Good food brings happiness. Chinese proverb

{HISTORY}

A member of the Manchurian royal family, Nancy Chih Ma began her cookbook writing career after she moved from her home country of China to Japan. Only then was she able to fully appreciate her native cuisine enough to study it completely in all its aspects from techniques to taste to history. Like many food-centric careers, Nancy's reputation as an excellent Chinese cook began with a few humble recipe contributions to a Japanese woman's magazine in the 1950s. From there, her style of cooking authentic Chinese food led to lectures, cooking demonstrations, and the publishing of her own cookbooks. 

This one, Mrs. Ma's Chinese Cookbook was first published in 1960. Containing over 220 recipes, this cookbook features simple traditional dishes that are colorful in appearance, appetizing in taste, and flavorful in the aroma. Just the way Chinese cooks like to prepare and present food. 

There are a few exotic specialty recipes involving shark fin, jellyfish, and cuttlefish but most recipes featured here include simple ingredients easily found in the grocery, market or Asian specialty shop and simple preparations. 

Hailed by critics as the best midcentury Chinese cookbook detailing authentic cuisine, Nancy's book was lauded around the world for its variety of recipes and its explanatory details on the right equipment to use, the correct portion sizes and serving sizes and appealing food presentation. "When you prepare a dish, you must keep three things in mind: it must be pleasing to the eye, the aroma must be appealing, and it must be appetizing," begins Nancy at the start.

Here in the Vintage Kitchen, we always love an old cookbook that bears some splatters and stains and signs of use. This one bears such markings in the stir-fried beef sections, with a special note on the front end pepper of the recipe on page 72 - Fried Beef and Celery - clearly a favorite for a previous cook.  

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- 1968 Edition, Twenty-first printing

- 178 pages

- Contains the original dust jacket 

- Illustrated throughout with both color and black and white photographs

- Additional sections include an intro to Chinese cooking with helps and hints, information about table settings, wine, spices, and a variety of suggested menus

 {CONDITION}

In great but well-loved condition. this cookbook is clean and bright on most pages except for a few random kitchen spots and some plastered pages around the stir-fried beef recipes. the original dust jacket is bright and colorful and completely intact with just a few areas of ragged/frayed areas on the top and bottom edge.  Please see photos.

{SIZE}

Measures 10.75" inches (length) x 7.25" inches (width) x .75" inches (thickness)