January 19, 2018 - 5:39am
Artisan baking in Mandarin
Hi all,
i am shortly going to visit my girlfriends parents in Taipei, Taiwan. I was wanting to give her dad a gift of a book on artisan-style baking. However given his English is poor the book would have to be in Mandarin (preferably traditional Mandarin but simplified would do as well).
Does anyone know if such a book exists?
Regards
jeff Maughan
Just to add - i don't mean as Asian-style breadmaking book, I mean a book focused on western-style artisan breads but written in Chinese
txfarmer was one of the most masterful bakers ever to post on TFL. She is no longer posting unfortunately. She is a Chinese engineer, if I recall (Jarkko Liane wrote her up in his blog). txfarmer reported, before signing off here, that she had written a baking book, not in English but in Mandarin, and it would presumably be about the European style baking she displayed here. With a little internet scouring, I bet you could find it.
Sorry I can’t get you closer than that.
Tom
Do your girlfriends parents have an oven? Oven's are not real common in Taiwan. I have a place in ZhongLi and I do stove top (frybread). There are some really nice European bistro type places in Taipei.
A nice bookstore in Taipei 101. Maybe there if you are unable to find one here.
This is txfarmer post about her book (available China only) but if you can find a way to contact her you might be able to get one.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/36816/sourdough-cronut-hey-hey-hey-remember-me
Most families in Taipei (biggest city in Taiwan) don't do much baking (sometimes even cooking) at home, because 1: no oven and 2 many bakeries and convenience stores. They are more used to steamed bread; even for that, they often buy it fresh from the shop or the frozen ones in supermarket.
Anyway, if you want to introduce them to artisan baking, there are some translated books from western bakers. Such as
1. Jim Lahey, My Bread: 免揉麵包之父吉姆.拉赫的83道獨門配方 (might be easy for the newbies)
2. Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, How to Make Bread: 經典歐式麵包大全
3. Éric Kayser, Le Larousse du Pain: 法國麵包教父的經典配方
You can buy them online and pay & pick up the book at any convenience store. Or, you can go to Eslite book store (there's one in Taipei station)
yes it's OK they have an oven, I've checked the size and it is big enough for a small baking stone. Her father presently bakes bread at home using a bread machine.
Thanks very much for those suggestions!