Oriental Cookbook

Note: This edition of Oriental Cookbook has been updated to include Metric equivalents.


This cookbook is a collection of authentic recipes of Oriental dishes which are commonly prepared and served in the homes of Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese and Koreans who live in the United States. Orientals in this country cook and eat either genuine Oriental food or typical American fare. Never do they compromise on a westernised version of Oriental dishes such as is often found in restaurants.


This book is not an exhaustive collection of Oriental recipes. Rather it is a compilation of carefully selected recipes which will appeal to the western palate and which call for ingredients that can be purchased in this country—for the most part in neighborhood grocery stores. A guide to where special ingredients indicated in these recipes may be bought will be found at the end of the book.


Like other nationality groups living in America, Orientals adhere to many of the customs and traditions of the countries of their national origins. This is especially true in regard to the type of food which they eat and the manner in which their food is prepared.


Peoples of the East, whether in this country or in the Orient, excel in the fine art of cooking. They take pride in the fact that they do not depend on cookbooks in creating culinary masterpieces. As a rule, their recipes are not recorded. Their secrets of the art of cooking are usually handed down verbally from generation to generation.


The contributors of the recipes contained in this cookbook spent long hours preparing their familiar dishes in the traditional way yet pausing in the midst of the process to meticulously measure each ingredient according to the western manner and to write down the results. These newly recorded recipes were later followed to the letter in a testing procedure and the few necessary corrections were then made.