Book Description
When Grace Young was a child, her father instilled in her a lasting appreciation of wok hay, the highly prized but elusive taste that food achieves when properly stir-fried in a wok. As an adult, Young aspired to create that taste in her own kitchen. Her quest to master wok cooking led her throughout the United States, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Along with award-winning photographer Alan Richardson, Young sought the advice of home cooks, professional chefs, and esteemed culinary teachers like Cecilia Chiang, Florence Lin, and Ken Hom. Their instructions, stories, and recipes, gathered in this richly designed and illustrated volume, offer not only expert lessons in the art of wok cooking, but also capture a beautiful and timeless way of life.
With its emphasis on cooking with all the senses, The Breath of a Wok brings the techniques and flavors of old-world wok cooking into today's kitchen, enabling anyone to stir-fry with wok hay. IACP award-winner Young details the fundamentals of selecting, seasoning, and caring for a wok, as well as the range of the wok's uses; this surprisingly inexpensive utensil serves as the ultimate multipurpose kitchen tool. The 125 recipes are a testament to the versatility of the wok, with stir-fried, smoked, pan-fried, braised, boiled, poached, steamed, and deep-fried dishes that include not only the classics of wok cooking, like Kung Pao Chicken and Moo Shoo Pork, but also unusual dishes like Sizzling Pepper and Salt Shrimp, Three Teacup Chicken, and Scallion and Ginger Lo Mein. Young's elegant prose and Richardson's extraordinary photographs create a unique and unforgettable picture of artisan wok makers in mainland China, street markets in Hong Kong, and a "wok-a-thon" in which Young's family of aunties, uncles, and cousins cooks together in a lively exchange of recipes and stories. A visit with author Amy Tan also becomes a family event when Tan and her sisters prepare New Year's dumplings. Additionally, there are menus for family-style meals and for Chinese New Year festivities, an illustrated glossary, and a source guide to purchasing ingredients, woks, and accessories.
Written with the intimacy of a memoir and the immediacy of a travelogue, this recipe-rich volume is a celebration of cultural and culinary delights.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting, but occasionally disappointing and annoying.......2007-10-01
I purchased this book with high hopes - I'd read the glowing reviews on Amazon, plunked down my hard earned money, and shortly after it arrived I dove in head first.
As did the author of "American Pie" (who travelled extensively in a search for sublime pizza), the authoress of this book traveled to culinary destinations in San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, in search of Wok stores, wok makers, and elite Chinese chefs - in search of wok lore, and recipes.
The authoress then provides the reader with a helpful overview of the 3 basic types of wok (twin loop-handle Cantonese, northern-style with one handle, and the ubiquitous western-style flat-bottom wok), the best materials to buy them in (cast iron, or hand-hammered high-carbon steel), the various ways they're commonly seasoned, and how to maintain and care for them. Then she moves on to her recipe section.
Strengths ? In no particular order:
a) FRONT: The first 56 pages of this book, covering wok manufacture, selection, seasoning, and care, are very helpful and interesting. That was the material I actually purchased the book for.
b) RECIPES: Some of the recipes included appear well crafted and very tasty - I'm actually looking forward to trying several.
c) HEADNOTES: To me, a recipe is a participatory story, followed by a meal ... it's an act of communion with both the author, the more distant sources of the recipe, and with life itself. Depending on your introspectiveness and philosophical outlook, cooking can be a very deep experience. Accordingly, I'm always grateful when authors go to the trouble to include head notes for their recipes. I *want* to hear about a recipe's origins, and commentary on what makes it special, memorable or unique to the author, and I really miss that sort of thing when authors don't bother to include it. In this case, the author generally does an above average job.
d) REAR: The section in the rear, listing some companies that specialize in wok equipment, custom stoves, wok burners, and even culinary training, are helpful, although they're apt to become quickly dated. This book actually has a pretty decent index in the back - in the body of the book, she commits the sin of prefixing her recipe names with the names of the people they came from in, and she also fails to provide a list of recipes, but the index in the back is fairly complete, and she wisely reverses the ordering of named recipes (moving the name to the end, and leaving the key ingredient up front). The font used for the indes is too small, but I've seen worse.
Weaknesses ? Unfortunately, I have quite a few:
1) RECIPES: There's only 125 recipes in here, which is pretty threadbare for a book retailing for (as of this writing) $35 USD. Some look very good, but more than a few look decidedly mediocre.
