[.ca] Classic Chinese Cuisine (ISBN 0618379657)

Very authentic flavors:
I've made many dishes from this book, including: Red-Cooked Tofu Stir-Fried Broccoli in Oyster Sauce Sweet & Sour Fish with Pine Nuts Cantonese-Style Roasted Duck Steamed Chicken with Scallions Home-Style Spareribs Stir-Fried Beef with Snow Peas in Oyster Sauce Buns with Red Bean Filling I love this book because a. flavor of each dish turned out great b. instructions were easy to follow c. ingredients were easy to obtain from local markets If anything, I'd like to see more color photos of plate presentations.

Excellent! Authentic chinese flavor using common ingredients:
I have tried a few recipes from this book including the sweet moon cake, curry turnovers, and steamed cake (MA LA GAU)...all turned out delicious. Even my mother told me to purchase this book (I originally borrowed it from the library) because she was so impressed! Considering that we are immigrants from Taiwan, we know good chinese food when we taste it and Ms. Simonds has great chinese food. She does not always use traditional methods or ingredients in her recipes...but the end result is always fabulous. Cannot say enough about this book!

Complicated recipes and few vegetarian dishes:
I have owned this cookbook for over a year and have yet to prepare a recipe from it. The recipes are extremely complicated, and while they may yield authentic flavors and dishes, the prohibitively long preparation time is one reason this cookbook has not been used in my kitchen. The other reason is that the book contains almost no vegetarian recipes. Even the "vegetable dishes" section contains either dishes which contain meat, or require a meat broth. For easier, more practical recipes, I'd recommend Nina's "A Spoonful of Ginger."