Sugar and Soy Sauce: A Collection of Recipes from My Mom (and Other Recipes I Like)

It's my mom's birthday today, and I made her cry.

As you already know, I think my mom is the best home cook in the world, and I've been bugging her to teach me more of her recipes for the past couple of months. She gladly taught me, but I could sense she was a little confused and even slightly annoyed at how persistent I was about making sure I got every little measurement right since she almost never measured out her ingredients. What she didn't know was that I was getting all her recipes so that I could make her a cookbook for her birthday.

Well, she got the book in the mail, and when she called me she was crying. A lot. At first I was alarmed thinking something was wrong with her or my dad, but eventually she was able to stop crying long enough to tell me that she had gotten the book and to thank me for it. The funniest part is, I had called her about a week ago to let her know to expect something in the mail since the book was being delivered without a card or a message. Since my mom hates surprises, she demanded to know what it was, and I finally relented by telling her that she could guess. She figured out that it was a book, and then that it was a cookbook, to which she responded with indignation because, "what could [she] possibly learn from a cookbook?"

I titled the book "Sugar and Soy Sauce" because early on I had learned that just about every dish she makes includes at least some sugar and to a slightly lesser degree, soy sauce. The book includes 16 recipes, over half of which are my mom's. The other ones are some of my other favorite Chinese recipes that I've picked up over the years from friends like Karen's scallion pancakes, Jaleen's peanut butter noodles, and Joanna's nian gao.

Ever since I've been posting up my mom's recipes, she's been chiding me for giving away her secrets. Well, now that the book is published, I've decided to (partially) obey her and stop giving them away, at least for free. If you'd like a copy of the book, you can buy it yourself here at lulu.com. It's $30, and I make a whopping $1.24 per book so I'm obviously not in it for the money, more just for the fame. Haha, jk. It's a hardback book with lots and lots of full color pictures. There's a preview of the book if you follow the link, but here's a taste (pun intended) of what's inside:

And if you ask me really nicely, I might even sign the book for you. =)