Author(s): Michael Tong
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Publication Date: 2007-02-01
Pages: 272
Review: Shun Lee Dynasty on Est 55 has been my favorite Chinese restaurent since 1975. I have eaten there on business lunch every other day for 2 years. The chef would try new things on us. Mock duck pie (not sure of real name) is a vegetarian (and I amnot) dish that is served the same as Peking DUck with Mandarin Pancake, hoisin sauce and green onion and it is wonderful. Their fried dumplings are the best. Hack chicken a sechuan shrimps are house favorites here. They had several recipes printed in NYT in the 70’s…priceless. This cookbook is a neccessary addition to my Chinese collection.At breakfast, Michael Jordan ate only half of his pancakes. I asked him why. “If you want to fly,” he said, “you have to eat like a bird.”
Clear conclusion: Control portion size.
Now comes Michael Pollan, with even more explicit advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Clear conclusion: Meat, once the centerpiece of the dinner plate, is now to be regarded — at least by eaters who want to live long and well — as an accent. A condiment. A flavoring.
This is a much more challenging decree. It’s one thing to say, as smart diet books have said for a decade, that your nightly serving of protein should be no larger than your fist. It’s another to reduce that hunk of animal flesh to a mere afterthought. This is America, a meat-and-potatoes country. Salads are for women and dieters. A man’s gotta eat. (And so, if truth be told, do women.)
And yet…Pollan’s right. For health reasons. Ecological reasons (growing and processing 2.2 pounds of beef generates as much carbon dioxide as the average European car emits every 155 miles). And then there’s the reason that will get everyone’s attention: economics.
You’ve seen the headlines about contaminated beef, and you’re dimly aware that this Administration wouldn’t weep if it downsized every government meat inspector, but it’s the economic argument that really hits home. More and more, corn that once fed farm animals (a bad idea) is being diverted to create ethanol (another bad idea). That drives corn prices up. And higher corn prices, in turn, drive up the price of hamburger at your local market.
At a certain point, beef will become a luxury item.
But what are you going to do — live on junk food?
My solution: Chinese cooking.
Forget that nonsense about feeling hungry an hour after a Chinese dinner. Good Chinese cooking is as satisfying as it is healthful. It’s ecologically correct: heavy on vegetables and proteins like tofu, skimpy on meat and fish. And, in those proportions, it’s as kind to your wallet as it is to your heart and gut.
The thing is, we don’t know how to cook it.
Three cheers, then, to Michael Tong, whose Shun Lee restaurants have delighted New Yorkers and the city’s visitors for three decades. In his cookbook, he hasn’t exactly reproduced the recipes he uses in his restaurants. He’s done something more useful — in modifying his recipes for home cooks, he’s explained the basic principles of Chinese cooking. Because, as it turns out, Chinese cooking isn’t just tossing ingredients into a hot wok and stir-frying.
In fact, as I read through Tong’s cookbook, I realized that the biggest hurdle you face in becoming a decent Chinese home cook is… shopping. There are a dozen ingredients you need, and you’re not likely to find them in your neighborhood megamarket. But once you stock your larder, you’re set — all you need for a given dish are the fresh ingredients.
So buy that wok and season it. Lay in sesame oil and tree ear. Make sure you always have ginger and tofu on hand. And then, for less money than a meal at Shun Lee, open a branch of that much-loved restaurant in your own home.
This beautifully illustrated and graciously written cookbook is a rarity. Inspiring, tantalizing pictures and easy-to-follow recipes of cuisines I adore (from Sichuan, Hunan and Shanghai)but for which I rarely find recipes. Get it and I assure you, your life will be more delicious…even if you don’t cook, you’ll drool over the photos.I bought the Shun Lee cookbook when it first came out, since I was familiar with the quality and deliciousness of the food at the restaurant in New York, and have always wanted to learn how to make such amazing chinese food at home.
I am something of a novice chef, especially when it comes to chinese cuisine, and all of the recipies I have prepared have come out amazingly. I made the dry sauteed green beans, lemon chicken, and scallion pancakes for a dinner party of 5, and got rave reviews all around…people couldn’t believe I had made the dishes myself! Everyone asked me for the recipes, and a couple of people went out and bought the book. Several of my friends have since tried the recipes at home with similarly fantastic results.
I’ve also made the dumplings in big batches and kept them in my fridge and prepared them in different ways for dinner all week long (same goes for the cold sesame noodles).
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who ever wanted to be able to make fantastic chinese at home (or pass themselves off as a gourmand to all of their friends).
This cookbook is my go-to for dinner parties and quick, simple, delicious meals during the week. I saw the cookbook in Barnes and Nobel and was intrigued, because many of the dishes sound nice but quite foreign to me, a Chinese growing up in China. Anyhow, I decided to check it out at the Shun Lee restaurant at the Lincoln center.
It was horrible. China-one-buffet type food served in fashionably decorated restaurant. The honey spare rib is simply rib roasted in honey, and is borderline acceptable; but the braised duck is a joke, and the twice cooked pork is plain disgusting.
I can accept that they are not genuine Chinese food even though they are claimed to be; but such poor quality is entirely unacceptable.
If this is the best you can get out of the recipes, I certainly wouldn’t touch the cook book.
Price: $29.95 Buy This Book