Christensen - Family Style Chinese Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from My Culinary Journey Through China

Copyright 2016 by Shanti Christensen

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Photography Nadine Greeff except the following:
, clockwise from top left: Ffolas/Shutterstock; Dariagarnik/Shutterstock; Zoryanchik/Shutterstock; Zhu Difeng/Shutterstock; Sea Wave/Shutterstock; Atiwich Kaewchum/Shutterstock; HandmadePictures/Shutterstock; Kps123/Shutterstock.

Location photography 2016 by Shanti Christensen except the following by Peikwen Cheng: .

Author photo by 2016 Gregory Boyd

Illustrations Tom Bingham

ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-761-6 | eBook 978-1-62315-762-3

For the families who welcomed me into their
homes and taught me how to cook Chinese food.
And to my loving and supportive husband Paul
and our son Miles, a budding foodie.

ONE
MY KITCHEN

TWO
THE BASICS

THREE
APPETIZERS & SIDE DISHES

FOUR
SOUPS & SALADS

FIVE
POULTRY

SIX
MEAT

SEVEN
FISH & SEAFOOD

EIGHT
TOFU & VEGETABLES

NINE
RICE & NOODLES

I am humbled and honored to introduce Shanti Christensens debut cookbook Family Style Chinese Cookbook, partly because I feel like I shared in her adventure. In 2006, I had recently started a blog about Asian cuisine called Rasa Malaysia. I was traveling to Beijing extensively when I met Shanti through my colleague, Peikwen Cheng. We had a lot in common, including a love for food, travel, and great laughs. Over the course of many scrumptious and mouthwatering Chinese meals, we became friends. We often shared many of our culinary dreams and aspirations.

Shanti started her blog ShowShanti in 2009 and I loved it from the start. Its gorgeous, colorful, and engaging and shares her personal journey of learning about authentic Chinese cooking. From my computer screen I followed Shanti religiously as she trekked through rural China. She had little fear, huge passion, and an immense appetite to learn about Chinese cuisine. Her assistant-cum-translator, Juling He, traveled with her into the private homes of her hosts, where they would tell Shanti stories and teach her home-style Chinese cooking. With the knowledge and techniques she learned, she honed her own Chinese cooking skills in her kitchen.

Family Style Chinese Cookbook is a treasure trove of real Chinese home cooking. But its more than just a cookbook. Its a collection of stories about tradition, ceremony, family, and pride. Within these pages are adventures for anyone who wishes to feel themselves transportedperhaps to a warm and tiny kitchen in Tongzhou for a communal meal with dear friends, or to a potholed alleyway packed with the sights and smells of food vendors delights. I have no doubt that I will relive the wonderful tastes, smells, aromas, and memories of China through this book. Ganbei!

Bee Yinn Low
Author of Easy Chinese Recipes

Clockwise: Noodles served in an alleyway in Pingyao, an ancient city in Shanxi province. Ingredients prepped before a lesson in cooking home-style Chinese cuisine. The author doing what she loves most, exploring markets and discovering new ingredients.

With more people than all of North America and Europe combined, the Peoples Republic of China occupies a broad swath of territory. Whether from a geographic, cultural, historical, religious, political, economic, or even linguistic perspective, the countrys people and places vary as much as those of entire continents. And its food is no different. Chinese cuisine is a colorful adventure that draws explorers into a long history rich with stories, traditions, and influences. I am one of those explorers.

My love for food and travel started with my parents. My Danish-American father is an avid reader and a Korean War veteran. He enjoyed traveling and discovered an affinity for Eastern culture. He had moved to Guam to work as a carpenter and met my mothers father, who is from the Philippines. One day, my Lolo (grandpa in Tagalog) showed my dad a photo of his daughter and asked if he might like to write to her. They began exchanging letters, talking about politics, and my dad appreciated my moms distaste for the then dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He sent for her to meet him in Guam, but martial law was imposed and she was unable to leave the Philippines. So my dad hopped on a plane to the Philippines, where he met the entire family and soon married her.