Ken Hom: Travels with a Hot Wok

Rating:
Summary: The incedible Chinese Cuisine
Review: It is the best Chinese recipe book I ever possessed. It's divided in sections so that you can find any course of your dinner easily. He is incredible cause he creates simple dishes in a short time from which you can surprise your guests and prove yourself an excellent cook. It also contains a good ingredient vocabulary which will surely make it easier for you to learn about new greens.

Rating:
Summary: Ken Hom does it again
Review: Ken Hom was born in USA of Chinese parents. He is, quite rightly, regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on Chinese cooking. Living now, in France, Ken Hom has written extensively, describing his recipes and techniques. In Travels with a Hot Wok, he presents 160 recipes with a unique blend of West and East - easy to prepare dishes from around the world, as presented on his BBC television series.

But more than just a collection of recipes, Travels with a Hot Wok covers equipment, ingredients, cooking techniques, and basic cooking knowledge. Of utmost importance, the 'equipment' section includes how to choose a wok, what size is best, how to season it and clean it. His recipes are divided into eight sections that cover appetizers, soups, fish and shellfish, meat, poultry, vegetables, rice noodles and pasta, and finally even desserts (yes, you can prepare some amazing desserts in a wok). And what a mouth-watering selection of recipes they are. Though Ken Hom obviously uses ingredients that are adventurous, they are all readily available at good Asian supermarkets or delicatesans, so there's no need to fear that the basic ingredients are hard to get.

If you've never ventured into wok cooking, now's your chance. The amazing mixture of flavours and taste represent a whole new world, and who better to present them and explain them than the Master himself. You'll be surprising your guests in no time at all, and, once used, you'll never fear a wok again.

Rating:
Summary: Great fusion cooking book
Review: The recipes are first-rate. I do a lot of "real" Asian cooking, and I find Hom's recipes a fabulous blend of "western" style cooking fused with "Asian" combinations of ingredients. Each recipe I've tried is straightforward with easy-to-follow directions, easy-to-find ingredients, and produces supreme results. My children, who often turn up their noses at Asian food, really like everything I've tried out of this book.
The only reason why I didn't give this cookbook 5 stars are because there are a few editorial errors in it. I believe there's a new edition out -- I'd try that one first to see if the errors are fixed -- mostly dealing with page numbers not matching in the front explanatory section of the book.