4 comments about Vietnamese Fusion: Vegetarian Cuisine.

1. The distinctive local herbs and produce of Vietnamese cuisine has been heavily impacted French, Chinese, and Indian influences with respect ingredients and techniques. Now this culinary tradition has been further influenced and developed by Chat Mingkwan who transforms classic ethnic recipes into gourmet quality vegetarian dishes through utilizing customary Vietnamese seasons and ingredients, but substituting innovative animal-free alternatives for meat or fish in the recipes comprising "Vietnamese Fusion: Vegetarian Cuisine". After informing the kitchen cook about the characteristics of Vietnamese cuisine, soy products, and other ingredients fundamental to Vietnamese dishes including herbs and spices, vegetables and fruits, rice, noodles, wrappers, and seasonings, "Vietnamese Fusion" organizes the recipes themselves into sections on sauces, snacks and appetizers, soups and salads, main dishes, sweets and beverages. The easy -o-follow, step-by-step recipes themselves range from Sot Dau Phong (Peanut Sauce); to Canh Chua Thom (Hot-and-Sour Soup with Pineapple and Tamarind); to Nam Rom Nhung Dam (Mushrooms in Vinegar Fondue); to Banh Goi (Steamed Rice Cakes in Banana Leaves). Enhanced with color photographs of completed dishes, a list of references, mail order sources, an author biography, and an index, "Vietnamese Fusion" is especially recommended for personal and community library multi-ethnic and vegetarian cookbook collections.



2. bought as a Christmas present. My husband is an awesome chef and he is picky about the cook books he uses. This one is a keeper.



3. The recipes in this book lack authenticity. If you were to look up a traditional recipe for Pho (for example) you would find all manner of spices used in the stock that this book leaves out resulting in a rather bland version of the original. You would do better buying an omni vietnamese cookbook & making your own substitutions.



4. I bought this book thinking that I could use it to create vegetarian options to many different dishes. That is to say, I expected more in a stir fry recipe than "add vegetarian stir-fry sauce". I expected too much. my bad. It's a little book, and it's got very little in it.

5 comments about Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass: Southeast Asia's Best Recipes from Bangkok to Bali.

1. Not only is this book beautiful to look at, the recipes produce the most delicious (and authentic tasting) food. The simple recipes are easy enough even for people who aren't that confident in the kitchen (like my spouse); the fancier ones are perfect for dinner parties. Highly recommended!



2. Ms. Hutton offers reliable, clear recipes in a beautiful book, with clear advice as to ingredients, combinations, and cooking techniques. Lush photographs make everything look scrumptious. Good design keeps one recipe together on one page. I have had very good results with the three recipes I have tried. I bought the hardback because I expect to be using this book often, and appreciate the author's identification of recipes that require extra time and effort--a whole chapter. Another approach I appreciate is a good use of English that is not too British, not too American--but comprehensible to both, I hope. I am an American cook but sometimes use metric measures and having both is helpful.



3. I love this book - it is one of my favorite cookbooks. This has delicious easy to make recipes including many variations on noodle soups, fried rice, curries, appetisers etc. The recipes taste authentic, such as the Singaporian laksa - which is as good as any I have had in Singapore
   It is very modern, the recipes are trendy, and the food tastes restaurant class. After cooking out of this cookbook it is very difficult to enjoy going out for Asian meals again - much nicer to cook it yourself using this book!



4. My Mom and I love this book! Only thing is, she bought it for much more money than I did through Amazon. Great Prices.



5. I've been searching for a cookbook that would help me re-create some of the amazing home-cooked food I had while traveling through Thailand and the dishes I ate at wonderful and very authentic Southeast Asian restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. This cookbook is not it.
   I've tried a number of the Thai, Cambodian, and Vietnamese recipes in this book, and found all but one to be uninteresting and lacking in flavor, sometimes seemingly due to the cookbook's directions (for example, directing you to simmering pineapple in a soup for 10 minutes, when all other versions of the same soup I've had very briefly cook the pineapple so it remains flavorful). Perhaps the recipes from other countries are better, but for me the search for a Southeast Asian cookbook continues.

5 comments about The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking: Favorite Recipes from Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafes.

