Best products from r/chinesefood

Yeah, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop is a great memoir, includes a few basic recipes to boot. Really fun read. Her website, and an interesting article looking a some Chinese chef's reactions to western fine dining.

Perhaps not exactly what you are looking for, but read this book on the history of Chinese food in the west and it was pretty interesting, and of course discusses some of the traditional cuisine as well.

Not a book, but you might enjoy watching A Bite of China. Another ok series on a few different regional cuisines in China was just on BBC, called Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure.

Obviously the Wikipedia page has lots of information and links, as well as some recommended books. The eGullet China forums are also pretty good resources.

Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.


Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!

just make it yourself. it has better shelf life, sodium & spiciness you can control.

Pearl River Bridge Yang Jiang Flavor Preserved Beans with Ginger 454 g/16 oz./1 lb. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MUB4W8K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_mtHAzbNRQWJWP

wow that's ungodly expensive. Its like only $2 at a asian grocery store.

chop garlic, ginger, chili and the black bean. Or just throw everything in a mini food processor and just need to pulse till u have it finely minced. i like chopping bcz by the time i finish taking the food processor out and clean all the parts, I am long done with a knife and chopping board.

i used to be hooked on the LKK brand black bean sauce till I made it fresh. it brings your steam and stired fry dishes to another level.

I know this dilemma, I had a beautiful authentic thin one, but it cracked in half, now back to my stupid anodized one. I think the carbon steel ones are the best, albeit slightly pricier & I think higher maintenance. I like the big 16" ones in this style - maybe not that exact one, but it's a good direction. Maybe this one or this one.

Also go to a restaurant supply store, instead of a home goods style store. You might be able to get away with a kitchen-style store, but I wouldn't risk it.

I won't attempt to pick one as the best, but here are some good resources:

• Madame H's Kitchen -- covers a wide variety of Chinese food. She has a book coming out in August.
  
  
• China Sichuan Food This site deals primarily, but not exclusively, with the food of Sichuan province, where the author lives.
  
  
• The Woks of Life Includes some Americanized dishes and a wide variety of more traditional Chinese cooking.
  
  
• Fuchsia Dunlop has written several excellent cookbooks and has a new one coming out in October.
  
  
• Garden Time Homemade Cuisine Most of these videos have an English-language version, or at least English subtitles. There are a lot of recipes that you won't find elsewhere, at least not in English.
  

Just bought this book a fee months ago and I LOVE it. http://www.amazon.com/Real-Food-China-Leanne-Kitchen/dp/1742705308#nav-search-keywords

I was in a bookstore and compared this one with Fushia Dunlop's recent book, and chose this one instead. At least, first. I will probably still by Dunlop's book in the future. Some of thing things I love about this book:

• regional variety.
  
• variety of dishes: cold apps,dumplings, ribs, rice, desserts, etc.
  
• realistic about ingredients but still explains that if you can get dried wood ear mushrooms, don't sub them out.
  
• the pictures are beautiful.

Check out this cookbook for easy and authentic recipes. Bonus: it also has history and background on all the recipes. I love it!
https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-South-Clouds-Recipes-Province/dp/1909487783

Chengdu is in the Sichuan region/province and Fuschia Dunlop has written a great, accessible book about Sichuan cooking: https://www.amazon.com/Land-Plenty-Treasury-Authentic-Sichuan/dp/0393051773

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Also, here's a recipe from Anthony Bourdain's Sichuan episode, contributed by Fuschia: https://explorepartsunknown.com/sichuan/recipe-pock-marked-mother-chens-bean-curd-mapo-doufu/

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Good luck!

Lord, the assumptions/priviledge that is in your post/responses...

The cuisine you're describing isn't an "old food fad" or "old food phenomenon." It's a multi-generation adaptation of a people's (the immigrant Chinese) cuisine in response to the to conditions, available ingredients, and demands of the people around them; in North America. To say that it isn't authentic, or calling it "fake crap," is condescending (and shows a lack of understanding) to the thousands of Chinese immigrants who have lived/worked/adapted/died in the U.S. and Canada for the past 200 hundred years. To think that this cuisine doesn't exist anymore (outside of of old menus) shows how sheltered/closed off you truly are. It is no greater/worse, nor is it less "authentic," than all the [regional] Chinese cuisine from China/Taiwan. It is a food style unto it's own; with it's own influences, responses, techniques and made by people who [usually] identify as Chinese.

If you want to try and know what you're talk about:

Books:

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States by Andrew Coe

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee

Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants by John Jung

Wu: Globalization of Chinese Food by David Y.H. Wu and Sidney C.H. Cheung

China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West by J.A.G. Roberts

Ethnic Regional Foodways United States: Performance Of Group Identity by Linda Keller Brown

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

American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods by Bonnie Tsui

Documentary:

Chinese Restaurants directed by Cheuk Kwan (IMDB Overview)

providing amazon links but go to an asian grocer cause it'll be half the price

"dark soy sauce" is slightly thicker than light and has a sweeter, saltier flavor. you can find it in most stores jsut look for something that says dark soy sauce https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-River-Bridge-Superior-Sauce/dp/B0001EJ4C0/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=dark+soy+sauce&qid=1558822716&s=gateway&sr=8-3

soy paste is even thicker. sometimes called "thick soy sauce" i think https://www.amazon.com/Kimlan-Soy-Paste-20-oz/dp/B003Q3GGGU/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=soy+paste&qid=1558822888&s=gateway&sr=8-4 or https://www.amazon.com/Koon-Chun-Thick-Soy-Sauce/dp/B00012OI14

not sure about the brand. i usually like koon chun or pearl river bridge. maybe try asking someone at the restaurant :)