Family Banquet: Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes (Chinese/English edition)

You don't have to take lessons from a professional teacher to learn the art of Chinese cooking if all you want to do is to entertain your friends or cook for your family. Almost without exception, Chinese women learn this skill by watching and working together with their mothers or grandmothers. After they become wives or mothers themselves, the most diligent among them will try to improve their techniques by consulting cook books and exchanging experiences with their neighbors. In this way they eventually become as skilled as the best chefs in established restaurants. It should be noted, of course, that most of the well-known chefs in famous restaurants are men because many men in Chinese homes are just as good at the art of cooking as their wives.

This book in the Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes series have been compiled by master chefs. They have used simple explanations to introduce the ingredients, the ways of cutting, and the cooking procedures for each Chinese recipe. Readers who follow the directions will before long become skilled in the art of Chinese cooking. The entire set consists of nine volumes, covering freshwater and seafood dishes, meat dishes, vegetable dishes, courses made from soy beans, soups, cold dishes, pastries, dishes of eggs and poultry, and recipes for family feasts. This particular volume presents four sets of family feast dishes.

Though a family feast is not as standard as a formal dinner in a restaurant, hosts and guests can enjoy a meal at home prepared according to their own tastes and one consisting of quantities and varieties according to their own liking. Even if the host cook is somewhat less skilled than a restaurant cook, the guests are unlikely to complain and may even add pleasure by joining the host in preparing the meal. Very often, some unexpectedly fine dishes are created in a home kitchen.

Each set of the family feasts introduced in this book consists of ten dishes. You can choose any one of them according to the number of diners or you can select from each of the four sets to create your own combination. You should, however, pay attention to the balance between meat dishes and vegetable dishes, staple food and non-staple food, cold dishes and warm dishes. Besides, you are advised to take into consideration the age, native place and dietary habits of your guests. If your guest diners include old people and children, the feast should include some soft and less greasy dishes. Furthermore, dishes should be less spicy. In China for example, southerners like fish and shrimp with light seasonings while northerners love beef, mutton and heavily seasoned food. This regional difference in diet, however, is lessening as a result of the increased movement of the people and social contacts. A feast consisting of both northern and southern dishes will always add pleasure and achieve better results. Still, the choice of dishes should coincide with the season. In summer, lightly seasoned dishes as opposed to oily dishes should be the main courses; while in autumn, dishes should contain more calories and a dinner should have one or two spicy dishes. Finally, the host should have information on the dietary habits, particularly dietary taboos of the guests in order to avoid any awkwardness at the dinner table.

All pages of the book are spiral bound and double coated for easy clean-up of any spills. Color Illustrations

We wish to thank the Suzhou Hotel, which kindly provided strong support and assistance to the compilation of the Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes series. As a major tourist hotel in the city of Suzhou, the Suzhou Hotel has a history of dozens of years and is serviced by experienced first-class chefs.