We bought Ming's book because we like the way he uses Asian ingredients in elegant recipes. So far, we haven't been disappointed -- it's easy to re-create the flavor and presentation that he is so good at. You need a little more prep and sous time, but it is well worthwhile. We love his brined pork loin... the brine is a quick prep with a lot of wonderful ingredients, best left overnight.... after that, the pork takes less than an hour to cook, and is the juiciest and most flavorful way we have ever had this prepared. The same is true of his braised dishes, which we've done for guests to rave reviews (again, lots of time prepping but once it's "cooking" you can relax!). The nice thing is that he uses ingredients that are familiar to us -- meat and potatoes are one of his favorite combinations! -- but his preparations of them are new, different, tasty, and elegant.

This cookbook contains all the recipes Ming Tsai created for his restaurant, Blue Ginger, and delivered on his show from his early episodes on the Food Network.

Pros:
- Take the time to make these recipes and one will not be disappointed.
- Rather then traveling to Ming's high-end restaurant, save $$$ and eat the same dishes at home.
- This is one of the very few cookbooks that produces fantastic results with every attempt.

Recipes I've tried and would make again:
- Smoky Turkey Shu Mai in Sweet Pea Broth
- Traditional Mandarin Fried Rice (already lost count how many times I've made this)
- Grilled Ponzu-Marinated Snapper with Ginger Pea Sprout Salad (4x and counting...)
- Turkey Breast with Three-Pea Fried Rice (3x)
- Asian-Marinated Pork Loin with Gingered Sweet Potatoes and Five-Spice Apples (too many to count!)
- Gingered Beef with Leeks and Asparagus (lost count on this one too!)
- Five-Peppercorn Grilled Rib-Eye Steaks
- Rice Paper-Wrapped Halibut with Foie Gras Mousse and Gingered Spaghetti Squash
- Glutinous Rice with Coconut and Mango
- Savory Braised Oxtail with Preserved Lemon Polenta (Oxtail was very good, but don't like polenta. Tried the polenta anyway, and, of course, didn't like it. -Just personal taste.)

Cons:
- All of these recipes are available on the Food Network site (with a little digging). While printing them from the website is at no cost (compared to the purchase price of this book), the book offers organization and color photos within bound material which fits much better on the bookshelf then the wad of papers one will end up with after printing all the recipes from the net.
- Novice cooks will find these dishes challenging if one has missed the presentations he provides on his show.
- A lot of the dishes are quite time consuming as many have 3 and 4 separate recipes to make one entire meal.

Overall:
As with anything, you reap what you sow. These recipes are unique, scrumptious and well worth the effort! I had the opportunity to meet Ming and he was gracious enough to sign this cookbook as well as pose for photos. Just like on the show, Ming came off as the same professional, down-to-Earth guy anyone would want to know.

Amazon.com ratings scale: 5 stars = Outstanding

As Ming Tsai likes to put it, his cuisine is all about East meets West. His recipes are grounded by the Chinese influences of his youth. He has taken that and broadened it with his training in various kitchens which taught him "traditional" Western techniques. The end result is imaginative takes on traditional Eastern (e.g. various "dim sum", summer rolls, pho) and Western foods (e.g. osso buco, risotto).

The book is organized into sections so you can easily design a multi-course meal from first course to dessert. I have tried his Hoisin Marinated Pork and Curry Braised Lamb Shanks. Both are wonderful main courses. He also has numerous excellent sides like Three Onion Cous-Cous and Napa Cabbage Slaw. My guests have always showered praise for the dishes I have prepared from the cookbook. For the adventerous, there is section called "Over the Top" for that magnificent foodie experience.

I recommend this book to the serious foodie. You will want/need a well stocked pantry with "unusual" ingredients like oyster sauce, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, black beans, sambal olek, wasabi, etc. However, you won't be disappointed with the results. My copy is already stained with various sacues/marinades and wrinkled by water.

None of the recipes I've tried in the book are worth repeating. The 'Custardy Prune Pudding' was hard and rubbery. The 'Lemon Pudding Cake' was insubstantial as foam in the mouth. And, the "Peanut Butter Pie with Fudge Topping' was okay but the fudge failed to set up well for presentation.

Nonetheless, I will keep trying because while the overall product failed to live up to my expectations, the recipes I attempted all had at least one good thing going for them. The prunes soaked in rum for the prune pudding were terrific. The lemon flavor of the pudding cake was brighter than any other lemon dessert I've tried. And, the graham cracker crust on the peanut butter pie is a definite keeper.

Lastly, the book gives good entertainment value simply as reading material. Sax writes well, presents interesting information and the photo are stunning.