* For example (and I know it's bad form to criticize someone's mother's recipe, so please forgive me in advance): "Mama's Fuzzy Melon with Dried Scallops". I'm sure it tastes wonderful, and the dish looks appetizing (if sized a bit small) - but the recipe contains some decidedly impractical steps. Few people are likely to spend 20 minutes simmering a one (1) oz piece of Smithfield ham, and then spend another 20 minutes steaming the blasted thing, before mincing it as the garnish. I'm sorry, but I am NOT going to futz around for 40 minutes on a 1 oz piece of ham that I could demolish with a single bite. Isn't going to happen. If I were to make that recipe, I'd more than likely replace the ham with some minced dried sausage or smoked bacon, either of which require oh, maybe a few brief moments of sautéing before being simmered with the rest of the dish.
* Another example is "Chef Danny Chan's Steamed Salmon with Lemon" (p.202). I dont know what planet the author lives on, but here on Earth, I'd be hard pressed to call adding lemon to steamed salmon as "innovative". People dont buy cookbooks to learn such unimaginative fare. The author doesnt even bother to specify whether the fillet is skinless and de-pinned or not ...but given the weak level (or rather, complete lack of) butchery skills elsewhere in this book, it's a safe bet that the fillet called for is indeed boneless and skinless ... which is a shame, because classic Chinese coastal cuisine includes things like steamed fish heads and fish-head stew. Proud though the author claims to be of her Chinese heritage, my impression of of her (limited though it is to this book alone) is that she's not a very adventerous eater ... no bones, no organ meants, heck I'm not even convinced she knows how to separate a supermarket chicken leg into a thigh and a drumstick, much less break down a whole chicken.
2) WASTE: Peasant cuisine, particularly Asian cuisine, is notorious in it's adherence to frugality - nothing gets wasted. Heads, feet, and innards all get routinely used/eaten, no bones escape unsimmered, and people even fuel their home hearths with saved rice stalks ... and stack food in tall towers of steamer baskets to conserve fuel, etc. The author overviews all this, while waxing poetic, and at length ... and then, inexplicably, she includes some absurdly wasteful (and obviously non-authentic) recipes without batting an eye. For example: her recipe for chicken broth (p.195) calls for boiling a 4 lb chicken in water with a few slices of ginger ... and then she throws out the entire chicken and lists the yield as only 2 quarts of broth. Huh ?! I'm sorry, but that recipe is more than a little incompetent. Now, a recipe calling instead for 4 lbs of chicken bones & wing tips would be cheaper, less wasteful, yield better tasting results, and several times the amount of stock. Another inexplicably wasteful recipe that stuck out in my mind was one on p.210 that calls for using 3 cups of oil to fry 8 spring rolls ... and then the oil is promptly discarded, without any mention or discussion about filtering, storing and reusing (or recycling). In fact, all of her fried recipes end the same way - with discarding copious amounts of oil after a single use.
3) SUPERSTITIOUS & VACUOUS CLAIMS: Some of the author's culinary tips are, at times, a bit superstitious ... and at other times, incorrect.
* Rice Rinse Water: She tells her readers to save their rice rinsing water because it has {cue dramatic lighting} "special powers for cleaning one's wok". Sorry, but it's almost certain that that particular custom is a blindly parroted leftover from earlier pre-indoor-plumbing times when people had to laboriously cart their household water from streams, rivers or the local communal well ... they probably (and wisely) wanted to same themselves the extra trip by reusing water that wasn't too dirty. It has no special magical cleansing properties. Now, theoretically, doing something like that *might* eventually improve the patina of one's wok slightly, but I truly doubt it's worth the trouble.
* The author asserts, on pg 211, that woks are better at deep frying than a true deep fryer. Uhm, no. Deep fryers generally have a larger capacity, and (assuming equal heating capacity) much better heat recovery because of the volume of oil (and the thickness of the cast iron, if done stove-top). The author crows about how woks use less oil ... well guess what, less oil means less heat recovery. Low heat recovery means the oils cools quickly when you drop in the food, and food absorbs much more oil at lower temperatures ... resulting in oily food. Woks are, by definition, highly responsive to heat changes ... which is diametrically the opposite of what you want for frying, where heat retention and even heat distribution, is KING. So, no offense to the author, but woks are decidedly below average at frying - the only exception to that are large commercial woks with lots of oil and lots of firepower (as well as ample skill riding the heat) ... and those are not practical for home use. As long as I'm on the subject, the author seems to have a weak grasp of frying temperatures. She calls for 325F for frying spring rolls ... she doesn't bother telling the readers what some of the other classic frying temperatures are, like 350 for fries, or 380 for flash-fried calamari, etc. If you fry either of those at the 325 the author seems to indicate for everything, you'll get a greasy mess.