1. There were a lot of things I really liked about this book. There's a detailed section on ingredients where she gives brand preferences on things like fish sauce, and substitution suggestions for hard to find ingredients. (The brand of specialty sauce you use can make a big difference in outcome in Thai/Asian food, and if you're not familiar with those foods, it's hard to know what brand to pick. And her preferences generally line up with what I've heard elsewhere.) The recipes that I've tried are fairly easy and straightforward. And I wouldn't care about authenticity if I liked the food. My problem is that while, for the most part, the results were perfectly edible, there was nothing I would want to make again. The lemongrass chicken was tasteless. And I love lemongrass chicken when I get it in Vietnamese restaurants! The lemongrass lemonade was very good, but not worth the work. The curried rice with kaffir lime leaves and the Thai Green Curry with chicken were both good, but definately missing something. This might just reflect my taste preferences--I live in New York, so I might be used to a relatively authentic restaurant version, or it might have been my technique or my lack of stellar ingredients. However, I've had much better sucess in general with Nancie McDermott's books. I will hang on to the book for the ingredient introduction, and I may try one of the recipes again if there's something I can't find elsewhere, but probably not.



2. I've been using this cookbook for years and I have yet to make something that I am not pleased with from it.
   
   Some of my favorites include "Warm Beef on Cool Noodles", a classic Vietnamese dish. The Cornish hen stew, (made with a chicken instead) was insanely good (use Japanese style yellow curry, i think they say it in the book).
   
   The curry recipes are quite good, although I prefer to defer to Simply Thai Cooking for their technique with curry recipes (involves lots of boiling of curry and coconut milk). But these recipes are definitely great.
   
   There is also a great recipe for Shrimp with a homemade paste made with peppercorns, cilantro, and chiles that is excellent, even when I completely riffed on it.
   
   The format is easy to read, and the book has held up to my extremely messy cooking style. I also enjoy the author's anecdotes about Thailand and Vietnam.



3. I'm Vietnamese-American & grew up eating lots of Vietnamese food but never actually knew how to make anything myself so it is nice to have a cookbook that includes many of the traditional Vietnamese recipes, like carmelized ginger chicken, congee (chicken & rice soup), pho, etc. Also, the book includes Thai recipes which seem interesting though I haven't tried them yet. I've followed a couple of the former recipes and they provide good guidelines for the dish, however, I don't like how the author has "Americanized" the recipes and seems to make the highest priority presentation because I'm really just interested in eating simple, good food that's easy to make. Also, her narrative often includes "plugs" for her own or her husband's businesses which is a turn-off and detracts from the focus and authenticity of the book (which is supposed to be about cooking, not personal advertising). Still, the recipes seem ok and serve the purpose for Vietnamese-style cooking.



4. When I first bought this book I thought it was great but since then I have purchased Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors which is much more detailed and authentic. This "lemongrass" book is good for an introduction to both THAI and Vietnamese cuisine but I find it leans more towards "Americanizing" its flavors and for someone like myself who is trying to learn Vietnamese cuisine for her husbands sake..isn't the best. I being Hispanic, like the recipes but my Asian husband said they lacked TRUE flavor..hence my second purchase, which is a big hit. I like the Thai recipes in this book but tend to turn to the before mentioned book for Vietnamese recipes.



5. i could not even use any of her recipes, because its like a mixture of recipes that she has revised for people who aren't asian to cook and eat. i am asian and i know that these are not the real recipes, any wannabe could write a book like this. and she tries to hard to be all fancy and high class with her food. she even makes up these strange names for her recipes, what a waste of money. the worst recipes ever!!!!!!!!! her thai recipes are horrible. i don't think she realize that she is vietnamese. please get back to roots lady!

5 comments about Quick & Easy Vietnamese: 75 Everyday Recipes.

1. Though I grew up in the states, my family is of Vietnamese descent and I travelled (and ate) my way through Vietnam, especially Hanoi. This book was my first attempt at making Vietnamese food at home and boy am I impressed at how AUTHENTIC it is to what I ate in Vietnam and in local Vietnamese restaurants. I'll think twice about eating out now that I know how easy it is to make at home.



2. Bought this book because of it's good reviews and high star rating. The layout and instructions of this book are easy to follow and pleasant on the eyes (vibrant colors and good quality pages). However none of that matters if the instructions are all slightly off (recipes that called for medium-high heat for 20 minutes was in actually 1 hour on high heat while covered in order for the meat to be cooked enough to eat. Resulted in good enough looking food but tasted off and not at all "authentic" vietnamese. I've grown up on Vietnamese food and TRUST ME you do not want to use the foods made from this cookbook to represent what Vietnamese food should taste like. My mom laughed and suggested I throw out the cookbook and finally accept her traditional method of Vietnamese cooking (a dash of this and a glob of that measurements) instead. I wonder if I can still return this book since it will definately be unused and collecting dust on my shelf!