An exceptional book. I have yet to try a recipe that does not turn out beautifully. The selection of desserts featured is amazing, the recipes understandable and the results delicious. Although not "fancy" desserts you can find something for every occasion. I also enjoy the introductions to each dessert and the side bars that make this book enjoyable to read.

This is easily my most cherished dessert cookbook in my beloved cookbook collection. If you are looking for a concise and informative cookbook loaded with the best of impressive, downhome dessert recipes....this is it. This book especially appealed to my love of "reading" cookbooks with it's delightful mini-stories before each recipe and it's interesting heritage recipes in the margins. Beautiful photos. I can't imagine how my kitchen functioned without this one!

Alan Richardson is an interesting read. He is an English author which colors much of the book. Another facet of him that is evident in this book is his apparent reverence for the late Crowley. He has a sartorial wit of which he seems to be very much aware. If you can block out his numerous asides this is actually a very good book on the masculine deity.

When I said that Richardson's Englishness colors "Earth God Rising" I meant that he dwells quite a bit on Cernunnos or Herne. This of course is natural. Any good writer writes about what he knows. I found his exploration of the God to be enlightening and informative. His occasional sly references can easily be taken in stride as long as one understands where he is coming from. Richardson is one of those traditional English Witches. He expects you to read between the lines, to look at his work at a slant. He tries to point in the right direction but he expects that you will work it out on your own.

This is an excellent book for the serious student. The answers are not in this book but the questions are. You have to know the right questions to ask before you can find the answers you seek. If you expect knowledge to be handed to you on a plate this book will disappoint.

This is an interesting and thoughtful book about pagan concepts of male deity and I heartily recommend it.

Richardson's work is poetic and focused on telling the story of an occultist from a fellow occultist's perspective. Despite this he remains focused and objective managing to skirt the line between admiration and hero worship. It is definitley the best book on Fortune around, much better than "The Quest" book.

I have owned this cookbook for over a year and have yet to prepare a recipe from it. The recipes are extremely complicated, and while they may yield authentic flavors and dishes, the prohibitively long preparation time is one reason this cookbook has not been used in my kitchen.
The other reason is that the book contains almost no vegetarian recipes. Even the "vegetable dishes" section contains either dishes which contain meat, or require a meat broth.

For easier, more practical recipes, I'd recommend Nina's "A Spoonful of Ginger."

I have tried a few recipes from this book including the sweet moon cake, curry turnovers, and steamed cake (MA LA GAU)...all turned out delicious. Even my mother told me to purchase this book (I originally borrowed it from the library) because she was so impressed! Considering that we are immigrants from Taiwan, we know good chinese food when we taste it and Ms. Simonds has great chinese food. She does not always use traditional methods or ingredients in her recipes...but the end result is always fabulous. Cannot say enough about this book!

By affording substitutions, Ms. Simonds' work has allowed me to enjoy chinese food despite being away from an asian market, or decent chinese restaurant. This book stands in marked contrast to many which fail to take into account the limited ingredients the person in a small town has to work with.

If this book could receive a zero star rating, than that would more accurately reflect my personal rating. I have attempted many of the cake recipes in this book. While the directions seem to be clear and complete, the end results are disasterous. In one recipe, I have tried this 4 separate times following the directions as instructed but all 4 attempts have had bad results. I have tried other recipes in this book for cakes with poor results as well. I have taken several cooking and baking classes so I am confident that it is not my technique and that something is amiss with either the directions or the ingredients. This is the only cookbook in my collection that has been permanently discarded.

This is one of the staples in my baking cookbooks. We have never found a chocolate cake as good, moist and easy to bake and modify as this one. My husband calls out for this cake. The other recipes that I have tried are also quite good. The only other cake cookbook that I would recommend is the Cake Bible, which is superb.

This is one of the best dessert cookbooks I have in my library. I've been baking since I was five when I started out cracking eggs in my Grandmother's restaurant. She taught me much about patience and paying strict attention to detail. She also taught me that if it was a humid day that I needed to be more careful and selective about what I wanted to bake that day and how to buy the very best and freshest flour and other ingredients. You must start with the very best ingredients to do these recipes justice. Before attempting the more difficult or unfamiliar recipes in this cookbook, one must really be familiar with all the basic baking techniques. If you use a measuring cup meant for liquids to measure out your flour you are headed for disaster. Yes, these are simple, well known rules but it is surprising how a litle mistake can mean the difference between success and failure. You should also know how to buy, store and temper chocolate for the recipes you are making. This is not a cookbook for the faint of heart but if you are willing to dive in and indulge yourself this book can be great fun. If you don't enjoy this cookbook and aren't successful with it, sell it back on Amazon and move on. Spending precious energy beating a dead horse doesn't help you and won't effect the sale of this book. Try another book:-)