The Woks of Life

Informationen zum Autor Judy, Bill, Sarah, and Kaitlin Leung Klappentext JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • IACP AWARD FINALIST • PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW • The Woks of Life did something miraculous: It reconnected me to my love of Chinese food and showed me how simple it is to make my favorite dishes myself.KEVIN KWAN, author of Crazy Rich Asians The family behind the acclaimed blog The Woks of Life shares 100 of their favorite home-cooked and restaurant-style Chinese recipes in a very special book (J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab and The Wok ) ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, Simply Recipes ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Food & Wine, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Delish, Epicurious This is the story of a family as told through food. Judy, the mom, speaks to traditional Chinese dishes and cultural backstory. Bill, the dad, worked in his family's Chinese restaurants and will walk you through how to make a glorious Cantonese Roast Duck. Daughters Sarah and Kaitlin have your vegetable-forward and one-dish recipes coveredput them all together and you have the first cookbook from the funny and poignant family behind the popular blog The Woks of Life . In addition to recipes for Mini Char Siu Bao, Spicy Beef Biang Biang Noodles, Cantonese Pork Belly Fried Rice, and Salt-and-Pepper Fried Oyster Mushrooms, there are also helpful tips and tricks throughout, including an elaborate rundown of the Chinese pantry, explanations of essential tools (including the all-important wok), and insight on game-changing Chinese cooking secrets like how to velvet meat to make it extra tender and juicy. Whether you're new to Chinese cooking or if your pantry is always stocked with bean paste and chili oil, you'll find lots of inspiration and trustworthy recipes that will become a part of your family story, too. Leseprobe Introduction: Meet the Family Stuck with Each Other Some say that between your previous life and the next life, you choose your family. Others say that you stay with the same people from lifetime to lifetimein the same boat, but perhaps in slightly different seats. In our family, it certainly feels like this isn't our first rodeo. Bill and Judy meet, marry, and have daughters Sarah and Kaitlineach personality seemingly carved in stone and each more strong willed than the last. While most people find it easier to forge their own path in the world at least an arm's length from their family, we've found ourselves doing just the opposite. Despite our aforementioned strong-willed personalities, we're together a lot , spending inordinate amounts of time deliberating shrimp placement and the correct temperature for chili oil. It's all in the name of The Woks of Life , a food blog we started in 2013 to document our family's history through recipessome from old-world Shanghai, others from a Chinese restaurant kitchen in the Catskills. Many were inspired by the streets of Flushing, Queens, and countless more were dreamt up in our home kitchen in a New Jersey suburb. Through food, we've preserved collective decades of experience, spanning parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, and friends. When someone asks us how we manage to pull it off, you can see in their eyes the mental flash of their own family dynamic, usually followed by a slow head shake of utter disbelief that anyone could take on such an endeavor with their parents, siblings, or kids. Recording your family's heritage and history can be daunting. A few rough edges are inevitableand trust us, we've had our fair share. But we also choose to work together in the same way that we might have chosen our family in the cosmic before. <...

Autorentext

Judy, Bill, Sarah, and Kaitlin Leung

Klappentext

**JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • IACP AWARD FINALIST • PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW • “The Woks of Life did something miraculous: It reconnected me to my love of Chinese food and showed me how simple it is to make my favorite dishes myself.”—KEVIN KWAN, author of Crazy Rich Asians

The family behind the acclaimed blog The Woks of Life shares 100 of their favorite home-cooked and restaurant-style Chinese recipes in ”a very special book” (J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab and The Wok)

ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, Simply Recipes
ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Food & Wine, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Delish, Epicurious

This is the story of a family as told through food. Judy, the mom, speaks to traditional Chinese dishes and cultural backstory. Bill, the dad, worked in his family’s Chinese restaurants and will walk you through how to make a glorious Cantonese Roast Duck. Daughters Sarah and Kaitlin have your vegetable-forward and one-dish recipes covered—put them all together and you have the first cookbook from the funny and poignant family behind the popular blog The Woks of Life.

In addition to recipes for Mini Char Siu Bao, Spicy Beef Biang Biang Noodles, Cantonese Pork Belly Fried Rice, and Salt-and-Pepper Fried Oyster Mushrooms, there are also helpful tips and tricks throughout, including an elaborate rundown of the Chinese pantry, explanations of essential tools (including the all-important wok), and insight on game-changing Chinese cooking secrets like how to “velvet” meat to make it extra tender and juicy.

Whether you’re new to Chinese cooking or if your pantry is always stocked with bean paste and chili oil, you’ll find lots of inspiration and trustworthy recipes that will become a part of your family story, too.

Leseprobe
Introduction: Meet the Family

Stuck with Each Other
Some say that between your previous life and the next life, you choose your family. Others say that you stay with the same people from lifetime to lifetime in the same boat, but perhaps in slightly different seats.

In our family, it certainly feels like this isn t our first rodeo. Bill and Judy meet, marry, and have daughters Sarah and Kaitlin each personality seemingly carved in stone and each more strong willed than the last.

While most people find it easier to forge their own path in the world at least an arm s length from their family, we ve found ourselves doing just the opposite. Despite our aforementioned strong-willed personalities, we re together a lot, spending inordinate amounts of time deliberating shrimp placement and the correct temperature for chili oil. It s all in the name of The Woks of Life, a food blog we started in 2013 to document our family s history through recipes some from old-world Shanghai, others from a Chinese restaurant kitchen in the Catskills. Many were inspired by the streets of Flushing, Queens, and countless more were dreamt up in our home kitchen in a New Jersey suburb. Through food, we ve preserved collective decades of experience, spanning parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, and friends.

When someone asks us how we manage to pull it off, you can see in their eyes the mental flash of their own family dynamic, usually followed by a slow head shake of utter disbelief that anyone could take on such an endeavor with their parents, siblings, or kids. Recording your family s heritage and history can be daunting. A few rough edges are inevitable and trust us, we ve had our fair share. But we also choose to work together in the same way that we might have chosen our family in the cosmic before.

Growing up, Judy would ask Sarah and Kaitlin: Are you glad you chose us as your parents? The answer is here, in this book, and also on The Woks of Life.

We re all here. For our personal histories, for the web of memories and pathwa…