Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai

I purchased this cookbook last year. I am a huge fan of preparing asian cuisines and many european as well, enjoying the creative outlet it provides me, so this book appealed to my exploritive cooking nature.It is, I have found, easy to follow and very unique in its combinations. I have had only one bad turn out on a recipe, which I will blame on too much "help" from my dinner guests. Word to the wise, this is not some mainstay anchor for your basic cookbook collection. this book was meant for people who, like me, enjoy cooking for the creation, because this book is exactly what it purports to be, east meets west cuisine. some of the over the top recipes this book has that I have loved are: the Thai hot and sour soap /w shrimp toast, smoked salmon and jicama maki sushi, the ahi tuna parfait with two caviars, savory braised oxtail, and crispy scallops with carrot-star anise syrup. the desserts are fantastic too. to some of the naysayers, yes some of the ingredients are not something that you may use regularly, but if you cook, you can find uses for the leftovers. and I live in the middle of north dakota, if I can find the called for ingredients, anyone can. I hope that this book brings as much joy to your cooking as it has to mine.

I am a collector of cookbooks, both for reading and culinary pleasure, and found this one to be fabulous on both counts. I have tried several of the recipes (Tsai's mother's potstickers are to die for!) and have found them generally user friendly. I found the glossary of ingredients informative and educational and would highly recommend the book to anyone broadening their cooking horizons.

I was getting tired of my same old style of cooking and this book really helped me to shake things up. I have historically avoided Asian cuisine, deeming it too hard and complex, but the recipes in this book are so visually appealing and exciting that I was compelled to plunge right in. The dishes I've tried so far have been fantastic. They are also easily adaptable to shortcuts if you don't want to take the time or energy to execute the entire recipe.

easy to follow recipes, great results. The food is really different; I had a dinner party for a few friends and it was easier than usual and my guests raved about the food.

Even though I'm a fairly good cook, I've really not had too much luck with making my own Chinese and other Asian dishes, that is, until I got the Blue Ginger Cookbook. The dishes I've made so far have been outstanding and fairly easy. The only way you'd have a problem with any of these dishes is if you don't have access to a good asian market like I do. But since there are many mail order and online venues to obtain these ingredients, it should be no problem. Ming provides a wonderful glossary that explains in detail, many of the ingredients and what to substitute for them if you can't find what you're looking for. Another great thing about this book is that the dishes are not limited to Chinese, but include many other Asian dishes (with a certain Western influence i.e.East Meets West). I recommend this book to other cooks like me who love Chinese and other Asian cuisine, but, also like me, have never been able to figure out the dishes on your own. Bon Appetit!