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100 recipes for weeknight Chinese dinner, no special trip

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Grandma May's Recipe Book — Volume One cover
Digital books from the Grandma May's Kitchen channel

Grandma May's Recipe Book

100 recipes from a Queens galley kitchen, for nights the takeout menu costs too much
“Cheap doesn't mean it tastes cheap.”— what my mother told me over the stove in Taishan

Inside are 100 recipes across six sections — fried rice and noodles, dumplings and buns, everyday stir-fries, one-pot soups, rice bowls and congee, and the pantry sauces that tie it together. Every lesson has a drawing, numbered steps with real times and temperatures, and the common mistakes named with their fix. A 295-entry index at the back lets you look up what went wrong by symptom. None of it needs a special trip to a specialty market.

47 YEARS OF HOME COOKINGRAISED THREE KIDS ON A TAKEOUT COOK'S WAGE100 RECIPES, EVERY ONE FROM A REAL QUEENS KITCHEN
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PDF · 354 pages · 100 illustrated recipes · read on phone, tablet or computer, or print it

100Numbered recipes
6Parts
47 yearscooking in New York kitchens
295Problems in the index
14 daysMoney-back guarantee
The moment, exactly

For the night the takeout menu costs too much

This is for the Tuesday when payday's still three days off and the fridge has rice, an egg, and whatever vegetable didn't get eaten. It's for standing at the stove at eleven at night making one plate, not hosting a dinner party. The recipes assume a regular grocery store, one wok or skillet, and about twenty minutes.

What you needEvery ingredient and amount, so nothing is left to guesswork.
How to make itNumbered steps with the time, heat, and sign of doneness.
Why it worksThe one technique that makes the dish work, explained plainly.
How it goes wrongThe common mistakes, named, each with the sign and the fix.
Swaps and variationsWhat you can swap, and the one swap you shouldn't make.
What makes it different

Built for the day it goes wrong

Look up the failure

Flip to the back, find the symptom you're staring at — 'rice came out mushy,' 'basil turned black and bitter' — and it points you straight to the lesson that explains it. 295 problems are indexed that way, by what happened, not by ingredient.

Every mistake has a name

310 named mistakes sit inside the lessons themselves, each paired with exactly what caused it and how to fix it next time, right next to the step where it happens.

A drawing for every lesson

All 100 lessons come with a drawing — what the dish should look like at the point you're deciding whether it's done, not just a finished photo on a plate.

Numbers you can check

303 numbers run through the reference section — times, temperatures, weights — so 'hot oil' and 'simmer gently' mean something specific instead of a guess.

THE ARITHMETIC

What a week of takeout actually costs

A typical Chinese takeout dinner for two in a city like New York runs $35 to $45 once delivery and tip are added — call it $38 on an ordinary night. The same beef and broccoli, cooked at home from a regular grocery store, runs closer to $9 to $12 for two plates, mostly the cost of the beef. Seven nights of takeout adds up fast; seven nights cooked from this book adds up to roughly a quarter of that.

These are typical figures from an ordinary grocery store and an ordinary takeout order — yours will vary by store, city, and what's on sale that week.

What you'll be able to do

After the book

  • Cook a full Chinese dinner on a weeknight using only what's at a regular grocery store.
  • Get fried rice to crackle and separate instead of coming out mushy or clumped together.
  • Tenderize a tough cut of beef with baking soda before it ever touches the wok.
  • Build a small pantry of sauces that turn into a dozen different dinners.
  • Find a dish that went wrong by looking up the symptom, not the recipe's name.
VOLUME ONE · SIX PARTS

From the first fried rice to the pantry shelf behind it

One volume, six sections, a hundred recipes — fried rice and noodles through dumplings, stir-fries, soups, rice bowls, and the staple sauces that hold the rest of it together.

Part OneFried Rice & NoodlesEgg fried rice, lo mein, and the noodle dishes that start most Grandma May dinners.
Part TwoDumplings & BunsDumplings and steamed buns folded by hand on a Tuesday, not just saved for New Year.
Part ThreeEveryday Stir-FriesThe wok dishes that feed a family on a weeknight: beef, chicken, pork, and vegetables, stir-fried fast and hot.
Part FourOne-Pot SoupsSoups that stretch a little meat and a lot of vegetable into a full one-pot meal.
Part FiveRice Bowls & CongeeRice bowls, claypot rice, and the congee that uses up whatever is left in the fridge.
Part SixPantry Sauces & StaplesThe sauces, oils, and stocks every other recipe in this book points back to.
From inside the book

Every lesson has a drawing

Each of the 100 lessons includes a drawing of the finished dish at the exact point you're deciding whether it's done.

