Title: Chinese-ish

Authors: Rosheen Kaul & Joanna Hu

Genre: Cookbook

Publisher: Murdoch Books

Publication Date: 4th August 2022

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

Modern, unconventional, innovative, vibrant, tasty, colourful and incredibly delicious―this is a cookbook from two authors who consider themselves wonderfully Chinese-ish. Perfect for fans of Kwoklyn Wan, The Dumpling Sisters, Jeremy Pang and Ching-He Huand.

Chinese-ish celebrates the confident blending of culture and identity through food: take what you love and reject what doesn’t work for you.As immigrants with Chinese heritage who both moved to Australia as children, Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu spent their formative years living between (at least) two cultures and wondering how they fitted in. Food was a huge part of this journey – should they cling to the traditional comfort of their parents’ varied culinary heritage, attempt to assimilate wholly by learning to love shepherd’s pie, or forge a new path where flavour and the freedom to choose trumped authenticity? They went with option three.

In these pages you’ll find a bounty of inauthentic Chinese-influenced dishes from all over Southeast Asia, including the best rice and noodle dishes, wontons and dumplings and classic Chinese mains.There are also plenty of tips and shortcuts to demystify any tricky-sounding techniques, and reassuring advice on unfamiliar ingredients and where to find them.

Some of the mouth-watering recipes include:

• Chicken congee
• Burnt spring onion noodles
• Roast duck noodle soup
• Wontons three ways
• Char kway teow
• Egg fried rice
• Crispy prawn balls
• Beijing hot chicken
• Egg custard tarts
• Pumpkin buns

Review:

I’m a big fan of Chinese food but unfortunately here in Edinburgh there’s not many good Chinese restaurants so the idea of making some myself really appealed to me and I jumped at the chance to try these fabulous sounding recipes! I also love the concept of Chinese-ish, the recipes are all enticing and although there are plenty of ingredients I didn’t know the first thing about, the book is incredibly helpful in that department with plenty of advice on what the more unfamiliar ingredients are and where to find them! I did have to order some online as my local Waitrose didn’t have everything I needed but the ingredients pop up repeatedly in lots of the recipes which means you can use them again and again!

The recipes I’ve tried so far are the Smashed Cucumber Salad and the Chongquing Hot and Sour Noodles both of which were a great success if I do say so myself! I’ve included a photo of my attempt at the noodle dish above! This is a book I can see myself coming back to again and again whenever I want to try something new. It’s also a gorgeously put together book with witty anecdotes and absolutely stunning illustrations! If you like Chinese food with a slightly inauthentic twist then I would highly recommend Chinese-ish!

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Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon