Ha, yes, fair enough on the not reading the languagey parts! But very glad to hear you're enjoying the rest.

Regarding Ken Hom, I only have one of his books. I had a quick flick through and checked on a couple of the recipes I'm familiar with. I'm slightly disturbed that he makes mapo tofu with yellow bean sauce and chilli powder, rather than with chilli bean paste. He also omits chilli bean paste from his fish-fragrant aubergine recipe, and adds what looks to me like way too much sugar. Having said that, he does at least use some more unusual ingredients, such as pig trotters, and while most of the recipes want you to use boneless meat cuts and fish fillets, he also offers a couple for on-the-bone meat and whole fish.

According to Wikipedia, he first learned to cook in his uncle's restaurant in Chicago — I would suspect from the timing that the restaurant was a Westernised Cantonese style one, though this is speculation of course. I don't think it would be too far of a stretch to suggest that most of his recipes, particularly the earlier ones, are likely to be somewhat Westernised, if only because that would have been necessary at the time to get the British public to accept them.

(Oh, and somewhat off-topic, but I love this anecdote of his visit to Elizabeth David — right at the bottom.)