OP: Florence Lin's Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads (paperback)

Quill, New York, 1986. Paperback. Fine.

Florence Lin (1920–2018) was one of the great culinary instructors and cookbook authors of the 20th century, deepening her largely western audience’s understanding of the regionality and nuance of Chinese cuisine with her first book, Florence Lin’s Chinese Regional Cookbook (1975).

It is her last published title, however, that remains unmatched, even forty years later, with its focus on doughs: Florence Lin’s Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads (1986). 

Edited by the renowned Maria Guarnaschelli and shaped by Lin’s teaching experience, it is rigorously instructional in making from scratch the types of things many cooks might be more inclined to buy at the store.

Beginning with a tour of the northern provinces, you’ll find wheat flour-based doughs like deep-fried, hand-pulled dragon’s beard noodles, served wrapped in griddled “Mandarin pancakes.” A lavish duck soup from the eastern part of the country offers shrimp-filled wontons alongside a whole duck simmered with ham and snow peas. Then there are also steamed and baked buns in a variety of shapes and forms, fillings included.

Southern China favors rice-based doughs, and here you’ll find another vast offering of noodle dishes and rice cakes, both sweet and savory. And, not to be neglected, there are also doughs made from beans, tubers, millet, and even water chestnuts. The scope is impressively vast without ever losing focus.

Ours is a Fine, unused paperback.