Gong Hey Fat Choy, people, or Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!*
To celebrate the Year of the Dragon today, I wanted to share with you two books – one for kids, one for grown-ups — by cookbook author Nina Simonds.
If you’re not familiar with Nina, she’s a leading Asian food expert and award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in countless publications such as Gourmet, the New York Times, Bon Appetit and O magazine. She’s the author of ten books on Chinese cuisine and culture, including A Spoonful of Ginger which has been on my cookbook shelf for years. And now and then she’s even come by TLT to leave a comment [blogger swoon].
A few years ago, Nina co-authored a children’s book called Moonbeams, Dumplings and Dragon Boats. Organized around four Chinese festivals — Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival; Qing Ming and the Cold Foods Festival; the Dragon Boat Festival; and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival — the book offers activities, games, stories and recipes for each. For example, when learning about Chinese New Year, young readers can enjoy “The Story of the Kitchen God,” write good luck characters on red paper, create their own paper lanterns and then head into the kitchen with you to make New Year Dumplings. It’s a lovely book worth checking out if you’d like to expose your kids to and/or celebrate Chinese culture.
And now I want to offer my grown-up readers a chance to win an autographed copy of Nina’s beautiful new Asian cookbook, released just this month. Simple Asian Meals has recipes for Hearty Soup Pots, Stir Fry Suppers, Main Dish Salads, Sumptuous Vegetarian Fare, Irresistible Sweets and more. And true to its subtitle – ”Irresistibly Satisfying and Healthy Dishes for the Busy Cook” — these are not intricate recipes you have to labor over all day. Rather, Nina has pared the ingredient lists down to their essentials and even encourages you to take advantage of short cuts like pre-cut butternut squash or packaged fresh green beans. Delicious, healthful Asian meals that are totally do-able on a weeknight – hooray!
For a chance to win the autographed copy of Simple Asian Meals, leave a comment below before noon CST tomorrow, January 24th. You can share your favorite Asian recipe, tell us why you’d like to win the book, or just say hi. I’ll use a random number generator after the comment period closes to select one lucky winner, and if you comment twice (e.g., to respond to something another reader wrote), that’s fine; I’ll just use the number of your first comment to enter you in the drawing. I’ll email you directly if you win and announce the winner on TLT’s Facebook page, too.
Good luck! Or, according to Google Translate, 好运 ! 
[Blogger disclosure: As with most of my book reviews, I received a free copy of these two books for my perusal. However, I never accept any other form of compensation for book reviews on The Lunch Tray.]
[*Ed. Update: Several readers have reminded me this morning that today is not just Chinese New Year but the Lunar New Year, celebrated by many Asian cultures. Noted and corrected! But unfortunately I think I can't change the title of the post without causing Google havoc.]
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s the Lunar New Year! Many people did not know that this is also the same time for many Asians to celebrate too! The Korean side of my family is having a feast this week! I sure miss them!
I am writing to say hi and to say “xin nian kaui le” from Beijing (Happy New Year in Mandarin). I would also be able to put that book to very good use
I’d love to have a copy of the book. My younger son adores Miso soup, choosing that over other foods when he’s not turned on by what I’ve made for dinner. I’d love to find other substitutes.
I bought A Spoonful of Ginger around 1998 and of all the Chinese cookbooks I’ve read, it is by far my favorite. So many books call for commercial sauces that I don’t like to use, and this one really minimizes that. I am looking forward to seeing Nina Simonds’ new book for more great meals!
My favorite is pot stickers and dumplings, I would love to cook more Asian foods since we don’t have ANY Asian restaurants in our town other than fast food types, Gross! I guess that’s one nice thing about having crappy dining choices in your town you just have to cook at home
Chúc mừng năm mới (happy new year) as we say in my family when we celebrate Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year)
I usually buy some Bánh chưng (sticky rice cake) but this year, I forgot (bad me). I will cook tonight some steamed rice, fry some slices of tofu, sauteed snow peas with onions and cilantro broth.
Saturday Jan 28, the restaurant Le Viet (in Houston) will host again a Dragon Dance. We’ll celebrate the New Year over there, as we do every year… our daughter LOVES the Dragon Dance ^_^
Clearly I’ve been too Chinese-centric by referring to today’s holiday as “Chinese New Year” and not the “Lunar New Year!” Fixing my post now!
