KEY TO CHINESE COOKING

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Summary: How I learned to cook Chinese
Review: ... I was thrilled to find a used copy. I have been making the food from my Chinese childhood, and yes, the recipes make dishes that taste exactly how I remembered everything. Her instructions are clearly-written and concise.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best chinese cookbook you will ever see.
Review: How can The Bible be out of print? This book is by far and away the finest Chinese cook book i've ever seen. My copy is old and worn, but I hope someday that everyone will again have the opportunity to read, use and learn from this awesome book.

Rating:
Summary: The best Chinese cookbook I have found
Review: I have used this book for 20 years and it not only contains outstanding recipes, it tells you what you are doing and why - so that you really learn to cook in the Chinese style and can improvise your own recipes. This book needs to be reprinted!!

Rating:
Summary: How I learned to cook Chinese
Review: In the mid-eighties I had a job that allowed me to get home at 5pm. I used Irene Kuo's book to learn to cook Chinese. Not only are the recipes great, but the book is highly educational. I found it particularly useful to shop for the right ingredients.
Oneof my favorites is crab and corn soup. Overall, it's one of my "top 10 all time" cookbooks.

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Summary: Want authentic YUMMY Chinese tonite? Then get the book NOW!
Review: Irene Kuo is truly a phenomenal chef. Key to Chinese Cooking is a collection of authentic chinese recipes that is a required volume for anyone interested in Chinese cooking -- Chinese and non-Chinese alike. The recipes include regular favorites like scallion pancakes and almost unheard of authentic connoiseur pleasers such as 1-2-3-4-5 Spareribs. Anyone can make these dishes easily with Kuo's easy-to-follow steps. A perfect Chinese cookbook, only matched by real Chinese cookbooks, in which case, you'd have to be able to read Chinese in order to follow it! As a Chinese, a very picky eater, and one tough Chinese food critic, I give it an 11 out of 10!!!

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Summary: Clear Directions and Authentic Recipes
Review: Irene Kuo's recipes not only tell you what to do very clearly, but also the "why" of each direction. This is the only book of Chinese Cooking that gives me reliably excellent results. I have the 1977 edition. It is worn and dirty. I hope I can get a new copy of this book soon.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best chinese cookbook you will ever see.
Review: My husband is from China, he tells me I cook like his mother now. The copy I have is old and broken I've used it so much. I was hoping to get another copy. It's a great cookbook. Cooking techniques and recipes are explained in depth. There is also a glossary of ingredients so you can figure out what something is and where to buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the Best Chinese Cookbook Ever Written
Review: The eleven other reviews of this remarkable book (as of early June, 2004) all give this book 5 stars, an equally remarkable achievement. As one of those eleven people said, this is truly the Julia Child of Chinese cookbooks. I've been using it now since 1978 and there are still hundreds of recipes I haven't tried because the ones that I *have* cooked are so wonderful that I go back to them time after time. Most of the recipes are reasonably simple, with ingredients that can be found in even the most modest Asian market, or even in a Safeway these days, but some of them are a lot easier to make if you live in San Francisco (as I did for a number of years) and can find *everything* she calls for without undue trouble.

If I were marooned for life on a well-stocked desert island, this would be one of my two cookbooks, Julia being the other one. As wonderful as Italian food is, and as great as Marcella Hazen's Italian cookbook is, Chinese cuisine (with its many regional diversities) is far richer and with far more subtleties -- only French cuisine is its equal. Haunt the used book stores, or on-line sources, and try to get this unparalleled book.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the Best Chinese Cookbook Ever Written
Review: The eleven other reviews of this remarkable book (as of early June, 2004) all give this book 5 stars, an equally remarkable achievement. As one of those eleven people said, this is truly the Julia Child of Chinese cookbooks. I've been using it now since 1978 and there are still hundreds of recipes I haven't tried because the ones that I *have* cooked are so wonderful that I go back to them time after time. Most of the recipes are reasonably simple, with ingredients that can be found in even the most modest Asian market, or even in a Safeway these days, but some of them are a lot easier to make if you live in San Francisco (as I did for a number of years) and can find *everything* she calls for without undue trouble.

If I were marooned for life on a well-stocked desert island, this would be one of my two cookbooks, Julia being the other one. As wonderful as Italian food is, and as great as Marcella Hazen's Italian cookbook is, Chinese cuisine (with its many regional diversities) is far richer and with far more subtleties -- only French cuisine is its equal. Haunt the used book stores, or on-line sources, and try to get this unparalleled book.