Hong Kong Kitchen

I barely cook, so the final mark of a good cookbook for me is how hungry it makes me, and now I'm really hungry. I read the ebook, and to my relief the Chinese characters for the dishes showed up correctly (often books with foreign languages or math don't show up correctly, which just shows there are too many copy editors who assume random glyphs are real languages or math symbols). And the photos are gorgeous, although there isn't one for each dish. The recipes are very detailed, preparation-wise, but there is no summarizing section of Chinese ingredients and cookware that are usually in good Chinese cookbooks. There aren't a lot of personal stories (a bit, just not a lot like in The Woks of Life or the Nom Wah Cookbook), but there are good explanations of unique aspects of the Hong Kong food scene like cha chaan teng (think Chinese-Western fusion food in a Denny's) and dai pai dong (food stalls), and I'm in complete agreement on the assessment of Chinese desserts (I was enticed and severely disappointed by cheesecake in Hong Kong, but I cannot resist the egg tarts and the pineapple-less pineapple buns). I wouldn't list it among my favorite Chinese cookbooks that are more autobiographical, but it's the only one I've seen that focuses on Hong Kong food so I consider it a must-read if you're serious about Chinese food. And we could really use a cha chaan teng around here.