* In addition to frying, the author waxes poetic, and at length, about how woks are ideally suited to virtually every type of cooking: smoking, pan-frying, braising, boiling, poaching, steaming, stir-frying. etc. Sorry to break the news, but woks are NOT ideal several of those tasks. It's ideal for stir frying, and (if you have a strong heat source and proper steamer inserts) it's excellent for steaming ... but woks are decidedly average (at best) in most of the other areas. A wok cannot match a BBQ for smoking, nor can it match a heavy cast iron pan for pan frying, nor can it match a Dutch oven for braising (I'd like to see the author attempt a "Yankee pot" roast in a wok ... that would be amusing). Make no mistake - with adequate skill, a wok is a wonderful all-purpose all-in-one pan, but the thing to remember is that while it can do many things, it only does a few of them exceedingly well ... and skill can only compensate for that to a point.
* Dont even get me started on the knee-jerk silliness of seasoning a wok with chinese chives. She goes on about that for pages and pages. I don't buy it.
4) Photo/Recipe Mismatch: A recurring pet peeve of mine, with many cookbooks, is that the recipe photos frequently don't accurately reflect the recipes they're supposed to illustrate.
* For example: "Uncle Lang's Three Teacup Chicken (p.183)" - the photo shows a beautifully fried whole small head-on chicken. Unfortunately, the authoress' version of the recipe lamely calls for using split breasts (boring !) or whole legs instead. It really irritates me when authors aim low and/or underestimate their readers like that. I wanted to make the version in the photo, and shame on the authoress for not attempting the same.
* Another example is "Ray Lee's Cantonese Steamed Chicken" (p.202) - the photo shows perfectly braised chopped parts in a rich sauce (au jus ?) and garnished with scallion and onion ... it positively gleams with oil in the photo (since the dish in the photo is not steaming, it must be vegetable oil rather than the rendered fat of the chicken, because chicken fat solidifies at room temperature). The authoress' recipe lamely calls for using whole legs instead - they're marinated with all the other ingredients, and then steamed whole, and there's no mention of either a sauce, a garnish nor drizzling with oil.
5) Insufficient procedural photos: In my not so humble opinion, any cook book that includes dumplings should include some procedural photos on how to make them for the benefit of the reader. Personally, I already know how to make dumplings, so this is really a nit on behalf of the readership at large.
6) Gaps in the subject matter: This book is too short - the author could have covered the material in significantly greater depth and breadth than she did. Examples of some gaps she failed to cover:
* Wok Hearths: I'm pleased that the author went out of her way in the opening chapters to show passing glimpses of authentic Chinese hearth stoves, but I was disappointed that there's no photographic or descriptive information on the hearths themselves ... how they're typically laid out, how they're constructed, how they're stoked and used and cleaned, how ventilated, how protected from the weather, etc.
* Vegetable Oil: It boggles my mind that an author who focuses so directly on woks, and wok cooking, would give virtually no coverage to the varieties of cooking oils available, and their different qualities and quirks of use. The author largely ignores the entire topic, and just lists "vegetable oil" in all her recipes. If I were inclined to speculate, she probably omitted the material because she's clueless herself ... she could only write about what she knew and understood herself at the time. I was (and am) disappointed.
* Wok Accessories: She makes frequent mention of putting heat-proof dishes and oval platters atop 1 inch high steamer racks in her woks, but she never shows the reader any photos of the same. She shows pictures of classic bamboo steamers, but not the racks and dishes most of her steamed recipes call for. That's an example of author laziness, and inattentive editing.
I'll stop there.
Bottom line: Despite it's many shortcomings, I can still recommend this book ... but only for people who are very into their cookware, and who are specifically looking for an introduction to woks - how to select them, how to season them, and how to get started with using them. If you already own a good wok, and know the basics of wok cooking, save your money, because there are plenty of books out there that cover wok cooking with greater depth and skill.
Personally, I'd like to see this book re-released in a greatly expanded and better edited edition at some point - the authoress had a great idea, but fell short of my expectations.
Fabulous book on the Wok .......2007-06-26
I am really enjoying this book. Yes, I continue to enjoy it. From learning about the traditional methods of preparing the wok for cooking, to how to create REAL stir fry. I love the stories and antecdotes in this book. I love the lessons on choosing a wok, and the difference between a carbon steel and a cast iron, hand-pounded one. The cast iron woks are fragile ( I never would have thought that!) Want to try one of Amy Tan's favorite recipes? It's here.
The book has a lovely feel, and is a great read. Enjoy!
