The Chinese Takeout Cookbook: Quick and Easy Dishes to Prepare at Home

I've gotten heavily into wok cooking recently, and I've purchased many, many stir-fry and wok cookbooks. After working with all of them, and sitting back to think it all through, I have decided that this is the best: In terms of most concise instructions, accessible and not-too-elaborate ingredients, easiest prep work, favorite dishes, and much more. Bottom line is this: Stir-frying and using a wok demands very quick work. If you've not completely memorized your recipe, you need to have your cookbook in front of you as part of your "mise en place". This cookbook fits that bill nicely. The layout is conducive to helping you work efficiently. The directions/instructions, ingredient lists and beautiful pictures are big aids in helping you get ready to prepare the dish. Just to give you an idea of what I am comparing this book to: I have several Grace Young books. They are wonderful, and I'm glad to have them. I've learned quite a lot from them. There are many wonderful recipes that I like in each of her books, but the books are not as simplistic to use as The Chinese Takeout Cookbook. Young's books are large and all-encompassing and work nicely as reference books. Neither the books, nor the recipes, will ever be my Asian go-to books and recipes. I will use the Grace Young books when I have leisure time to browse through the recipes, create a shopping list, and plan a special meal. I also have a few Barbara Tropp books. I like those books as well and have learned a lot of tips from them. But again, they won't be my go-to Asian cookbooks. And they are a bit older and don't have the great pictures that cookbooks have nowadays. Then there are the Ken Hom books: They are a bit too "old" for me, and while his books give me ideas, they don't give me the detailed instructions and pictures that I like. So, my favorite is becoming obvious: The Chinese Takeout Cookbook is the one. It's even got a recipe for Egg Foo Young, one of my all-time favorites, and so easy to make.

This is quite a book. 1. Recipes are reasonable - with fairly short ingredient lists that are available in most grocery stores like Wegmans. A wide variety of appetizers, soups and entrees. No recipes requiring eel, seaweed or other obscure ingredients. The book is instructive of the techniques that give Chinese takeout it unique texture (crispy) and taste. I like that the recipes in this book prepare a full quart or more of food. It is such a hassle to purchase special ingredients for these types of recipes and have leftover ingredients that get wasted. 2. Contains all the usual favorites from local restaurants. The title says it all for this book - this is a cookbook of takeout recipes. Note well: If you are looking for a "purist" book on Chinese recipes of regional cuisine - look elsewhere. Understand that this book is geared toward Asian / American palate. You can now make them at home and control the quality of the ingredients / sodium. The recipes deliver flavor that is similar to restaurants (Kung Pao, Generals, Sesame Noodles) 3. I love that there are photos of every recipe - the pages are high gloss. There are also explanations of techniques like velveting and for preparing the ingredients. Update: Sesame noodle recipe: On point. savory. Be sure to take the time to find the egg noodles - they give the dish a toothsome quality and richness not present with plan spagetti. Mongolian: dont skip the fish sauce; it lends a note that is impossible to replicate. If you are not used to measuring while cooking you may want to do so. Measure the sauce exactly - otherwise the noodles absorb a large amount of sauce and become very salty and unsightly (very dark and oily looking)

I've only made a couple of recipes from this so far, but they've both been great! I'm also enjoying reading it (although it makes me hungry!). I want to give a special shout-out to the cold sesame noodles. I made them yesterday for some family that are gluten-free, so (since I couldn't find rice noodles), I used GF corn. They worked really well! The sesame sauce was light and flavorful, the vegetables gave a nice contrast to the noodles (a mandolin was helpful in julienning them finely), and it was a lovely lunch on a very hot and humid day, especially since it was mostly make-ahead. I'm a sucker for scallion pancakes, and these are yummy. ETA: However, the extra-flaky ones on Serious Eats are even better; I did a compare and contrast. If you're using the basic recipe: at least double the scallions, and use toasted sesame oil (or hot toasted sesame oil) for the oil involved. I am especially looking forward to trying the hot & sour soup. It's a personal favorite, especially when I have a cold or allergies, and this looks like a fine version. Also the moo shu! Now, despite what the book claims, a lot of the more esoteric ingredients- like the pancakes for moo shu (and no, flour tortillas are NOT the same!)- are not readily available in regular supermarkets. Some of them are not even available in our admittedly small, local Asian market. This is frustrating, because i'd love to try some recipes that include them! I wish the author had included mail-order sources for such. But- the recipes are very clear and well-written, and the pictures are lovely and can be quite helpful. The worst problem with making these dishes at home is... I still have to cook them! One of the charms of take-out is that one does not have to COOK it oneself! More ETA: I was not impressed by the kung pao chicken. I adore kung pao. This just lacked pretty much all heat. OK, our peppers were a bit old, but still- I would not want to BITE one! The flavors were lovely and made a really nice dish... but it wasn't anything like kung pao as i have known and loved it. If you make it, make sure yo adjust the heat; and probably double the amount of peanuts and scallions- or even more with the scallions. Or add sweet pepper. (I do not suggest celery because I hate it, but it's a classic American/chinese component.) Another crunchy thing might be good, like water chestnuts, diced. I do think this is a good cookbook. However, it looks to me like knowing a bit about diaspora-chinese cooking will be a help in adapting these recipes to approach what you want.

