Good Grape Wine Company

Go to any of these, and order Hong Kong noodles. Go another day and order Singapore noodles. There's a high chance you will get the same thing. I asked the chef (A cantonese) at a RedHill shop why the Hong Kong mee is called Singapore noodles and he told me that the noodles were being cooked in Singapore, so why call it HongKong noodles?

The cantonese took the foods from the different cultures they met and made it their own. They moved to other countries and it becomes associated with the new country. Case in point being Hainanese chicken rice, made famous in Singapore with roots in Hainan. Curry was just another spice they incorporated into their repertoire. Also, by using the words Madras Curry Powder, it would be more easily understood by Western readers. What if they had used the red African curry powder also available in USA?

Migration of humans and food have happened throughout history, some recorded and some not. Take for example fish sauce originating from China and made famous by the Thais. Another would be Catherine De Medici from Italy kicking off French cuisine like we know it today by introducing techniques and foods such as truffles and quenelles to the French. The former was unrecorded, but the latter was.

So who's to say Singapore noodles is not a cantonese dish? Sure as heck all the chefs here that cook them are cantonese. Maybe it was made famous here. Let the people in HongKong throw their jokes. Between Hong Kong noodles and Singapore noodles, which one appears in cookbooks more and is more likely to be recognized by westerners (Eileen Yin Fei Lo's Chinese Kitchen book has Singapore noodles too)?

I'd say Singapore got the last laugh, because we stole their recipe and made it ours. And yes, I've tasted fish sauce in some Singapore noodles too. Does that make it any less authentic?

Who cares, as long as it tastes good right?


The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes   August 14, 2002
 14 out of 43 found this review helpful

I am a Chineses food lover. I have tried several recipes in this book. They are not impressed me. I would prefer The Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo because her recipes taste closer to some of the best Chinese Cooking we have tried.


Good Chinese cooking book   July 22, 2002
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

My wife and I came from Hong Kong a LONG time ago and we miss a lot of the Chinese dishes. We found most of them in this book and we had been using it quite often. The instruction is clear and dishes are relatively easy to make. However, I would like to see more pictures (of the final product and the preperation steps) in the next edition. We like the book so much that we purchased multiple copies as gifts to friends.

Highly recommended. If there are more pictures, I will give it a 5.


Organization style is a fault for me   May 10, 2002
 11 out of 21 found this review helpful

Though the recipes are authentic and described by Chinese characters, pronounciation, and English descriptions, the organization of the recipes makes it difficult for a reader to build a menu or track down a favorite recipe.

The author has sorted dishes by techniques/rice/produce, those for celebrations, and those for their traditional healing properties.

Unfortunately these categories aren't helpful if you wanted to browse say for a chicken dish. Your only recourse is to turn to the index and look up chicken and hop to and fro from section to section as chicken recipes (along with others) are strewn about the different sections of the book.

Check out the table of contents and you'll get a sense of what I mean.

(Last point: I'm not sure if I'd agree with the accuracy of the Cantonese pronounciations of the dishes)


Good Tips   April 8, 2002
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is one of the few cookery books which I have enjoyed reading, as opposed to referring. I benefitted from the many tips that were woven into her story telling and the description of her dishes. For example, I now choose the more flavoured end-parts when buying a winter-melon (not forgetting to prefer those with more white powder on the melon surface too). I no longer throw away the water used to soak dried mushrooms, scallops & oysters as I could use it to add flavour to soup. I will remember to start with low fire when using a sand-pot and gradually increase to high if needed - not high straightaway - so as to avoid the sudden temperature changes that would crack and ruin the pot. Although it was obvious physics, I cannot help laughing at myself for not seeing, on my own, the simple logic of Grace's father's method of using a bowl to ensure equal parts of egg and water for the Steamed Egg Custard.

However, this book is written, I opine, for the benefit of experienced cooks, esp Chinese and Cantonese, who can picture the dishes from their names - be it English, Chinese or Cantonese. If you have limited experience in Cantonese cooking, little exposure to Cantonese dishes, or if you are not a Chinese or a Cantonese, think again before buying this book. But if you have other Chinese cookbooks with pictures to give you an impression of the end-state of the dishes in Grace's book, then this book will be suitable for you, especially her tips. Otherwise, this book may not be as beneficial although the tips still are.

Just one minor point. Although not a Cantonese, I know enough to note that some of the romanised Cantonese are inaccurate. The Cantonese for duck, such as in roasted duck, is romanised as "Op" which is a far cry from "ngap" or "aap" which is how the Cantonese pronounce it in their dialect.