Customer Rating:  
Summary: Good but not great
Comment: A nice, light read. The food references were fantastic. Definitely a book for the foodies on your list.
That said, the overall plot was a little predictable and I thought the non-romance non-food subplot was handled clumsily. Why introduce so many characters just to drop them with a convenient, too-tidy summing up? Plus the main characters were a little flat.
That said, it was still an enjoyable read. Just not incredibly memorable or profound.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Monese works soars
Comment: Nicole Monese has published 3 books, all superb. She spends years doing meticulous research on her subjects: food, porcelain and archeology all located in China. The books are rich in characterizations, history and poltics. She weaves an intricate tapestry of the past and present-day Chinese life. And her books all focus on strong women protagonists. I recommend her books often and frinends are uniformly grateful for the tip. Why isn't she more reknown? Her work is wonderful. Anthoer one is coming but not soon. She takes years creating these books and it's evident. They are big books but get all 3 you won't regret the time spnet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The food is interesting, the book is not
Comment: A completely predictable story - journalist goes to china to find out if her dead husband cheated on her. Any chance she'll fall in love with the bachelor subject of her latest story?
The information about Chinese cuisine, history and cooking methods is very interesting, but not written up with that much skill. Compared with the Peter Mayle books on Province that had me lusting for every meal he describes, my eyes glazed over during many of the descriptions even though Chinese cuisine is among my favorite.
I do have to say that in the description of one of the American Expat lawyers, his rationale for staying in China, this was the more realistic and authentic description of Ex-Pat life I've ever seen. I lived in Tokyo for three years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Last Chinese Chef
Comment: You know that the Chinese have one of the world's most exquisite cuisines...yet you often wondered how Chinese food served in this country could pass as part of a world renown 'cuisine.' The Last Chinese Chef will clarify this mystery for you. As part of the "Fast Food Nation" generation, we haven't learned to slow our eating habits enough to appreciate the subtle layers of flavors and textures that Chinese cuisines cultivate. We haven't learned that food nourishes not only our body, but also our brain and soul, by appealing to all our senses.
This is a story that will make you hungry for Chinese food! The story is almost too simple, one of a grieving widow who happens to be a food writer assigned to interview a Chinese-American in China competing in a contest that may help him break into the rarified ranks of the top Chinese chefs if he wins.
Although this is fictional, at the end of the book, there is a list of restaurants that actually serve some of the dishes prepared in this book. I get hungry just thinking about it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alluring if not perfect
Comment: The story line seemed somewhat fresh to me and the book was my best friend for the few days it took to read it. No fewer than ten times, however, I'd feel an ominous uneasiness, a "don't go there again...don't oversimplify American & western ideals, personalities, culture, food..", but it would. Example, the scenario in which a Chinese would take precious time off of prep time for a competition to visit an ailing uncle and that's the Chinese way, but by blatant implication not the western way, is not just condescending, it's incorrect. New Yorkers inconveniencing people and expecting the inconvenienced to stop them? Wow, I'm from the 2nd city and myself enjoy lambasting the Big Kahuna, but that's not at all the general attitude I encounter during my regular NYC visits.
It's a common problem in a lot of the new "globalized" fiction, an "exotic" society being so much more connected and deep and philosophical. It's not as insulting as it is embarrasing for the authors who obviously aren't emmeshed in "western" society to understand its codes of ethics, mores and its own formal societal rules, all resulting from complex codes and histories of our own.
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