Szechwan Style Chinese Cuisine

The Wei-Chuan Publishing Company (apparently connected with the Taiwanese Wei-Chuan Cooking School), has produced a good number of Cookbooks, mostly dealing with Chinese cookery but also coveing other Asian cuisines as well. I own over a dozen of these now and I like all of them. More importantly, I like all of these books for tmuch he same reasons and, accordingly, I have decided to do a general review that applies to each of them and then provide a few individualized comments where appropriate.Basically, the Wei-Chuan publications are authored/editored by several different persons but the format is largely the same. Each book is divided into logical sections (Meats, Vegetables, Appetizers, etc.) and nearly every recipe is accompanied by a good photograph of the result with some recipes having additional pictures of the preparation as well. This feature alone makes these books well worth the purchase. Another feature of this cuilinary series is that the books are written in China and, at least as far as the books on Chinese cuisine is concerned, the reader need have no issues with 'authenticity'. I personally also like the fact that all of the books are written in Chinese characters and then translated into English. This has has an added bonus of occasionally providing some unintentional amusement due to a particularly 'unfortunate' translation but I specially like it as I am teaching myself Mandarin and these books are excellent learning tools. I often take one on the plane with me when I travel (along with dictionaries) and can spend hours happily translating passages. It is amazing how often the actual translation of a recipe title bears little resemblance to the English title provided.Finally, I have to say that the recipes in all of these books are interesting and he ones that I have tried to reproduce have worked out well. Mainly though, I just like reading through these books for inspiration and enjoyment. The money I have spent has been repaid many times over.The We-Chuan books I currently own are as follows:Chinese Cuisine - Very good introductory section. Recipes range from simple everyday dishes to exotic banquet style delicacies.Chinese Dim Sum: Wel-Chuan Cultural and Educational Foundation - Great 'step-by-step' pictures for many recipes. Bit too much emphasis on sweet rather than savoury for my personal taste.Chinese Snacks - More of the same as in the Dim Sum book. No 'step-by-step' pictures but I actually like this book better.Chinese Appetizers and Garnishes - I haven't attempted much from this book but I am thankful for the great 'step-by-step' pictures provided.Favorite Home Dishes Chinese Cooking - As the name suggests, most of the recipes are simple and, thus, easy to prepare.Chinese Cuisine Beijing Style - Lots of Imperial Banquet dishes and many exotic foreign influenced meals that have been 'Chinesified'.Chinese Cuisine: Cantonese Style - 75 Cantonese recipes. Good recipes with nice pictures but a sparse introduction.Chinese Cuisine Shanghai Style - Typically good Wei-Chuan quality but probably my least favorite of the 'regional' Chinese cookbooks.Chinese Cuisine-Taiwanese Style - Excellent Book. Some truly unique recipes I have never seen elsewhere. I love to browse this volume.Chinese Cuisine: Szechuan Style - I love Szechuan food especially but I would still treat this book as a favorite anyway.Indian Cuisine - A nice book but be aware that the recipes Indian dishes for the Chinese palate, not Indian.Vietnamese Cuisine - Great recipes.Japanese Cuisine - Nearly as good as many books I have that are written by Japanese chefs.Korean Cuisine - My favorite of the We-Chuan non-Chinese cookbooks so far,Singaporean, Malaysian & Indonesian Cuisine - My least favorite Wei-Chuan book so far. Somewhat interesting but I don't look at it much.Finally, I have a new Wei-Chuan book on order and will continue to buy from time to time. I will review separately as I read these new books.

To the reviewers who posted about meat vs vegetarian, let me just say... I have no idea what either of you are talking about!!!This is a normal cookbook of recipes covering the basics and then some of Sichuan cooking. It has the normal amount of recipes you'd expect for meat, veggies etc.The recipes are very authentic and you may not be able to find some of the ingredients without going to the Asian Grocery store. As always, make sure to use Asian brands (not the mass market ones for non-Asian people). However, I use this cookbook all the time and it is like momma makes. They are quick and easy, particularly once you get comfortable with what you're doing.Recipes are printed into Chinese and English and can sometimes be less that perfect English translations. That said, if you are trying to find ingredients and take this book with you to a Chinese grocery store, you are sure to get exactly the right thing and not the weird poor "substitute". HANDS DOWN RECOMMEND for someone who is looking for authentic!!

This is not a book that will allow you to revisit dishes that are made at your typical Chinese restaurant. First of all this is Szechwan Cuisine - China has many different Cuisines - Mandarin, Hunan, Beijing, Cantonese, etc. This book is for someone that wants to make an authentic Szechwan dish, and not for making a bastardization that one has become accustomed to in the U.S. For authenticity, this is the book for you. For a novice, pick up a title that has the word "Beginner" in it. This is an excellent book!

Seems to be exactly the kind of recipes you'd find in an authentic sichuan restaurant. You'll find typos in some places in the book, but just imagine reading it with a Chinese accent and you'll figure it out. Ex: power=powder

I've been to Chungdu about 20 times and eaten at many, many old-school restaurants and this book's cuisine isn't even in the ball park. I cook over a dozen Sichuan recipes taught to me by people living in Sichuan...... All of these seafood/shrimp dishes, really!? Sichuan is a land locked province & about 1,200 Km from the coast. They never developed this huge seafood menu.This is the way that Cantonese people try and cook Sichuan food. Really these are just Cantonese or Hangzhou dishes with some Sichuan pepper corns thrown in. Sorry, I call total BS on this "Szechwan Style". I wish I could recommend a good Sichuan cook book, but I haven't found a good one yet (and yes, and that includes Patrica Dunlap's book). I only bought this book because some of their other "Cantonese style" cookbooks were right on the money.Edit: Tonight I went through this book AGAIN looking for some faint hint of authenticity. It's not there. As a reference for Sichuan cooking, this book is total B.S. I guess the publishing house thought they had a good thing going and just published some shite from some writer. I tossed this book into the Goodwill box. I will not keep a single recipe....what a waste of time and money

I own 2 of this book plus about a dozen other Wei Chuan cookbooks. Fine publisher. One of my favorite cookbooks. Also gave a copy of this particular book as a gift

Grate recipes, very useful.