Family Style Chinese Cookbookby: Shanti Christensen
Berkeley CA:
Rockridge Press 2016, $17.98, Hardbound
ISBN: 978-1-62315-761-6
Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Summer Volume: 2017 Issue: 24(2) page(s): 24
This set of
simple recipes
and a few
sophist icated
ones are popular
in homes visited with families in China by a food editor
for Time Out Beijing from 2005.
The book starts with a Foreword by Bee Yinn Low,
author of Easy Chinese Recipes and a food blog with
much in common. Shanti’s was called ‘Show Shanti,’
Low’s ‘Rasa Malaysia’ and they share many Chinese
meals together. Their blogs and books are loaded with
culinary experiences and delicious recipes. Christensen’s book begins with an introduction then
details thirty pantry items on seven pages, twelve
essential items of equipment on three others, three
more about eight cutting techniques and five for cooking,
an entire page sharing how to season a wok, followed
by nine basic recipes, almost all include a cooking or
ingredient tip after them. There are ninety-one recipes, each with a paragraph
discussing various aspects about it. After them, eleven
resources, five are web sites., and two pages list recipes
by title, followed by eight three column ones with
recipes by main ingredients. Inside the rear cover, a color picture of the author and
a paragraph about her sharing that she lives near San
Francisco. A few other color pictures are between each
of the eight chapters illustrating many completed dishes.
Some have fascinating titles such as the one referring to
its main ingredients, corn and green soybeans and the
acreage needed for them to support a family. |
