Notes about Recipes in this book

• Rice noodles

  • chawkins on December 16, 2012

    Fairly good and easy. I made rice noodle rolls filled with char siu. Just make sure it's cooked through, so use the higher specified time. The full recipe supposedly make 10-12 sheets using an eight-inch square pan with 1/4 C of batter per pan. I halved the recipe and used the same size pan and the specified amount of batter and got 11 rolls and the first pan that was messed up because I did not cook it long enough.

• Pineapple buns

  • chawkins on August 19, 2020

    Excellent buns. However, I made a big mess making these buns. The recipe makes 24 buns, too much dough for the stand mixer, so he had you make a well with the dry ingredients and mix the wet ingredients in the well and then slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet. But my well dam broke and the wet ingredients escaped before being mixed and I added an extra quarter cup of shortening in the chaos, luckily that did not affect the end result adversely. Next time, I will mix the wet ingredients in a bowl then add the dry to the bowl. I filled the buns with the filling suggested for the variation, but I did not top the buns with sesame seeds nor flaked coconut, I topped them with the cookie dough topping from the original recipe.

• Pineapple bun custard filling

  • chawkins on August 19, 2020

    Very tasty filling for the pineapple buns. I did not include the diced dried pineapple because I was so frustrated with making the dough and spent too much time that I just did not feel like spending time dicing anymore.

• Wontons in hot-and-sour chili sauce

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    Win! And so nice to have a recipe intended for boiling instead of fried. I think I’ll add some extra heat to the sauce next time.

• Hot-and-sour egg flower soup

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This is one of the recipes we keep returning to. My husband and I actually eat this soup as a meal with rice and cucumber pickles on the side.

• Dry-fried green beans

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This is pretty wonderful. I hate using that much oil though so I go in batches with as little oil as I can manage.

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This is just wonderful. Be real about it if you want to trade out a veg that’s not to your preference, but try to make it as specified. The balance of flavors and textures is special.

• Spicy eggplant

  • chawkins on August 31, 2013

    This is perfect for my husband who has an aversion to vinegar and most Asian eggplant recipes use some sort of vinegar, this one uses lemon juice. I used home grown Chinese long white eggplant, did not have any plum sauce, so used the same amount of apricot jam instead and one and a half serrano chiles for the jalapenos. The sauce was excellent but lacked heat, the chiles I used did not have much punch.

• Hakka shrimp-stuffed peppers and eggplant

  • chawkins on July 30, 2025

    Made this with pork rather than cod and used all eggplants instead of a mix of eggplants and peppers. Normally, when I made this dish without a recipe, I would return the cooked eggplant sandwiches to the sauce and braised them in the sauce so the eggplant would take on the flavor of the black bean sauce, But MY had you just poured the sauce on the sandwiches and you could that the sweetness of the garden fresh eggplants and I enjoyed that a lot.

• Buddha's feast

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This is just wonderful. Be real about it if you want to trade out a veg that’s not to your preference, but try to make it as specified. The balance of flavors and textures is special.

• Seafood-stuffed fuzzy melon

  • chawkins on November 06, 2013

    Pretty good version of this dish. I was leery of the amount of water added to the ground pork/shrimp mixture, it was quite loose, but it gave the cooked mixture a much better texture, fluffier not as dense as it would have been without the water.

• Triple-egg custard with minced pork

  • chawkins on October 06, 2014

    Great comfort food. I did not discard the salty egg white. I added it to the egg and water mixture and skipped the 1/4 tsp of salt, added a tablespoon or so more water; worked out well.

• Hakka-style stuffed tofu

  • chawkins on March 22, 2021

    These were pretty good. The water chestnuts added texture to the stuffing and the sauce has a slight kick to it with the garlic chile sauce. My package of tofu was 19 oz. so I doubled the amount of filling and had a little leftover. I did not dig a hole in the tofu and stuffed the hole. I simply dusted the top of the tofu cubes with cornstarch and spread a layer of the filling on top and had no problem with any of them falling off during the whole cooking process.

• Steamed whole fish with ginger and green onions

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    If you haven’t had Chinese style whole steamed fish, this is a good guide for first timers. You can be flexible with the type of preserved vegetables you use, but don’t stray too far!

• Oven-baked salmon in spicy chili-bean sauce

  • chawkins on July 30, 2018

    Very easy recipe once you get the sauce ingredients prepped. I cooked the salmon to the longer amount of time asked for because I don't like my salmon rare, it was cooked to my perfection, flaky and moist. the sauce is slightly sweet and not at all spicy. Very nice dish.

• Pepper seared scallops

  • chawkins on March 07, 2020

    I only made the scallops, did not make the vegetables with the sauce, The pepper mix did not overpower, the sweetness of the scallops came thru and the timing was perfect, scallops were tender and juicy. I served them on a bed of garlic sauteed spinach that needed to be used.

• Black bean sauce clams with basil

  • chawkins on August 09, 2016

    The addition of basil make this different from most other clams in black bean sauce recipe and it was a worthy addition, the basil brought freshness and fragrance to the dish, I used Thai basil. Chile sauce, I used sambal Oelek, was also used in the sauce to add a little bit of kick to the dish.

• Pepper-salt squid in lettuce cups

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    So good! If you clean the squid yourself, be thorough! Your efforts will be rewarded!

