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By Jim Yang
Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
Our family LOVES Chinese food. Living here in Mongolia, meat and cheese central of Asia, one of the only places we can eat out is at Chinese restaurants - and we do, often! So when I found the website offering a download of FOUR different cookbooks on Chinese cuisine for only $14.95, I was very excited.
So when I scanned the table of contents, I was naturally very confused to see recipes like "Ginger Sauce Chicken," "Walnut Shrimp," and "Oyster Broccoli." I thought, "Oh no, not another nut who thinks anything but beef counts as a vegetarian food." But I kept reading, and when I got to the foreward, a personal note from the author on the benefits of vegetarian eating, and realized I was quite mistaken. He was going to teach me how to make all these mock meats!
I've heard of several Chinese vegetarian restaurants, most recently one in Hong Kong, which make mock meat dishes that are so realistic, they even fool meat eaters. I figured it must take lots of work to make vegetables and tofu come out looking and tasting like something that would satisfy my carnivorous friends, but it really doesn't. Don't worry if you're not into eating anything that even resembles meat; there are more vegetable and tofu recipes than you could ever hope to find in one cookbook!
I've experimented at home with sauces trying to duplicate what they make at our favorite restaurants with mixed results, mostly not so good.
Another thing I really like about this book are the navigation features. Because it's in PDF format, there are links throughout allowing you to jump from one section to another, and even from one book to another. As I said, this cookbook comes with three additional e-books: How to Cook Like a Chef in Just One Day, Jim's Essential Guide to Chinese Cooking Ingredients, and Making the Secret Hot Sauce with Jim.
How to Cook Like a Chef in Just One Day covers everything including how to blanch vegetables; buy and hold a knife; cut, slice, julienne, chop, etc.; knead dough; fry, saute, parboil, poach, stir-fry, steam, and so much more. In short, it has everything you need to know to do it like on TV. Pictures are included.
Jim's Essential Guide to Chinese Cooking Ingredients is a gem! It includes pictures and descriptions of every ingredient used in Chinese vegetarian cooking from five different types of tofu to vegetables, spices, noodles and more. Just what exactly are sui choy, dried lily flower, and Chinese black vinegar? Read it and find out!
Finally, Making the Secret Hot Sauce with Jim will teach you how to make quite possibly the spiciest Szechuan sauce you've ever tasted. Again, Jim includes photos of all 13 ingredients, so you can find them easily in your friendly neighborhood Asian grocery store. The batch recipe will last you at least four months, depending on how often you eat spicy Chinese food. Jim shows a picture of six jars of sauce, and I can tell you that one would last me for a six months, so make some for your friends, too!
Buy this book now!
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