Author’s Note

The spelling of Chinese words and place names follows the pinyin system of converting Chinese characters to the Roman alphabet. This system has been officially adopted by the People’s Republic of China since 1979 and it closely resembles actual Mandarin pronunciation. I have used this system when referring to certain recipe names and specific food items as well as certain regions within China. For instance, I have used Sichuan, instead of Szechuan. However, I felt it necessary to make exceptions for the spellings of certain very well known dishes, such as Peking duck, dim sum, and for a few ingredients which are better known by their Cantonese names. In the case of better known places, the pinyin spelling is followed by the perhaps more familiar name, for example, Kaiping (Hoiping) and Guangzhou (Canton).