Zao Yangfan shu 造洋飯書

Zao Yangfan shu 造洋飯書, English title Foreign cookery in China, is a cookbook on foreign cuisine compiled by Martha Foster Crawford (1830-1909), wife of the American missionary Tartleton Perry Crawford (Ch. Gao Dipei 高第丕; 1821-1902), who worked for half a century for the China mission in the province of Shandong. His spouse Martha compiled several books related to China like the novel The Three Maidens, and her cookbook.

The first edition of the book was published in 1866, and there have been many reprints, for instance, the 1909 edition of the Meihua Shuguan 美華書館 in Shanghai.

The book's Western origin can be seen in its dating, which does not use the Chinese reign period, but the Western year after the birth of Christ, 1909.

The book starts with general rules for the kitchen (Chufang tiaoli 廚房條例). A cook should pay attention to three things: firstly, all utensils and food should be put in order and should not be misplaced; secondly, what should be done according to a time schedule should not be done carelessly or in a hurry; and thirdly, all utensils should be scrubbed and washed clean. Before the cooks learnt to prepare meals, they were taught how to keep the kitchen tidy and in order. Such instructions are not found in traditional Chinese cookbooks.

The main part of the book, divided into 25 chapters, explains the ingredients and cooking methods of Western food. In includes 267 dishes "selected from standard authors on the culinary art".

The appendix presents a bilingual table of terms. Quite interesting is how Ms Crawford translated thoroughly foreign terms into Chinese, either by analogy: "bread" as mantou 饅頭 (steamed buns), by innovative words: potatoes as "earth eggs" (didan 地蛋), or by her personal transcription: pudding as puding 樸定 (standard transcription buding 布丁), coffee as kefei 磕肥 (standard kafei 咖啡), soda as suda 蘇噠 (standard suda 蘇打), or chocolate as zhigula 知古辣 (standard qiaokeli 巧克力).

The aim of Crawford's book was not to spread Western food in China, but to instruct native cooks and housekeepers how to prepare food for the Western missionary personnel, who were unable to get used to Chinese food. For this reason, the book was not used outside of Western circles. The index served Westerners not able to speak Chinese. They just pointed at the page number of the dish, and the Chinese cook would then have to study the preparation method.

Some of the earliest statements on Western cuisine can be found in Xue Ke's 徐珂 Qingbai leichao 清稗類鈔 (ch. Xican 西餐), where he enumerates the occasions of meals, knife, fork, and spoon, and explains that many Chinese compradors (shangbu 商埠) were already accustomed to the Western way of dining. The earliest Western restaurant was the Yipinxiang 一品香 on Fuzhou Street 福州路 in Shanghai, where a large meal (dacan 大餐) cost 1 Yuan, a light meal (zuocha 坐茶) 7 jiao, and a snack (xiaoshi 小食) 5 jiao, plus a fee for cover (tangcai 堂彩) and cigarettes and drinks (yanjiu 煙酒). The oldest Western restaurant in Beijing was the Xicanbu 西餐部 of the Beijing Fandian 北京飯店, that in Guangzhou the Taipingguan 太平館. However, the dishes of these places, particularly in Guangzhou, were heavily adapted to Chinese cuisine (shark's fin) and cannot be called genuine Western food.