In the cooking, there are about 10 basic ingredients that are used for the sauces and marinades. Any Chinese grocery should have them. From there it's just the meats & veggies that you can mix & match according to your tastes. It's A LOT easier than you may think. Before you start, get a good Carbon Steel Wok & condition it well.


Complicated recipes and few vegetarian dishes   August 30, 2001
6 out of 27 found this review helpful

I have owned this cookbook for over a year and have yet to prepare a recipe from it. The recipes are extremely complicated, and while they may yield authentic flavors and dishes, the prohibitively long preparation time is one reason this cookbook has not been used in my kitchen.
The other reason is that the book contains almost no vegetarian recipes. Even the "vegetable dishes" section contains either dishes which contain meat, or require a meat broth.

For easier, more practical recipes, I'd recommend Nina's "A Spoonful of Ginger."


Excellent! Authentic chinese flavor using common ingredients   October 19, 1999
34 out of 34 found this review helpful

I have tried a few recipes from this book including the sweet moon cake, curry turnovers, and steamed cake (MA LA GAU)...all turned out delicious. Even my mother told me to purchase this book (I originally borrowed it from the library) because she was so impressed! Considering that we are immigrants from Taiwan, we know good chinese food when we taste it and Ms. Simonds has great chinese food. She does not always use traditional methods or ingredients in her recipes...but the end result is always fabulous. Cannot say enough about this book!


Basic, but not boring. Accomodating & Practical   April 4, 1999
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

By affording substitutions, Ms. Simonds' work has allowed me to enjoy chinese food despite being away from an asian market, or decent chinese restaurant. This book stands in marked contrast to many which fail to take into account the limited ingredients the person in a small town has to work with.