Chinese cooking guides
Step-by-step recipes, pantry help and technique notes — free to read.
Chinese Tomato and Egg Stir-Fry: The 5-Minute Recipe Everyone Gets Wrong
The first dish every Chinese child learns. It is also the one most English-language recipes quietly ruin — here is how to do it properly.
How to Make Real Mapo Tofu at Home (No Wok Needed)
Mapo tofu is not a curry. It is a specific balance of salt, fermented paste, chilli and Sichuan pepper — and you can hit it in a normal pan.
7 Chinese Dinners You Can Actually Cook in 15 Minutes
Chinese home cooking is fast by design. Here are seven dishes that are genuinely on the table in a quarter of an hour.
The 12-Ingredient Chinese Pantry (With Substitutes You Can Buy Anywhere)
You do not need forty ingredients. You need twelve, bought in the right order, and you need to know what each one is for.
Hand-Pulled, Hand-Cut or Store-Bought: An Honest Guide to Chinese Noodles at Home
Hand-pulled noodles are spectacular and mostly unnecessary. Here is the honest breakdown of when each type wins — and the dough ratio that works abroad.
Smashed Cucumber Salad (拍黄瓜): The 3-Minute Cold Dish That Goes With Everything
The most useful three minutes in Chinese cooking. Cracking the cucumber instead of slicing it is not theatre — it changes the texture.
How to Make Chinese Egg Fried Rice Without a Wok (and Why Your Rice Is the Problem)
Restaurant fried rice does not taste better because of the wok. It tastes better because of the rice — here is how to get there on an ordinary burner.
What to Substitute for Shaoxing Wine: 9 Options, Ranked by How Close They Actually Taste
Shaoxing wine does three jobs in a Chinese dish. Once you know which job you need done, the substitute becomes obvious — and one of them is already in your kitchen.