Chinese Soul Food

by: Hsiao-Ching Chou

Seattle WA: Sasquatch Books 2018, $29.95, Hardbound
ISBN: 978-1-63217-123-8

Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Fall Volume: 2018 Issue: 25(3) page(s): 20

This award-winning journalist began working in her parent’s Missouri restaurant at the age of eight. Staying there for sixteen years, she then attended college for journalism. Now an award-winning food writer, she was an editor at two major newspapers; one on the west coast, the other in America’s heartland, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Denver Post.

Readers: fire up your woks and use her well-written guide to making many delicious, popular and classic dishes. They are categorized as Dumplings, Little Eats, Rice and Noodles, Stir-fries, Soups and Braises, Celebration, and Guilty Pleasures. The eighty recipes are written in standard style, their preparations unusually detailed.

This book’s purpose is stated by her Mom. Ellen Chou, in its Foreword. It is to get folks cooking and enjoying Chinese food; and it does! One would expect no less from this featured lady on Public Radio. This cookbook award winner is now on the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Awards committee. One knows why after reading this and her other books, this one showcases Chinese home cooking you will want to prepare yourself.

The recipes end with suggestions partnering with other dishes in this book. All offer great suggestions, as does a simple Stir-Fried Greens and Dry-Fried Green Beans. It and every recipe, including Fragrant Crispy Duck Breast, begins with a detailed background paragraph and suggested adaptations.

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