Did you see Martin Yan’s cooking show? He is a funny guy with Cantonese English accent, and he explains Chinese food in English very well. I am not agreeing on him for he put many fruit in to his dish. I heard those stuffs was appeared on the Hawaii Cuisine Chinese food, which was popular before I was born. But his points on cooking method are very clear. 1.The major Chinese thickening agent is oil mixed with cornstarch, which is the biggest different between Chinese and Western cooking. I believe that Chinese wouldn’t accept roux in their food in the next century. 2.There are 5 basic sauces in French cooking, but only one for Chinese--- Soy Sauce. If you want make your dish real Chinese, you can’t do it without Say sauce. Here is his website, pretty useful. http://yancancook.asianconnections.com/ I think his cooking hand book only cost $34.95 with a CD, so you can see his performance.
