Big Jimmy's Kum Kau Chinese Take Out

family grew up owning a Chinese rest, but no longer. Great way to show my 2yr old son how I grew up and what his grandfather used to do. Although no longer with us, I can show my son what it was like working and watching my Dad in a Chinese kitchen. My son loves it when I read this to him!

I bought this book because I had read another book illustrated by Ted Lewin and found him to be a remarkable artist. This book captures the sights and sounds of New York City; the reader will feel he or she is right in the kitchen with the steaming woks. Most importantly, both the adult reader and the child listening (or reading on the second to third grade level) will be interested. And if your child likes books reread many times, this book will hold up. Among other things, there are so many details and subtleties in the artwork that the adult will be looking at every nook and cranny of the pictures. I think Ted Lewin as as good an artist as Normal Rockwell.

I think this a wonderful book and a up close view of what it's like in the kitchen of a Chinese take out restaurant! The book starts out on a very early Saturday morning as the owner's son comes downstairs into the back room of the restaurant as the vegetables are arriving for the day. The cooks he calls his "Uncles" are getting the woks ready and begin chopping up the chicken, pork butt, spareribs, flank steak, vegetables, and getting the noodles and rice ready for the day. Then there is folding menus until the metal shutters open at 11 am. The boys whole family works in the restaurant even his Mother & Aunt who work the counter and the phones really fast and sometime at the same time! The author also illustrates this beautiful book! The pictures seem s real, just like the photos he took and then drew the photos from these photos. The restaurants menu is on the inside and back page of the book and also shows the author with his take out bag! This is a fantastic book, and even more so since it's based on a real Chinese restaurant Kum kau pronounced "Gum Kow" which in Chinese means golden globe in New York and I hope one day when our family visits New York that we can visit and get some food there! All the while knowing how much work went into our food! It's a wonderful look inside a restaurant kitchen, especially since we order it ... and it magically appears! The only thing that would make this book better would be if this family was actually real and not fictional!

The award winning children's book illustrator loves to eat Buddha's Delight at the Kum Kau take out chinese restaurant in Brooklyn's Fort Greene/Myrtle Street neighborhood. Based on photos he took and sketches, he has created extremely realistic watercolors (worthy of a gallery show) that capture a day in the life of the take out restaurant through the eyes of the fictional son of the restaurant's owners. The inside front and back covers, alone, are worth buying the book for. They consist of the recreated takeout menus from the restaurant (with reasonable prices). The book opens with a young boy waking up on a Saturday to help out at the restaurant. As the shutters are still closed on the take out shop, the cooks receive deliveries, chop and dice, and chop some more. Menus get folded, water gets boiled, woks get washed. Customers arrive, and the whole family, cousins and uncles included, all help out. Interesting neighbors pop in, including a fire truck and its engine company crew, all ordering various favorite dishes. Who knew so much work went into the preparation of your child's take out Moo Goo Gai Pan? Later, it is evening, the neon lights comes on, and it's time for the family to order their own dinner for takeout and delivery... What will it be?? Read and find out. This is a must read for parents and their kids as they wait for their dinner to be delivered