Chinese Cookbook.......2007-03-23
I love this cookbook because it has a wide variety of chinese foods listed and gives guidance on how to select the right cookware to get the best results from from their wonderful recipes.
Wonderful!.......2007-02-08
One word, Wonderful! That's how I describe this book. You will never ever have watery stir-fries or half-raw veggies again. Your stir-fries will come out just like they are supposed to... with the "Breath of the Wok" still wisping from the perfectly seared meat and veggies. This is the only book so far that has taught me how to cook proper Chinese dishes. The meat is tender and juicy and the veggies are tender-crisp with a light flavorful sauce. Simply wonderful. I'm still amazed at myself for being able to produce these dishes with such an inexpensive wok! Many thanks to the authors for their labor of love.
Simply Excellent -- Excellently Simple.......2007-01-24
What a wonderful book for the senses . . . the writing, photos and content really raises the bar. My biggest interest when purchasing this book was the background information on the history and culture of Wok cooking. I truly believe that knowing and understanding this information will play a role in my own successful dishes. The food will take on meaning, and be a part of generations before me, in lands far away from my own home town.
Yes, there are standard recipes included . . . but the cultural and historical information is for the mind and soul. These are ingredients in good cooking as well!
As for the "Wok hei" or breath . . . remember that a breath breathes in AND breathes out. From a purely physics standpoint, the intense heat and flame achieved when done properly brings energy IN to the food (in order to support the combustion) . . . then that energy is released upon serving and eating. In true Eastern fashion, I also believe that we're not talking just about heat here . . . but a universal "force" added to the food as well.
Amazon.com
This first authoritative expose of the 1958-1962 famine prompted by China's collectivization plan, "The Great Leap Forward," comes at a time when the cult of Mao is alive and well inside China, and while agents of Chinese influence are able to arrange audiences with a President. Via his painstaking research and reporting that included two treks through interior Chinese provinces, Becker tells how the famine occurred because ill-trained peasants were forced to undertake a gigantic and centralized industrial and agricultural expansion. The new factories, canals, and irrigation systems failed spectacularly, and in contrast to propaganda boasts of having economically outstripped the U.S., when in reality the populace was driven by starvation to cannibalism, slavery, and madness.
Book Description
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Chinese people suffered what may have been the worst famine in history. Over thirty million perished in a grain shortage brought on not by flood, drought, or infestation, but by the insanely irresponsible dictates of Chairman Mao Ze-dong's "Great Leap Forward," an attempt at utopian engineering gone horribly wrong. Journalist Jasper Becker conducted hundreds of interviews and spent years immersed in painstaking detective work to produce Hungry Ghosts, the first full account of this dark chapter in Chinese history. In this horrific story of state-sponsored terror, cannibalism, torture, and murder, China's communist leadership boasted of record harvests and actually increased grain exports, while refusing imports and international assistance. With China's reclamation of Hong Kong now a fait accompli, removing the historical blinders is more timely than ever. As reviewer Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Times, "Mr. Becker's remarkable book....strikes a heavy blow against willed ignorance of what took place."
Customer Reviews:
Worthwhile.......2006-02-25
I find this book a most fascinating one . . . and a "required" reading for those interested not just in China's history but modern genocide, mass media control by state press, Communist theory development, among many other topics. It is easy to read and gruesome aspects of the famine are dealt with respectfully and with sensitivity.
I give it only four stars (rather than five) because I feel there is, at times, repetition of facts. All in all I highly recommend this book. Every person should read it to better understand and bring to light shameful acts against humanity.
A must read book.......2006-01-24
This book isn't especially well written from a literary perspective. In the reviews below you will find one or two criticisms such as an incomplete understanding of ancient Chinese history, which may well be valid. Unfortunately some people have obviously got hung up on the "30 million" deaths claim, but Becker does little to independently research the size of the death toll. He just summarises the various research that has been carried out, with what looks to me like a fair-minded commentary of the problems of estimating an accurate number.
However this is not the point of the book, which is firstly to gather together evidence that this famine did happen and secondly to piece together the complex strands explaining why it happened.
Ultimate blame is placed at the foot of Mao who firstly was the architect of the radical and in some cases barmy social and agricultural reforms which initiated the famine and secondly put in place a regime of terror which led most non-heroic subordinates to feedback the information they thought he wanted to hear regardless of the reality on the ground. Most of those who dared to tell the truth, ultimately paid with their life, either immediately or a few years later in the Cultural Revolution, which itself is seen by Becker as the way Mao sought to regain control of the party from the more moderate voices who had eventually managed to put in place the reforms to Mao's policies which ended the famine.