Recipe 9 drawing
Recipe 9 · page 31 · Dan Dan Noodles
Recipe 25 drawing
Recipe 25 · page 80 · Char Siu Bao
Recipe 41 drawing
Recipe 41 · page 129 · Honey Walnut Shrimp
Recipe 57 drawing
Recipe 57 · page 172 · Winter Melon Soup
Recipe 73 drawing
Recipe 73 · page 211 · Char Siu Rice Bowl
Recipe 89 drawing
Recipe 89 · page 260 · Garlic Scallion Oil
A page from the bookA page from the bookA page from the book
WHY THIS GOT WRITTEN DOWN
"Cheap doesn't mean it tastes cheap."

My mother said that to me over the stove in Taishan, when I was still too short to see into the pot.

I left home at twelve for a noodle stall in Hong Kong, and by the time I got to Queens in 1979 I had spent more years cooking for strangers than for my own family.

Twenty-two of those years were at a steam table on Broadway in Elmhurst, portioning out the same dozen dishes to people on their way home from work.

At night I'd go upstairs to our one-bedroom apartment over the hardware store and cook something different for my own three kids — cheaper, plainer, but never thin on flavor.

After my husband passed in 2004, Sunday cooking for the grandchildren became the thing that held the week together.

One of them asked me last year why I never measure anything, and I realized I couldn't answer in a way that would still make sense after I'm gone.

So I started writing it down — the real amounts, the mistakes I've made at that same Formica stove, the ones I still make.

This book is what came out of that, nothing more than what my mother handed down to me, written so it doesn't disappear a second time.

— May

WHO'S TALKING

May Chen

May Chen

May Chen is the voice of Grandma May's Kitchen — born in 1955 in Taishan, the fourth of six children, who left for a Hong Kong noodle stall at twelve and landed in Elmhurst, Queens in 1979, sponsored by her older brother.

She spent 22 years at the steam table of a takeout counter on Broadway, then went home to a one-bedroom apartment above a hardware store to cook something better for her own three kids. Widowed in 2004, she now cooks for her grandchildren on weekends, in that same Formica kitchen.

We want to say this plainly: May Chen is an AI-generated character. The voice, the kitchen, the biography are fiction. The recipes, the methods, and every number in this book are real, tested, and checked.

Made with AI — so you know what you're buyingMay Chen is an AI-generated character, the host of a YouTube channel. The host, the videos and the illustrations are made with AI. The methods are real, and every number that bears on safety was checked against official guidance.

“Cheap doesn't mean it tastes cheap — ah girl, write that one down too.”

All 100

What's inside

    Fried Rice & Noodles

  1. 1Egg Fried Rice
  2. 2Yangzhou Fried Rice
  3. 3Char Siu Fried Rice
  4. 4Pineapple Fried Rice
  5. 5Chow Mein
  6. 6Beef Chow Fun
  7. 7Singapore Noodles
  8. 8Lo Mein
  9. 9Dan Dan Noodles
  10. 10Cold Sesame Noodles
  11. 11Zha Jiang Mian
  12. 12Garlic Noodles
  13. 13Shrimp Fried Rice
  14. 14Vegetable Lo Mein
  15. 15Storing and Reheating Leftovers
  16. 16Pad See Ew
  17. 17Drunken Noodles
  18. 18Scallion Oil Noodles

    Dumplings & Buns

  1. 19Pork and Chive Dumplings
  2. 20Pan-Fried Pork Potstickers
  3. 21Shrimp Har Gow
  4. 22Pork Soup Dumplings
  5. 23Boiled Wonton
  6. 24Fried Wontons
  7. 25Char Siu Bao
  8. 26Mantou
  9. 27Scallion Pancakes
  10. 28Spring Rolls
  11. 29Vegetable Egg Rolls
  12. 30Sheng Jian Bao
  13. 31Siu Mai
  14. 32Freezing and Reheating Dumplings

    Everyday Stir-Fries

  1. 33Beef and Broccoli
  2. 34Kung Pao Chicken
  3. 35General Tso's Chicken
  4. 36Orange Chicken
  5. 37Mongolian Beef
  6. 38Chicken and Broccoli
  7. 39Pepper Steak
  8. 40Sweet and Sour Pork
  9. 41Honey Walnut Shrimp
  10. 42Garlic Shrimp Stir-Fry
  11. 43Ma Po Tofu
  12. 44Egg and Tomato Stir-Fry
  13. 45Snow Peas and Garlic
  14. 46Bok Choy with Garlic Sauce
  15. 47Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce
  16. 48Twice-Cooked Pork
  17. 49Cashew Chicken
  18. 50Choosing and Seasoning a Wok
  19. 51Eggplant with Garlic Sauce
  20. 52String Beans with Ground Pork

