tips still are. Just one minor point. Although not a Cantonese, I know enough to note that some of the romanised Cantonese are inaccurate. The Cantonese for duck, such as in roasted duck, is romanised as "Op" which is a far cry from "ngap" or "aap" which is how the Cantonese pronounce it in their dialect.
| 