To his credit, Becker spends some time discussing the previous famines and periods of war and unrest which provide a backdrop to the situation. He also recognises, though does not emphasis some of Mao's achievements. His overall thesis is I think not, as some seem to suggest, that Mao deliberately and consciously murdered his own people in the way that Stalin did. It's more that Mao though he might have been a master political and military tactician had little understanding of human nature or science and was so drunk on his own propaganda that he refused to see how he could have been mistaken. Becker leaves open the morally important question of the extent to which Mao had deluded himself about the suffering of his people, and the extent to which he believed that such suffering was of little consequence in the greater scheme of things.
Becker also correctly lays considerable blame at the doors of those western commentators, China watchers and academics who were duped by Mao's propaganda - way up until the early 1990s, thus paving the way for a series of disasters around the world as various third world governments from Cambodia to Tanzania tried to emulate the apparent achievements of Mao's China with disastrous policies of their own.
I believe that Becker puts forward a fair minded and highly plausible analysis of what happened during this period, and given its importance not only from a moral perspective but in understanding the history of China and the world during the subsequent 50 years, it's a book that as many people as possible should be encouraged to carefully and open mindedly read.
More excellent information here..!.......2005-08-23
After reading this book, I also went to this website http://www.theepochtimes.com/jiuping.asp and read its articles entitled, "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party". The information is very in-depth and goes steps further in exposing the CCP during its bloody rise to power and its current efforts to maintain absolute control. I would highly recommend checking it out.. All the materials are FREE and they even have free audio book format mp3's
World's best kept Communist tragedy .......2004-10-03
The tragedy of the massive famine that devoured untold numbers of lives in China during the 1959 - 1961 "Great Leap Forward" campaign was that the official stand of the Chinese Communist Party refused to acknowledge it as a man-made mistake.
This book acts like Spielberg's "Shoah Foundation", it's a testament to a fatalistic catastrophe of biblical proportions. It contains testimonies of survivors which the author had interviewed. Simple as it may seem, but some of the testimonies are indeed moving, touching and shows how hunger can reveal the bestial and the monstrosity of what a human being is capable of.
The greatest peacetime disaster of the 20th century.......2003-12-26
-----------------------------------------------------------
A horrifying and well-researched history of how Mao's "Great
Leap Forward" became the worst famine in history, killing
perhaps 30 million Chinese (1958 - 1960) -- it appears
unlikely an exact fatality figure will ever be known. Which
adds to the horror, I think, that millions of people, with hopes
and dreams like our own, could vanish without leaving
a trace, even a number, in the world outside their homes.
Not to mention uncounted millions of children whose lives
were blighted by brain-damage from malnutrition....
FWIW, Jasper concludes that Mao's Great Famine was more
omission than commission (in contrast to Stalin's): Mao's
absurd ideas of backyard industrialization, plus turning
loose the Red Guards chaos, ruined the harvests. Then
Communist Party officials simply denied the problem, and
concocted elaborate coverups -- even painting the tree
trunks to hide that the bark had been eaten by starving
people -- when Mao or senior officials were to visit famine
areas. And a smiling-peasants "Big Lie" for foreigners,
which worked for years.
It's a remarkable, and depressing, account. Highly recommended.
review copyright 1999 by Peter D. Tillman
Product Description
A lavishly illustrated volume that presents a wide range of Chinese dishes from the major culinary regions and examines the influences that have shaped the cuisine. Expertly photographed.
Amazon.com
What does it mean that McDonald's has become an integral part of daily life throughout East Asia--so much so, in fact, that many Asians have ceased to consider the American hamburger chain "foreign" at all? The five scholars who contribute essays to Golden Arches East have taken a novel approach to cultural anthropology. Call it hamburger historiography, perhaps, but their analysis of McDonald's ascendancy in the East has much to say about both the corporation itself and the changing values of Asian societies. Despite widespread criticism of McDonald's as a symbol of global homogeneity and environmental degradation, not all of these changes have been negative. In Hong Kong and China, for instance, McDonald's has actually contributed to improving standards of bathroom cleanliness and table manners, according to the authors. And the transformation has cut both ways; McDonalds itself has been forced to adapt to local culture and tastes. In studying how McDonald's has been assimilated into Asian societies, Watson et al. provide a fascinating portrait of cultural accommodation, compromise, and change.
