Chinese and English Cook Book
San Francisco/Shanghai: Fat Ming Co/Shanghai Business Printing, [1923]. Third Edition? Octavo, 9 x 6.5", quarter black and green cloth, gilt spine lettering in English and Chinese, [10], 42, 825, 32, [4] pp, illustrations from photographs throughout. A cookbook for Chinese people employed in hotels, inns, and private homes in the foreign settlements in China and in the American West. The book was issued by the Fat Ming Company, a longtime San Francisco Chinatown dealer in books, stationery, school supplies and general merchandise founded in 1908 by a Chinese immigrant named Wong Taw. The book was first published in San Francisco in 1910, followed by editions published in Shanghai, where Wong lived for a time starting in 1916--these include a 1916 second edition, a 1918 third edition, and this 1923 edition, also called a third edition on the copyright page, but with more pages and different recipes than the 1918 edition. The preface notes that the third edition "contains more than double the number of pages in comparison with that of the former editions," and adds English translations of each recipe, an expanded conversation section, a series of menus, and photographic illustrations of recipes. According to the preface, "The present work is the first thorough compilation of recipes on foreign cookery, designed especially for the use of Cantonese...A large majority of the recipes have been contributed by successful Chinese masters of the art of foreign cooking, others have been contributed by several famous American and European chefs..." The book also includes an English and Chinese index which "will also be of assistance to the foreign employer in pointing out any article desired to the Chinese employee, who can not understand oral instructions," as well as a chapter on conversation selecting phrases and sentences "especially for cooks and waiters to aid them in their duties."
The 1049 recipes within cover a wide variety of American and European fare, and include health food muffins, matzos pancakes, clam chowder, Baked Finnan Haddie, broiled live lobster, Calf's Head a la terrapin, India Curry, Hungarian Goulash, and Kischtke, Russian Style. The 32 page conversation manual, meanwhile, covers phrases used in interviewing for a job as a cook, interactions between servant and employer, the serving of meals, and train and steamship travel, mostly in American cities. This section ends with a glossary of terms used in the kitchen. The book concludes with a couple of pages of promotional text for the Fat Ming Company. Harvard, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley in OCLC for this 1923 edition. Staining to covers and text block edges, occasional pencil markings and staining to pages, rear hinge cracked, wear along spine with some loss to cloth. Item #10259
Price: $1,250.00