I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying two cookbooks recently purchased that have delivered very well indeed. The first, “Double Awesome Chinese Food” by Andrew, Irene and Margaret Li, are the three family chefs who own and cook at Boston’s Mei Mei restaurant. The food is what food impresario Andrew Zimmern deems the “true new American-Chinese.”
And that’s it in a nutshell. Call it fusion American -Chinese cooking if you must. But it’s the sauces and techniques that make it distinctive. The recipes are easy, though as in all types of Asian cooking, prep work is a bit daunting, all the chopping and dicing should be done carefully before assembling the ingredients to cook.
You don’t need special equipment, not even a wok (though in some of the recipes it’s helpful to use one). Sharpen your knives, however, for the prep work is not necessarily the work of a food processor.
Go to any of our Asian stores to stock up on the ingredients. I’ve purchased everything from the Hong Kong Market, which is one of my favorite markets of all of them in Portland.
You’ll need a pantry of toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, black vinegar, fermented black beans. Chili oil, hoisin sauce, sesame paste or tahini, Shaoxing wine and various Chinese seasons such as Sichuan peppercorns.