Book Description
McDonald’s restaurants are found in over 100 countries, serving tens of millions of people each day. What are the cultural implications of this phenomenal success? The widely read—and widely acclaimed—Golden Arches East argues that McDonald’s has largely become divorced from its American roots and become a “local” institution for an entire generation of affluent consumers in Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo. In the second edition, James L. Watson also covers recent attacks on the fast-food chain as a symbol of American imperialism, and the company’s role in the obesity controversy currently raging in the U.S. food industry, bringing the story of East Asian franchises into the twenty-first century.
Praise for the First Edition:
“Golden Arches East is a fascinating study that explores issues of globalization by focusing on the role of McDonald’s in five Asian economies and [concludes] that in many countries McDonald’s has been absorbed by local communities and become assimilated, so that it is no longer thought of as a foreign restaurant and in some ways no longer functions as one.” —Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Book Review
“This is an important book because it shows accurately and with subtlety how transnational culture emerges. It must be read by anyone interested in globalization. It is concise enough to be used for courses in anthropology and Asian studies.” —Joseph Bosco, China Journal
“The strength of this book is that the contributors contextualize not just the food side of McDonald's, but the social and cultural activity on which this culture is embedded. These are culturally rich stories from the anthropology of everyday life.” —Paul Noguchi, Journal of Asian Studies
“Here is the rare academic study that belongs in every library.”—Library Journal
Customer Reviews:
Essential for any overseas business or Asian holding........2006-12-11
McDonald's Restaurants are to be found world-wide and books have been written on their business success and approach - but GOLDEN ARCHES EAST: MCDONALD'S IN EAST ASIA is something different, providing college-level readers with a blend of cultural insights and business savvy as it traces McDonald's role in five Asian countries. Chapters provide the author's first-person insights as he journeys to five Asian countries and asks questions on McDonalds management, promotion strategies, and impact on local culture. Also included are reflections on food and marketing within these nations, making GOLDEN ARCHES EAST essential for any overseas business or Asian holding.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Loaded tales of the mundane and everyday.......2005-12-29
Golden Arches East: McDonalds in East Asia is an absorbing read that delves into more than just eating; it grapples with the big issues like the impact of local vis-à-vis the global by looking into the interplay of McDonald's in five Asian economies. Watson, et al come to the conclusion that in several spaces - particularly in Asia - McDonald's has been amalgamated into the local communities. McDonalds has integrated so well that the distinction between local and foreign has blurred. So disentangled is the distinction that McDonalds is no longer considered a foreign restaurant and arguably in many cases - such as the ones explored in this book - no longer functions as one. This is an essential book because it accurately portrays and cognizant of local nuance how a transnational culture is developing. Golden Arches East: McDonalds in East Asia is a must be read for anyone interested in globalization studies. It is accessible and to the point that is can, should be, and will be used for courses in Asian studies, Political Science, and Sociology.
At a time when academics frequently write impenetrably this book is a breath of fresh air. Golden Arches is very engaging and is deals with one straightforward question: how do countries act in response to McDonald's, and conversely what does the relation say about those countries? The inquiry is not petty. The book is an exploration of McDonald's in Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo. Undoubtedly, McDonald's has had a huge effect in Asia, impacting manners and values and also the way people interact. The most informative part of these studies is its exploration of how McDonald's changed each country. While Americans might see themselves as the bright light of global democracy and human rights its impact in countries in East Asia is proving to be more empirical.
Bathrooms in Hong Kong restaurants, according to this study had undergone a tremendous transformation. Riding into town with the McDonalds penchant for cleanliness, the other restaurants seem to have followed suit. It might seem like an exaggeration but Watson et al credits McDonald's for assisting in elevating the cleanliness and safety standard in public rest rooms in Hong Kong. Another thing that is happening in Hong Kong is the "disciplining" of the users. According to Watson et al the carceral community takes care of its own. Self reflective of exaggerating McDonalds impact in the milieu, Watson et al claim that even if McDonalds did not indeed take the active role in creating a form of queuing discipline - it s perceived to have done so .
Moving onto the perhaps the marquis section of the book, Japan's values have been changing for decades, becoming steadily more casual, and according to Watson et al McDonald's may be assisting as vehicle in that process. This proves at least one thing - that there is nothing primordial or essential about cultures but that culture and societies change, reinvent themselves, and reify their existence by the re-enforcement and performance or cultural play. To the chagrin of conservatives, this is reality. According to Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Japan has a long standing taboo against "tachigui," (standing while eating) but that seems to be steadily breaking down. Ohnuki-Tierney suggests that perhaps the catalyst of this change is McDonald's - whose stores in Japan just did not accommodate sitting - there were no chairs. In Beijing, restaurants where known for their noise and dirt. But according to Watson et al, customers at McDonald's branches in Beijing spoke in hushed tones and were cognizant of the changing conditions regarding spitting and rubbish.
