Cookbook Author to Bring Samples to Kona Stories Book Store

A Chinese Kitchen.

A Chinese Kitchen Author Lynette Lo Tom will visit Kona Stories Book Store with samples from her cookbook on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017, from noon to 2 p.m.

The Hawai‘i food writer  has captured the delicious cooking of her mother, Lorna Lee Lo, extended family and friends.

There is a wide range of dishes to satisfy not only the novice, but professional chefs as well.

Most of the recipes, not surprisingly, are Cantonese, as three-quarters of the Chinese workers who came to Hawai‘i to work on the plantations were from Zhongshan, an area in Guangdong province (formerly called Canton).

Tom, a Hawai‘i-born, fifth-generation Chinese, explains some of the unique foods in Hawai‘i such as cake noodle.

The book’s 112 recipes include popular dishes such as Boiled Peanuts with Star Anise, Chinatown-style Crispy Skin Roast Pork and Mongolian Beef.

More traditional recipes are also included: Prune Apricot Mui, Winter Melon Soup and Chicken Soup with Ginger and Whiskey (called Gai Jow).

A Chinese Kitchen goes behind the scenes explaining the recipes, providing insights into Chinese food traditions, culture and experience in Hawai‘i. The many stories interspersed throughout the book give colorful insights into Chinese life in Hawai‘i from the 1950s until the present.