Chinese soul food is classic comfort food you can't resist, and in this cookbook you'll find 80 recipes for favorites you can easily make in your own kitchen any night of the week.

Chinese food is more popular than any other cuisine and yet it often intimidates North American home cooks. Chinese Soul Food draws cooks into the kitchen with recipes that include sizzling potstickers, stir-fries that are
unbelievably easy to make, saucy braises, and soups that bring comfort with a sip. These are dishes that feed the belly and speak the universal language of "mmm!" You'll find approachable recipes and plenty of tips for favorite homestyle Chinese dishes, such as red-braised pork belly, dry-fried green beans, braised-beef noodle soup, green onion pancakes, garlic eggplant, and the author's famous potstickers, which consistently sell out her cooking classes in Seattle. You will also find helpful tips and techniques, such as caring for and using a wok and how to cook rice properly, as well as a basic Chinese pantry list that also includes acceptable substitutions, making it even simpler for the busiest among us to cook their favorite Chinese dishes at home. Recipes are streamlined to minimize the fear factor of unfamiliar ingredients and techniques, and home cooks are gently guided toward becoming comfortable cooking satisfying Chinese meals. Any kitchen can be a Chinese kitchen!

Award-winning food journalist, cooking instructor, and former restaurateur Hsiao-Ching Chou grew up immersed in storytelling and food culture. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but grew up in Columbia, Missouri, where her family opened a Chinese restaurant. She worked there after school and on weekends, starting at age eight, until she graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She spent more than a decade as a newspaper food writer and editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Denver Post. She received the coveted Bert Greene Award for excellence in food writing from the International Association for Culinary Professionals for her feature article about traveling to Cordova, Alaska, to profile a native Eyak woman known for making the best smoked Copper River king salmon. Chou has been a guest on local and national shows, including Public Radio's The Splendid Table, the PBS documentary The Meaning of Food, and the Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. In 2011 she pivoted her career to direct the communications program for the renowned Institute for Systems Biology, a non-profit biomedical research organization in Seattle. In her spare time, she teaches everyday Chinese home cooking to students at the Hot Stove Society school. Since 2015 she has been a member of the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Awards committee, which administers the prestigious annual competition for the best in category cookbooks. She is also a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier. Chou lives in Seattle with her TV-producer husband, two children, and mother.
[[Pronunciation of author's first name: like Jhau-Ching]]