• Steamed whole lobster with dried tangerine peel

  • chawkins on August 16, 2019

    Steaming brought out the inherent sweetness of the lobster meat and the bean threads were great absorbing all the seasoning sauce and the lobster juice. The presentation was impressive but did not facilitate easy consumption especially when served to be shared as in a typical Chinese meal. Next time, I will forgo the pretty presentation and just chop up the lobster into pieces before steaming as that is how most Chinese lobster dishes are served.

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    The only thing that makes me sad about this recipe is that with the expense of lobster I can’t have it more often. T-T

• Wok-braised lobster tails in creamy rum sauce

  • chawkins on June 06, 2025

    This was delicious. My lobster tails were just between 4 to 5 ounces each, so I cut the cook time to half and the cook of the lobster tails were perfect. I also halved the recipe for the sauce. The sauce was a bit thinner than I like but that was my own fault, I had no evaporated milk, so just used whole milk, in hind sight, I should have used cream which I also had in the fridge.

• Black bean-garlic chicken

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    Great dish! Definitely more standard fare, but an great recipe to keep tabs on if for when you open up some salted black beans!

• Sizzling chicken with shallots

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    Great recipe! Easily flexible on the veg!

• Five-flavor chicken and eggplant

  • chawkins on September 02, 2022

    Very good. I even used real black vinegar rather than lemon juice and no complaint from husband who dislikes all vinegars. Since I was making another dish with ground pork, I cut the chicken thighs in chunks rather than minced them. Used samba oelek for the Thai garlic chili sauce.

• Succulent steamed chicken with ginger-soy dipping sauce

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This style of chicken dish is in my top 5 favorite ways to eat chicken. It’s beautiful and worth figuring out the setup to get it a proper gentle steam.

• Chinatown deli char siu

  • chawkins on April 27, 2015

    This will be my go-to for char siu from now on. They were moist and delicious, sweet but not overly so. They even looked good, glistening with a bit of char. He gave you the option of using sesame paste or fermented bean curd as one of the marinade ingredients, I used the fermented bean curd this time, will try the sesame past on my next attempt.

• Broccoli beef

  • Rinshin on April 05, 2020

    Hit the spot. Added sweet peppers as well. Next time I would double the amount of broccoli and parboil for 1 min instead of 2 esp if done ahead of time. Other than that, the sauce was very balanced and tasty. I would certainly make this again when looking for quick stir-fry. Five star recipe if more broccoli was added for us.

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 03, 2026

    When we buy broccoli at the farmers market this is almost always the first thing I want to make!

• Mongolian beef

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    No substitutes on sauce!!!!

• Tomato beef

  • chawkins on August 02, 2021

    Very tasty, the sauce was a tad sweet, probably from the ketchup. I skipped the mushrooms because I did not have any. Would have been perfect if served over rice, but I served it over noodle which was suggested as an alternative, it was difficult to pick up the sliced celery and diced bell pepper with the noodles, it would have been better to have them julienned.

• Emperor's lamb

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    Pulled this off with ground lamb. I’d love to try it properly, but it’s already a 5 star recipe with my low class decision!

• Something for everyone fried rice

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    This is a pinnacle of recipe flexibility. Incredible blank canvas for refrigerator garbage nights!

• Fujian fancy fried rice

  • chawkins on March 01, 2018

    It sounded weird, gravy over fried rice, but I had faith in Martin Yan, his recipe has yet to disappoint me. This was very good, very comforting, like a slightly soupy rice. I used large shrimp instead of medium, a whole boneless skinless chicken thigh which was three times of the chicken he asked for, and since I increased those ingredients, I doubled the amount of bay scallops as well. Each of these were marinated separately, so I increased the marinade accordingly. Since all the marinade includes cornstarch, I added about half a cup of water to the sauce. I also used 8 stalks of asparagus because I had no use for 3 stalks of asparagus and I skipped the plum tomato because I did not have any.

• Minted fried rice

  • celeste_8ryupw on March 04, 2026

    Not for everyone, but kind of amazing when you match it with lamb. Worth a go!

• Cantonese clay pot rice

  • chawkins on February 06, 2013

    Instead of the boneless skinless chicken breasts, I used about 2 lbs of bone-in skin-on sliced drumsticks. I skipped the preserved pork and doubled up on the Chinese sausage. The rice was a tad mushy for my taste but that was probably because I introduced extra water when I rinsed the rice before cooking. Should have either reduced the chicken broth added or baked uncovered for the last few minutes of the cooking time.

• Shanghai noodles with pork and bok choy

  • chawkins on November 08, 2015

    This is okay. I upped the protein and fiber to carbohydrate ratio by using 10 oz of pork instead of 4 oz, 18 baby bok choy instead of 8. I doubled the marinade for the pork but kept everything the same and skipped the optional preserved vegetables.

• Jia jiang mein

  • chawkins on March 31, 2015

    Very easy and very good, with just enough spiciness and the perfect amount of sauce to dress all the noodles. I halved the recipe and it was enough to serve two people as a main dish. I would double the amount of pork and vegetables next time if I were to serve this as a main dish again, just a personal preference to lower the carbohydrate intake.

• Golden baked buns

  • chawkins on May 14, 2012

    I was skeptic about these buns, as he did not have a second rise for the dough, but they turned out very well. I made them with the chicken-mushroom filling.

• Chicken-mushroom filling

  • chawkins on May 14, 2012

    Very tasty and the amount specified is exactly right for 15 buns.