    One-Pot Soups

  1. 53Egg Drop Soup
  2. 54Hot and Sour Soup
  3. 55Wonton Soup
  4. 56Chicken Corn Soup
  5. 57Winter Melon Soup
  6. 58Tomato Egg Drop Soup
  7. 59Beef Noodle Soup
  8. 60Seaweed Soup
  9. 61Watercress and Pork Rib Soup
  10. 62Napa Cabbage and Pork Soup
  11. 63Daikon and Beef Soup
  12. 64Lotus Root and Pork Soup
  13. 65Silken Tofu Soup
  14. 66Corn and Carrot Soup
  15. 67Spinach and Egg Soup
  16. 68Mushroom and Tofu Soup

    Rice Bowls & Congee

  1. 69Plain Congee
  2. 70Century Egg and Pork Congee
  3. 71Chicken Congee
  4. 72Fish Congee
  5. 73Char Siu Rice Bowl
  6. 74Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl
  7. 75Scaling Recipes for a Crowd
  8. 76Egg and Soy Sauce Rice
  9. 77Chinese Sausage and Rice
  10. 78Claypot Rice with Chicken
  11. 79Beef and Rice Bowl
  12. 80Three-Cup Chicken over Rice
  13. 81Spam and Egg Rice Bowl
  14. 82Ginger Scallion Chicken Rice
  15. 83Soy-Braised Pork Belly Rice
  16. 84Vegetable Egg Rice Bowl

    Pantry Sauces & Staples

  1. 85Steamed White Rice
  2. 86Master Stir-Fry Sauce
  3. 87Deep-Frying Temperatures and Safety
  4. 88Chili Oil
  5. 89Garlic Scallion Oil
  6. 90Hoisin Peanut Sauce
  7. 91Sweet and Sour Sauce
  8. 92Black Bean Garlic Sauce
  9. 93Soy Vinegar Dipping Sauce
  10. 94Char Siu Marinade
  11. 95Five-Spice Blend
  12. 96Pickled Daikon and Carrot
  13. 97Chili Garlic Sauce
  14. 98Ginger Scallion Sauce
  15. 99Simple Chicken Stock
  16. 100Toasted Sesame Dressing
Straight answer

Who this book is for

It's for you if

  • You want a full Chinese dinner on the table on a weeknight, not another takeout order.
  • You're already shopping at a regular grocery store and don't want a special trip for one ingredient.
  • You want to know why your fried rice turned mushy, not just that it did.
  • You'd rather stock six sauces than buy a new bottle for every single dish.
  • You liked the channel and want the recipes without hunting through video timestamps.
  • You're cooking for one at eleven at night and don't want a whole production.

It's not for you if

  • You're after regional banquet cooking or rare ingredients — this is grocery-store Chinese-American home cooking.
  • You want a photo for every single step — this book gives one drawing per lesson, not a photo gallery.
  • You need recipes already rewritten for a strict diet — these are the real amounts, and you'll adapt them yourself.
How it works

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1 · Pay onceCard, Apple Pay or Google Pay on Stripe's secure page. We never see your card.
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3 · Keep itBookmark the download page — it works any time. Lost it? Write to us with the email you paid with and we send it again.
Before you buy

Questions

What do I get?

One digital cookbook — Grandma May's Recipe Book, 100 recipes across six sections, as a PDF, for $27.

How do I get it after I pay?

The download page opens right after checkout, and the PDF link works straight from that page — nothing to wait for in your inbox.

Can I print it?

Yes. It's a PDF, so you can print the whole book or just the one lesson you're cooking from tonight.

Is May Chen a real person?

No — May Chen is an AI-generated character for the Grandma May's Kitchen channel. The biography is fiction. The recipes, the methods, and the numbers in the book are real and checked.

Is the advice safe?

Yes, standard home-kitchen cooking: safe internal temperatures are given for meat, poultry, and eggs, and the deep-frying lesson covers oil temperature and basic stove safety.

What if it isn't useful to me?

There's a 14-day money-back guarantee. Cook from it, and if it isn't for you, ask for a refund.

How do I pay?

Through Stripe checkout — card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

One wok, one pantry, a hundred dinners.

Grandma May's Recipe Book is $27, backed by a 14-day money-back guarantee, and ready to open the moment you pay.

Get the cookbook100 illustrated recipes · PDF
$27

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$27100 recipes · PDF
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