My brother lives in China and is married to a woman from the mainland. They have two children. They have come to the US to visit and each time they have come they wanted to find a good place around here for Chinese food. How great it would be to have it at home. Another sister adopted a little girl from China 8 yrs ago. (my sister had gone through chemo and radiation for stage 4 Non-Hodgkins and was unable to have her own children). This would be great to share some of my nieces culture with her.
I’ve never really tried much Asian cooking, but perhaps it is time to start. Oh, and Hi! And Happy Lunar New Year.
Love the flavors and textures of Asian food, and TLT!
Our family’s favorite kinds of food and they can be very healthy too!
I love Asian foods but have a hard time finding restaurants I will eat at, and we are working at cutting back on eatting out anyway. Happy Lunar New Year!
When my oldest daughter was a baby we spent a couple months in Xi’an,China. She learned to walk while we were there and is very proud of that. Now she is 7 years old and loves to cook and explore food. We would love to experience this cookbook together and see what memories it triggers!
Since I have gone back to work, cooking simple, healthy meals has gotten harder and harder…this book might just make my life easier! Plus, I love Asian food.
With my son having a dairy allergy, we love to eat Asian foods which typically don’t use dairy ingredients, and I love that they use much more veggies. We really need to learn more Asian cooking, and he is a good age to start learning as well.
Over the past year, I have switched our diet from a lot of convenience foods and restaurant food to foods that I cook at home from real food. The only restaurants that seem to be missed are the Asian ones! I would love to win this book to learn how to make some of the dishes that have been missed. I am also going to have to get a copy of the Moonbeams book. My niece loves to come over and cook with me and since she is from China, I would love to be able to teach her to make some dishes.
We love Chinese green beans from Woman’s Day cookbook! My kids devour them.
I love Asian food and make it all the time.
Hi and wanted to wish you a happy lunar new year as well!
Would love to win this!
We eat a ton of Asian food; it suits our palate and our health goals. It’s kind of funny since we are a Caucasian-African American-Hispanic family. I’d love to win the book.
Thanks for your blog; I enjoy it a lot.
Happy Chinese Lunar New Year…..may we all have an amazing year of the dragon!
This looks like a wonderful book. I love asian food!
I’d love an asian cook book! Don’t have one yet but I’m getting more into cooking asian recipes at home. A new one I made this week was sauteed bok choy in a garlic & ginger sauce. Super yummy, easy & just so tasty! I’d love to try more.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-bok-choy-in-garlic-sauce/
I used about 2 pounds of bok choy & more ginger. 2 pounds still wasn’t enough for my family of 4. I could have eaten it all night!
When I moved to Iowa from Chicago in 1994, there was a sad lack of Asian restaurants anywhere near me. I especially missed my very favorite – Thai. Fortunately, there was a small Asian market in town where I could get authentic ingredients so I learned to cook it myself. I’d have big Thai dinners for my friends. I even self-published a cookbook with my Thai recipes to give to my friends one Christmas. Fortunately, a lot has changed in 18 years and there are now lots of options for Asian food. I still like to cook it, but don’t do it as much as I once did. Would love a copy of the new cookbook to get me going again! : )
Here are some of my Thai recipes: http://deborahneyens.hubpages.com/_26b99yhn3ra12/hub/Thai-One-On-with-a-Thai-Inspired-Dinner-Party
Thanks for sharing, Deborah. These look tasty!
I rarely make asian at home. If anything Thai curry is our go-to dish. Simple Asian recipes would be awesome.
Mmmm, I love Chinese food, but I shudder to think what’s in take-out. I think I need to bulk up my at-home recipes for Chinese. My favorite meal is a simple stir fry (don’t tell, but I use frozen veggies, and I can have dinner on the table in a half hour). I have some recipes for citrus chicken that look really good, but I haven’t tried them yet.
This book would find good use in my family’s kitchen. Happy Lunar New Year!!
I love cookbooks and trying new recipes. I’d love to win this one and start cooking some Asian dishes.