Vintage Chinese Cookbook

I have a weakness for vintage cookbooks. I picked up this Chinese cookbook at an estate sale for $1. You can tell it was well-used, as the tape doesn’t even hold it together anymore. The cookbook was created by Benedictine nuns; this one is from 1960 (but the first printing was in 1956).

The book is divided by protein (so there’s beef, pork, chicken, seafood, vegetables, desserts and miscellaneous sections). I love the illustrations. They’re awesome—so cute and so many of them. Every page has as an illustration, and I can only imagine how much time it took to create these drawings.

As for the recipes themselves, I haven’t cooked any of them. Some are familiar recipes (like chow mien) and some I’ve never heard of before.

Another interesting thing is that some of the pages have Chinese proverbs relating to food and eating. Some are rather amusing.