Chinese Cuisine: Cantonese Style

Rating:
Summary: Authentic, delicious, well-tested, no-fail recipes
Review: I love this book and highly recommend it. The Chinese cookbooks published by Wei-chuan (a cooking school in Taipei that is essentially the Cordon Bleu of Taiwan) are my bibles, and I don't bother with any other Chinese cookbooks. The recipes in this book are utterly delectable and absolutely authentic, using traditional ingredients and methods -- no shortcuts or substitutions here. For example, you will not find, as in other, less authentic cookbook recipes, peanut butter being substituted for sesame paste. Even though I live in the United States and do not read or speak Chinese, I have not had a problem finding these authentic ingredients in Asian food stores, especially because the ingredients are often pictured in photographs and the text is in both English and Chinese, so that I can even point out the photo or Chinese words for the store clerk if need be. This book is a great addition to any Chinese cookbook library because Cantonese cuisine is so distinctive for its elegantly simple flavors and sauces, a wonderful contrast to the more complex, sophisticated cuisines of Shanghai or Beijing. If you are serious about Chinese cuisine, this book and the others by Wei-chuan are the best you can buy in the English language.

Rating:
Summary: Great photos, difficult to find ingredients
Review: While I found this book was full of great pictures, many of the ingredients were difficult if not impossible to find. For example dried sharks fin. The recipe I did make was delicious, but I felt somewhat limited by the ingredient contents.