All this might look like American cultural imperialism - as is examined in the section on Seoul. However it is difficult to conceive of even the most zealous anti-American in East Asia disapproving of American exports like efficiency, smiles and clean rest rooms. The real potency of Golden Arches East: McDonalds in East Asia is that the writers place in context not just the food side of McDonald's, but more importantly the and social and cultural impact of McDonalds on these ever changing societies. These are loaded tales of the mundane and everyday. In short, this is a rare academic engagement that should reside in all libraries and spawn similar studies.
Miguel Llora
Not Your Typical Book About McDonald's Expansionism..........2002-10-12
Most books dealing with the spread of American pop culture (and pop business) influences these days like Disney, Coca-Cola and McDonald's have very little good to say about the growth of any of them in previously unexposed markets. That's why, perhaps, it comes as surprising that "Golden Arches East" comes out with a mostly positive look at the effect McDonald's had had throughout East Asia.
In this book, five authors look at the impact McDonald's has had in five different East Asian entities: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Much of the early chapters is given over to looking at the material aspects of McDonald's in East Asia: the marketing aspects, the reconceptualization towards a standard Asian consumer, the effect on the Asian food industry, etc.. All of this makes for very fascinating reading and shows just how marketing has to be changed from country to country (or even region to region). Likewise, it deals with very nuts-and-bolts issues of how McDonald's has impacted the lives of the average Asian consumer - and the impact is bigger than you'd think.
However, later chapters (especially those dealing with Taiwan and Korea and the Afterword) move to more conceptual issues of McDonald's - issues of modernity. Americanization and cultural identity. In an anthropological context (which is what this book tries to maintain), these are all very important, but somehow the later efforts seem to either fall flat or fall back on the line used so often in studying Asia these days, "But things are changing now".
While the overall message of this book is positive, there are the standard overtones of just how much the world has changed in the past half-century. I really recommend this book for the nuts-and-bolts stuff in the first two or three chapters, but the later didacticism tends to fall a little flat. Nonetheless, this book offers useful information to both the business student and the cultural anthropologist. If either East Asia or McDonald's interest you, I recommend giving this book a shot.
Fries taste better in East!.......2000-03-12
I tasted McDonald's french fries in East Asia. That tastes better than in the US. American french fries are overfried.
Good tale but facile understanding of business environment.......1999-05-17
An interesting tale of an importnat American icon. But, this book has little understanding of the local competitors that McDonalds and other foreign multinationals face in East Asia, many of whom are quite formidable. I recommend "New Asian Emperors" by George Haley et al. to understand the complex business environment in East Asia.
Customer Reviews:
The Perfect First Tea Book.......2004-06-24
A great general introduction to the topic of tea. The title may be a bit misleading as the book broad-brushes tea on a worldwide basis not just Chinese tea. It covers origin, history, production, health and techniques. Well illustrated, with plenty of useful lists in the back of the book including names of many teas in both English and Chinese.
Not much information on Chinese tea.......2002-06-07
This book might be useful to someone looking for a book with general information about tea, but for someone who wants to learn about the real art of Chinese tea, this book is useless . The book does not go into any detail about important elements of Chinese tea drinking such as Yixing teapots and the gongfu brewing method; it just tries to explain them in a few sentences. After reading this book, you will hardly have gained any knowledge of Chinese tea at all.
The book is obviously an imitation of John Blofeld's "The Chinese Art of Tea", which is an excellent book on the subject of Chinese tea. This book even copied the format of "The Chinese Art of Tea" by inserting small drawings in the margins, and they also copied the teahouse section of "The Chinese Art of Tea". The only thing they forgot to copy was all the good information.
The section in this book on tea brewing, entitled "How to Make a Nice Cup of Tea", provides instructions on making tea that could only be used to make tea for your dogs. The book does not explain any of the Chinese brewing methods, it seems like the authors just read the back of a Lipton box and copied into their book. If you are interested in Chinese tea, it is much better to find a few good websites on Chinese tea than to buy this book. Anybody who has even a small amount of knowledge of Chinese tea can see that this book is very badly made.
A perfect blend.......2001-11-11
No fetishism nor fussiness in this volume, just excellent information and tips for the tea drinker and interested historian/gardener/travel buff/philosopher/health-seeker. If anything, this book demystifies Chinese teas with its clear and readable presentation -- instructive but not school-bookish. If you think there's more to life than powdered iced-tea mixes -- or even if you don't -- this book will tell you the rest of the story of your favorite brew.
