Ken Hom's Chinese Kitchen

Half of the book is devoted to a consumer's guide of essential ingredients illustrated with color photos. Ranging from bamboo shoots to wonton wrappers, each entry includes shopping tips with brand-name preferences, storage notes, and useful hints. (Hom tells us, for example, to save and use the peel from fresh ginger to flavor oil before stir-frying with it). The 100 recipes, divided into chapters for soups, fish and shellfish, meat, eggs, vegetables, and rice and noodles, balance old favorites--like Mu Shu Pork with Chinese Pancakes--with uncommon dishes, such as Red-Cooked Oxtail Stew, Steamed Egg Custard with Clams, and Bean Curd-Chicken-Salt Fish casserole (a delectably homey clay-pot specialty that takes about 30 minutes to prepare). Braised Noodles with Crab Meat and Bean Sauce Noodles are two exceptionally simple and exceptionally good noodle dishes. A reference and recipe book in one, Ken Hom's Chinese Kitchen deserves a place in every Asian cooking library. --Arthur Boehm