If you are new to Chinese cooking, you should definitely buy Barbara Tropp, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. It's the book that established Tropp as sort of the Marcella Hazan or Diana Kennedy of Chinese cuisine. China Moon was a restaurant venture launched by this book. Unfortunately Tropp died young and only did these two cookbooks.
For a deeper understanding, and some idiosyncratic recipes well worth thinking about and experimenting with, look for Lin Hsiang-ru, The Art of Chinese Cooking. The recipes and testing were done by Lin Hsiang-ru, but most of the lovely graceful prose is really by Lin Yutang, the grand old man of modern Chinese letters, and it is his epicurean sensibilities that guide the book. The recipe for duck braised in wine is worth the price of admission -- which is cheap.
Ming Tsai can generally be counted on, but his main focus is Chinese-Western fusion.
Martin Yan is, in my opinion, much better seen than read. His recipes are just fine, and there are a lot of them. But what you really learn from Yan is how to cut, and to learn this you have to watch him.  |