Food Archives - Blacksmith Books

The Chinese Wet Market Handbook: A guide to shopping at Hong Kong’s fresh food markets

HK$98.00
USD: US$12.55
CNY: CN¥90.85
GBP: £9.82
EUR: €11.55
AUD: AU$18.86
CAD: CA$17.11
JPY: ¥1,971
Have you ever wondered about that wacky-looking fruit staring back at you in the local wet market? Or did you want to know how to cook a particular Chinese vegetable, but don’t have the language skills?

The Chinese Wet Market Handbook gives you the answers! This pocket-sized guidebook, designed to be taken out shopping with you, identifies fresh produce commonly found at Hong Kong’s food markets.

Each item is identified by a photo, its English name, its romanised Cantonese name with tones, and its name in full-form Chinese characters. The guide explains traditional signage in Chinese characters, including weights and measures, and indicates whether a food is locally produced. Finally, it describes ten lively Hong Kong wet markets especially worth visiting and provides directions on how to find them.

Whether you’re a Hong Kong resident who wants to shop at food markets but lacks the linguistic and culinary know-how, or a tourist who wants to explore the local culinary sights, this handy guide will help you navigate your way around one of the liveliest and most colourful parts of Hong Kong’s food scene.

Look inside this book
Click on the below links to view sample pages from The Chinese Wet Market Handbook. You will need a pdf reader to view these excerpts.

pages 2-11 (fruit) pages 23-29 (vegetables) pages 71-75 (dried foods)

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Dim Sum: A Survival Guide

HK$98.00
USD: US$12.55
CNY: CN¥90.85
GBP: £9.82
EUR: €11.55
AUD: AU$18.86
CAD: CA$17.11
JPY: ¥1,971
Siu mai, har gow, jar leung, sin jok guen. These are all types of dim sum. But do you know what they look like, and what’s in them? Can you pronounce their names in Cantonese, or recognize them on a menu? Can you confidently order dim sum for you and your friends — especially if any of them have dietary restrictions?

Australian-Chinese writer Liza Chu has a part-time career as a Hong Kong dim sum guide. She has distilled her knowledge of Cantonese cuisine and Chinese dining etiquette into this practical guidebook to delicious dim sum. Each photographed dish is identified with Chinese characters and a pronunciation guide. Icons alert those with allergies or special diets, and there’s a special listing of dim sum dishes most popular with children. Master chefs explain their cooking methods, and even the art of tea drinking is covered in detail.

Take this book to your nearest dim sum restaurant and let Liza show you how to yum cha like a local!

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The Taste of Old Hong Kong: Recipes and memories from 30 years on the China coast

HK$158.00
USD: US$20.23
CNY: CN¥146.47
GBP: £15.84
EUR: €18.62
AUD: AU$30.40
CAD: CA$27.59
JPY: ¥3,178
Reminiscences and recipes of favourite international and regional dishes from households, fancy restaurants and back lanes which you can enjoy today in Hong Kong, that classy old gal who will forever reign as the Queen of Cuisine for all who knew her when she was the jewel of the British Empire.

Bestselling author Fred Schneiter shares a nostalgic romp back into that earlier era which has faded into treasured memories and photos. But we didn’t lose it all. The tantalizing cuisines and tempting cookpot scents of that earlier time remain. Many of them await you here.

If you’ve ever daydreamed about what it might be like to drop back into an earlier, less hurried time in an exotic corner of the world, this is how we found the food, the friends and the fun in old Hong Kong.

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The Yunnan Cookbook: Recipes from China’s land of ethnic diversity

HK$208.00
USD: US$26.63
CNY: CN¥192.82
GBP: £20.85
EUR: €24.51
AUD: AU$40.02
CAD: CA$36.32
JPY: ¥4,184
From the yaks which graze at altitudes so high that vegetables cannot grow, and the paradise of Shangri-La; through the flower markets of Kunming, the dramatic tea terraces of Pu-er, and forest floors covered with wild mushrooms; to the tropical south where market stalls brim with brilliant red chillies and shimmering purple eggplants.

Yunnan, an exotic land of former kingdoms which borders Tibet, Sichuan, Burma, Vietnam and Laos, is the most bio-diverse province in China. It is quite possibly the most beautiful part of the country, and also the most culturally rich. Each ethnic minority has its own distinct cooking ingredients, aromas and flavours – all brought together for the first time in this unique cookbook.

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Chinese Street Food: A Field Guide for the Adventurous Diner

HK$168.00
USD: US$21.51
CNY: CN¥155.74
GBP: £16.84
EUR: €19.80
AUD: AU$32.33
CAD: CA$29.34
JPY: ¥3,380
Street food is the fuel of daily life in China, just as it has been for generations. In every Chinese city, adventurous travelers seeking a deeper understanding of authentic Chinese culture can find unique local street foods unavailable anywhere else in the world.

If you want to sample these treasures but don’t know where to start, look no further. With full-color pictures, taste descriptions, Chinese characters and pinyin names of hundreds of foods from 53 Chinese cities, this book gives you all the information you need to find the most delicious local dishes China can offer.

"Frank Kasell is one of China's best food bloggers. His blog is a giant, eating travel adventure." - City Weekend magazine, Shanghai

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