Madame Wong's Long-Life Chinese Cookbook

I grew up in a smallish city with only one semi-authentic Chinese restaurant and a Chinese family friend who ran an Asian grocery. She recommended this cookbook to my mother, who then cooked for our family from it.I have to say that I am spoiled to the day. So many of the recipes in here are much better than what you'd get at 99% of any typical Chinese restaurant. I now live in one of the largest cities in the U.S. and it's still hard for me to find food as good as this.

I have owned this book for over 20 years. It is dog-eared, grease-stained and tattered. I really use this book and love the gentle inspiring quotes it contains. The recipes in it have "wowed" my guests and family for over twenty years. I cannot thank the authors enough for sharing this with the world. I am ordering another copy so that I can keep these treasured recipes for generations to come.

This is absolutely the best book on Chinese cooking! The recipes are easy to follow and most of the ingredients are easily found in your local supermarket. Each food section is prefaced with a short tid-bit on Chinese food history and culture. There is also regional information and a short comment at the beginning of each recipe. A glossary of cooking techniques, ingredients, and special hints is included at the front of the book and is extremely helpful. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to bring authentic Chinese food to their table.

I've been preparing authentic Chinese dishes from this book for over 20 years now. In fact, this is my second copy - I wore the original out after years of use and was lucky enough to get a second copy at a low-traffic book store. This book is so authentic, you'll have some real challenges finding and properly preparing the ingredients. But of course that is part of the fun, too. And oh what a sense of accomplishment when you serve your first Chinese feast and get rave reviews! Good Luck finding a copy - and good eating if you succeed!

My brother introduced me to Szechuan food when I was a teenager from the prairies and visited him in Toronto. He was a marvelous cook and used Madame Wong's wonderfully simple, yet totally authentic recipes to create biting hot szechuan and hunan dishes, hot and sour soup and curry. Through these recipes I became fascinated by Asian cuisine and started my own collection of cookbooks. However, none came close to the simple yet delicious recipes that Madame Wong's book held. Ten years later I visited my brother in Toronto with my husband and as we prepared to leave his home for the airport to return to Saskatchewan he pushed the book into my hand and muttered "I know all the recipes by heart...I want you to have this". It was to be his last gift to me as he tragically died one year later. Madame Wong's book is a little part of him that I still have. As I shift through the pages and see the smudges made by his fingers I think back to the times that he cooked for me and taught me to love to eat and love to cook. I have looked for many years and cannot find another copy of Madame Wong's Long-life cookbook and what a pity that is. It is truly one of life's little gems