Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Murdoch Books for my stunning gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. I cannot express how much I engaged with this wonderful book, which has built my confidence in exploring a whole new world of cooking, as well giving me new skills and overall has allowed me (and you too) to explore Chinese-ish cooking without fear, Rosheen and Jo encourage you to go at your own pace and make ingredient substitutions if something isn’t to your liking, for example, I’m allergic to chilli but have found using smoked paprika works for me. Chef Rosheen Kaul and illustrator Joanna Hu's collection mashes classic Chinese cooking with personal culinary influence collected from all over Asia. Get yourself a carbon steel wok (as my husband did recently; he’s loving it), hit up the supermarket’s international aisle or your local Asian market, and you’ll be dishing up variations on fried rice, Sichuan-style noodles and chiffon omelets in no time.

When the rice is ready and starting to sizzle, add the white pepper, salt, sugar and MSG (if using) and stir through. However , like a few other reviewers when I got the book I didn’t enjoy the book and find the recipes complicated and the book difficult to follow. Food was a huge part of this journey - should they cling to the traditional comfort of their parents' varied culinary heritage, attempt to assimilate wholly by learning to love shepherd's pie, or forge a new path where flavour and the freedom to choose trumped authenticity? Part of my personal interest in reviewing this book, is that though I am a successful hobby baker, cakes and desserts are my passion and relatively easy for me to make but I possess an inability to successfully stir fry anything!Well, anywhere is the answer, but I still feel I should highlight some recipes for you, and I do so gladly, hard though it is to leave any out. There are also plenty of tips and shortcuts to demystify any tricky-sounding techniques, and a reassuring list of pantry staples and where to find them.

Hu's watercolor illustrations play so nicely with the vivid photography throughout and the recipes are remarkably accessible. Rosheen Kaul was born in Singapore to a Kashmiri father, and her mother was born to Chinese Filipino parents but adopted at a young age by a Eurasian mother and Indonesian father. You can introduce as many or as few fillings as you like – just ensure that they are sliced thinly enough to cook quickly, or are already cooked.

Today, I am going to be telling you all about Chinese-ish by Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu, which is a delicious hybrid biographical recipe book, which I have found utterly sumptuous in its presentation, its pictures and illustrations are gorgeous and informative and they are interspersed with personal reminiscences of family and food which I have found addictively fascinating to read.