I was tired of paying $13 for Chinese takeout, only to see that 80% of my meal was broth and vegetables that I'd ultimately pour down the garbage disposal. I needed to find a way to make this stuff myself. The main problem was that I have no knowledge base to draw upon. I didn't need to send off my DNA to realize that I'm exactly 0% Chinese by ancestry. I have no family members I can call to figure out how to make this stuff, and living in Memphis TN I don't exactly have a ton of Cantonese neighbors I can run to for advice. I needed answers, and quickly, or I'd go broke ordering carton after carton of watery Chinese food with skimpy meat and water logged cabbage. This book provided all the answers I needed. The first recipe I made was Beef with Broccoli and I'm here to tell you it was the absolute best version I have ever had in my life. It was fresh, bursting with flavor, and the meat was of greater quality and quantity than I get from takeout. I think the total cost for the ingredients was around $16, and it made enough to feed five or six people (I think I doubled the recipe on that one). At roughly $3.50 per serving, and with FAR higher quality, this recipe was blowing away EVERY Chinese takeout place in my area (a metropolitan area of roughly 1 million people). The entire family went back for seconds and raved about how great it was. I was shocked by that. The second recipe was egg rolls. Again, perfection. No more paying $3.50 per egg roll to get a bunch of shredded vegetables with a sparse helping of ground chicken. I bought a pound of large shrimp for $11 and I ate like a Chinese Emperor in the Forbidden City at the Manchu Han Imperial Feast (boom...look that one up.) It's like a side benefit of the book is that I'm now an amateur expert on Chinese history. Tonight I made egg drop soup and Kung Pao Chicken. It was devoured. Once more I found that the recipe was far and away better than any other version I've had. I had some picky eaters at the table tonight and they all went back for more. Sadly, there is very little left for a midnight snack. The book is awesome from cover to cover. The recipes are extremely easy to follow, and with just a few basic additions to your pantry you'll be cooking like you were born there. I wish I'd found this book decades ago. It's just that good.

Great recipes that are easy to follow providing excellent flavor.

I like the recipes but they're not very special. That's ok by me. I did love the chow mein--I'm a secret chow mein eater. There are other books with the same information and more variety, but this covers the range of Cantonese (mostly) recipes that you will find at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. If you have a neighborhood, which I don't--I live in rural Maine. If you've eaten many Chinese cuisines, you'll find the book bland (I used to live in NYC and travel a lot both nationally and internationally, so my eating tastes in general are rather broad--including glazed guinea pig, which is Peruvian, not Chinese, but that's for another posting).

I have attempted to make somewhat authentic Chinese food for a year now and have failed. My taste is too Americanized, yet I do appreciate the nuances of good Chinese cooking. I'm not a Panda Express fan, is what I mean. So I thought I'd try this cookbook. I made the lo mien (adding more mushrooms instead of pork to keep it vegetarian) and the dry-fried green beans. Absolutely delicious and easy. The recipes are clear and if you purchase the simple basic ingredients that she writes about in the opening chapters, you can make most of these recipes. I live in a rural area, so I bought these ingredients when we went to the "big city" and then bought the rest on Amazon. Few of them need refrigeration and the fresh vegetables can be purchased at most grocery stores. This is my new favorite cookbook for practical, fairly fast Chinese food. Well done!

Love this book Finally I have a General toes chicken recipe and others I've been looking for. The general toast chicken recipe is to die for I know this because my friend have this cookbook and she made that recipe and it came out great so I decided I was going to get one myself the book is an excellent condition. If you shop at Barnes and Nobles book stores STOP you're wasting good money I love Amazon I'm totally addicted so far all my books have been prestine clean as a whistle . brand spanking new and the cookbooks is half price you cannot beat that .if you like Chinese takeout food and dont mind cooking this is your book. not only do you know what is going in your food you know how to prepare it tweak it with the ingredients you want to use. I feel as if these restaurants are overcharging and you're getting nothing but garbage. Face it you're wasting your money on pre-packaged food.

I was very happy with this book as the recipes are easy to follow and there were a lot of secrets revealed. The recipes I've tried up to now have all turned out extremely well with everyone's compliments

Ein eher oberflächliches Kochbuch. 3xSoßen im richtigen Verhältnis zusammen mischen und fertig soll das Gericht sein...

One of my favourite cookbooks. The recipes are flavourful, and relatively easy to cook.

Great recipes.

Best cookbook I have bought in a long time. Easy to read and food turns out great.