The Chinese Cook Book

Shiu Wong Chan Chinese emigrated to America in the late 19th century, introducing his home country’s cooking traditions to a vast, new, and appreciative audience – this recipe book contains many classics, plus several rare dishes seldom seen in modern restaurants.

In the opening passages of this work, we witness Chan’s methodical and logical approach to preparing food; the proportions of rice to meat, and meat to vegetables, are told. This is followed by an early history of how iconic Chinese cuisine was invented, introducing the age-old traditions which prefaced the formal art of cooking emerging in the households of China.

This book contains well over 100 distinct recipes – beginning with preliminaries and soups, and continuing to meat dishes of beef, chicken, duck, lamb and pork. Seafood cuisine follows, with recipes of fish, shrimp, crab and even shark included. The vegetarian will also find much to his liking: the later portions of the book have non-meat dishes and omelets aplenty.

Most uniquely compared with modern Chinese cooking guides, Shiu Wong Chan includes a range of unusual traditional recipes that rarely appear on the modern menu. Desserts such as water chestnut pudding, the unique homemade soy sauce, and the ‘Immortal Food’ proscribed by China’s ambassador to the USA, are examples.