Learn to Prepare Oriental Meals with Chinese Cook Books

Soon after thousands of Chinese people migrated to the United States in the middle of the 19th century, American publishing houses started to distribute all kinds of Chinese cook books into the market. This is not really all that surprising, considering the huge impact that Chinese cuisine had on Western culture.

Chinese Cook Books — A Totally Different Cooking Experience

Most recipe books today consist of nothing but a list of ingredients and instructions on how to prepare and cook the food. With many Chinese cook books, you can enjoy a much richer cooking experience. In addition to the basic recipes, you will also be able to find distinctive traces of the oriental culture infused into the various recipes in the books. A good example would be Grace Young’s critically acclaimed cook book called “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing.” This book not only presents many traditional Chinese recipes in a highly illustrative fashion, but also includes interesting stories of her life as a Chinese-American.

Chinese Cookbooks Mentioned In This Article

Diversity of Chinese Cooking Styles

Because of China’s immense size, it is only natural for many different kinds of cuisine to develop in various areas. In fact, the style of cooking in one Chinese region may have nothing at all in common with the cooking style in another region. World renowned cooking expert Fuchsia Dunlop, who has studied Chinese cuisine first hand in the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine, has written two books on on the differences between two popular Chinese cooking styles. The first book called “Land of Plenty” focuses on Sichuan cooking, which uses an astounding 56 cooking techniques and has 23 very distinct flavors.

The second book, called “Revolutionary Chinese Cook Book”, focuses on the style of cooking used in the Hunan province. The recipes outlined in this book are more centered on spices and hearty meals. The book comes with 65 color illustrations and highlights Mao Tse-tung’s favorite dish of red-braised pork.

Chinese Cooking and Holistic Medicine

One of the main differences of Chinese cooking from all other cuisines is that it does not only focus on the taste of the food, or the nutritional content even, but also on the balance of yin and yang in terms of health and healing. This unique concept is perfectly presented in many Chinese cook books like George Ellis and Zhou Zhao’s book entitled “The Healing Cuisine of China: 300 Recipes for Vibrant Health and Longevity.” With these recipes, you can enjoy delicious meals and ward off illness at the same time. For people who love food, nothing can surely be better than that.