Good tea reference book.......2000-07-13
I found this tea book to be a very good reference book on tea's origin, how and when it's popularity spread to other realms, how to enjoy tea and what kinds of utensils are used to make and drink tea. I would have enjoyed more pictures and the ones that are here are in black and white, but this is an information packed read.
Toteally Impressed.......2000-06-03
I was indeed totally impressed by the content of this book. Though it focused on the black, green, and oolong teas of the Orient, it was thoroughly informative about the history,processing methods, health benifits of teas in general. It included and extensive chapter on flavor descripitons and origins of oriental teas ( much like a wine guide). If you want to know what you are drinking and why you should continue, this book is for you! If you want to be inspired to discover many new teas, this book is definitely for you!
Average customer rating:
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The Dutch East India Company's Tea Trade With China, 1757-1781 (Tanap Monographs on the History of the Asian-European Interaction)
Yong Liu
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 9004155996 |
Book Description
A stingy fisherman always makes his three young helpers do all his work. One day he scolds the “lazy boys” for forgetting to provide lunch. “Don't worry,” they say. “We can make stone soup.” The boys dig a hole and fill it with water and “flavored” stones. They trick the fisherman into making bowls and chopsticks, and fetching salt and sesame oil. While he's busy, they stir in bird eggs, add wild vegetables, and slip fish into the soup. By the time the old man returns, they have a feast fit for a king. To this day, “Egg Drop Stone Soup” is a traditional dish in southeast China. A recipe is included.
Book Description
This book is a celebration of one of the world's greatest cuisines. It takes readers on a journey from the Peking duck restaurants of Beijing to the kitchens of Shanghai, the tea gardens of Hangzhou and the dim sum chefs of Hong Kong, and reveals the food that defines today's Chinese cooking -- from the tastiest barbecued spareribs, crispy skin duck, and flash-cooked pea sprouts to simple noodles and congee.
The Food of China also provides information on:
- Bean curd
- Spicy condiments
- Banquet food
- Unusual sauces
- China's teas.
About
The Food of... series
A culinary journey around the world.
Each book in
The Food of... series is a comprehensive introduction to the world's great cuisine. These books feature more than 100 delicious recipes that highlight each country's culinary treasures. With instructive color photographs throughout, each recipe helps readers choose and identify produce, from vegetables and flavorings to street snacks, sweets, and colorful and exotic fruits. Feature sections explore the essence of each culture's food and cooking techniques.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome.......2006-03-24
I love the recipes and the pictures were stunning and the food taste as good as they look, it keeps you cooking
The Ultimate Chinese Cook Book.......2006-03-23
This is a book on authentic Chinese food. It is based on a trip made by the authors that covered much of Chins, talking with Chef's and photographing their dishes.
This book is a large format book, profusely illustrated with literally hundreds of color photographs. The photographs show mostly food, but also a bit of the cultural scene -- where culture in this case usually involves food.
The one problem with authentic Chinese food is getting the proper ingredients. For instance under Tea, they say that China's finest greet tea is grown around Longjing, and is called Dragon Well. Here in the middle of the Nevada desert trying to find such ingredients is pretty difficult. Thank goodness for the web where I found it for sale.
All in all, this is the ultimate Chinese cookbook. There are hundreds of recipies, and they all came directly from China.
Average customer rating:
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Food and Chinese Culture: Essays on Popular Cuisines
Zishan Chen
Manufacturer: Long River Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 159265049X |
Book Description
This unique book is a collection of essays on Chinese food and culture by some of China¡¦s most well-known writers and cultural critics. Included are essays by Lin Yutang, Wang Meng, and others, which run the gamut from some of the greatest delicacies in history to everyday roadside snacks cherished since childhood; the meaning of food to the Chinese, its preparation, enjoyment, and its role as the essence of life. The myriad variety of Chinese food and all its cultural components are represented, resulting in a revealing and enlightening appraisal of what truly lies at the heart of Chinese food and its culture.
Books:
- The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook
- The Classic Italian Cookbook
- The Complete Book Of Sushi
- The Essential Baker: The Comprehensive Guide to Baking with Chocolate, Fruit, Nuts, Spices, and Other Ingredients
- The Everything Thai Cookbook: From Pad Thai to Lemongrass Chicken Skewers--300 Tasty, Tempting Thai Dishes to You Can Make at Home (Everything Series)
- The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
- The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome
- The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome
- The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: America's Bestselling Step-by-Step Cookbook, with More Than 1,400 Recipes
- The Great Domaines of Burgundy: A Guide to the Finest Wine Producers of the Cote D'or
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