Review of 'Easy Recipes Easy Chinese' (我爱中国菜) by Wei Ji

[ChTTay]

This is a review of Easy Recipes, Easy Chinese by Wei JI published by Sinolingua Beijing and sent to me as part of a give-away on this forum.

 

Delivery

 

I am based in Beijing so the books were very quick to arrive, perhaps a couple of days after being notified they had been dispatched. The book was well wrapped in newspaper and a bubble wrapped bag.

 

I would say China Post are not that particularly good though. The woman on the phone claimed they couldn't find my address, however, they did manage to drop off a postage note saying I needed to pick up the package at my local post office.

 

First Impression

 

My initial impression was really good. The picture on the front cover is great and really makes you want to get straight to the recipes and start cooking. The first thing I did was flick through the pages and I was very impressed with the quality of the book in general. All the photos are of a really high standard and make all the dishes look very appetizing. They really make you want to cook.

 

Actually, it wasn't entirely what I expected either. I presumed there would be a lot more Chinese than there is. When I first requested the book, I somehow thought it would be in both Chinese and English. Perhaps with some explanations of grammar used in recipes (e.g. 把）. I thought it would also at least have the names of ingredients in Chinese. The book is true to the English name in that regard, as it's definitely "easy Chinese".

 

Review

 

As it is, the book is essentially just an English language cook book with a very small amount of beginner words thrown in. They aren't in context and often aren't even related to what’s on that page. For instance, a beef recipe might have the words for strawberry and banana in the Chinese word section.

 

I guess that it would be a complete book redesign or a completely new book but i'd like to see a Chinese cooking book where they teach the “language” of Chinese cooking. All of the ingrediants would be in Chinese and English (or at least all in Chinese with an index of English and pinyin in the back). There could be an initial chapter exploring the main grammar points and language structures used in cooking, before getting into the recipes. As the recipe instructions given in the book are quite short, I think it would be feasible to have both Chinese and English together.

 

I thought that the “tips” section would make a really good introduction to Chinese cooking and Chinese culture for those completely new to it. I guess a lot of them aren't really “tips” but cultural information and stories. I liked that they were all quite bite sized too and could easily be read when looking at the recipe you want to try that day. As I mentioned already, the recipes themselves are short and to the point. I have only cooked one so far but they all look straight forward. One thing that might be a problem for some people is that there is little on technique or any basic rules/guidelines that you can follow when cooking Chinese food (don't add oil to a cold wok – this kind of thing).

 

There are a lot of dishes in the book that would appeal to foreigners in China and those who used to live here. These include things like 鱼香肉丝，宫保鸡丁，土豆丝，香菇油菜 etc and many, many more.

 

I have cooked 鱼香肉丝 and it turned out “okay” for a first attempt. I found that the amount of sauce you make based on the measurements given in the book aren't enough to give a good, full flavour of the kind you get in China. I only realized this once I'd added the original sauce and tried add more sauce later on. Unfortunately I ended up adding too much vinegar so my dish had quite a strong vinegary flavour to it in the end! That bit was completely my fault. Another thing I noticed about this recipe is that it asks you to add the pork then, when near done, add the aromatic ingredients to the pork. I find that the usual practice is to remove the meat, then add the aromatics and everything else, before adding the meat back in. In this instance, I did the way the book said (or didn't say?!) and found that the aromatics couldn't become “aromatic” so easily because of the meat.

 

Anyway, for a first try it was okay. I am sure the second attempt will be twice as good with a few tweaks here and there.

 

I will try a couple more dishes from the book when I get chance and will report back!

 

Let me know if anyone has any questions. I think this would make a nice gift for someone thinking about going to China, planning on going to China or who had just arrived here.

 

[imron]

For instance, a beef recipe might have the words for strawberry and banana in the Chinese word section.