3. While the initial cost of buying ingridents for these recpies can be
   
   expensive, once you invest you are in for a treat! The direction of the
   
   recipes are easy to follow , authentic and tasty too! We went to Vietnam
   
   recently and now cooking from this book brings back culinary delightful
   
   memories. The recipes can be time consuming but if you love to cook that
   
   won't matter, have a glass of wine! The PHO is my husbands favorite,
   
   Lemongrass Beef ummmmm good! Don't Miss



4. This is a great fundamental vietnamese food cookbook. I received this as a present because I love to eat Vietnamese food but never took the time to learn how to cook it from my mom.
   Now that I no longer live in an area with a big vietnamese community, I'm finding it more and more necessary to cook the food myself so that I get my fix.
   What I love about this cookbook:
   nancie mcdermott keeps things very simple
   the flavors are right on
   simple cooking techniques
   short ingredient lists
   pictures! (you need to know what it's supposed to look like, right?)
   
   Basically, I have three beefs with cookbooks: 1) extremely long or hard to find ingredient lists, which is overwhelming, 2) the outcome that, in spite of buying all the ingredients and putting in the effort, the food still tastes bad, and 3) food that uses a lot of obscure techniques or a lot of pots and pans.
   
   Nancie Mcdermott rocks for realizing all of this and honestly, yes, the recipes are pretty good! You can tell she has eaten a lot of vietnamese food, and a lot of the recipes are one pot meals, healthy, and also list ways to use leftovers, so that you don't buy something for one dish and then have no idea what to do with it afterwards (another pet peeve of mine). You can tell she has run many a kitchen and is creative with leftovers.
   
   oh yeah, another reason this cookbook is great - she really tries to help you figure out the vietnamese name of what you're cooking, and the index has a list of dishes by the letter it starts with in vietnamese as well as t in english. just in case you want to test your cooking against a restaurant's (trust me, your stir-fry, with nancie's help, is probably fresher)
   
   Until I get to eat my mom's vietnamese, I am sticking with nancie mcdermott.



5. I have this book, as well as the Chinese & Thai versions and I love them all! The recipes are delicious and easy to follow. I've recommended all 3 books to many people and will continue to do so :)

5 comments about Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table.

1. Very authentic cook book. THough it lacks color pictures, if you are familiar with these dishes you will not need them. Flavors are very familiar to what my parents would cook- easy instruction though recipes are time consuming (inherent in the recipes not the authors writing). Get this book to cook a wonderful meal on the weekends and if you have access to these ingredients



2. This is the best book on the market..I cook from this book 3x a week and have a party with everything from her cookbook twice a month. The only thing missing is some exotic items..In my local market I find Feet, tongue gizzards I would like to start preparing one exotic item at every dinner party.Oh what fun...



3. I was looking for a serious Vietnamese cookbook. This one together with the one by Andrea Nguyen (Into the Vietnamese kitchen) were the best I could find. The key problem with both of these books is that they are written by Vietnamese-Americans living in the US. It is unclear to what extent the recipes are adaptations for an American audience or genuine. The recipe for cha ca seems close to the original (not so in Nguyen's book). Overall my impression is that most recipes are quite genuine, but I'm not the expert. I would really prefer a book written by somebody who has spent at least ten years living in Vietnam and knows the current (and historical) cooking inside out. But writing in 2009 and not 2019 this book is still pretty good. This book lacks pictures. Still it is really a toss-up between Pham or Nguyen. I hope we will get a translation of a Vietnamese cooking classic soon.



4. I have five vietnamese cookbooks, including Andrea Nguyen's wonderful "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen". I like this one best. The directions are straightforward, the information is great--and soulful.
   
   Hanoi rice noodles with grilled pork is easy to prepare and unforgettable on a hot summer evening.
   
   True, the pictures aren't glossy color coffee table quality, but so what? Marcella Hazan's classic Italian cookbook has no pictures at all, save a couple drawings.
   
   If you have access to the ingredients (or grow them yourself--most of the herbs are simple to grow on a windowsill) the recipes are not complicated at all. Honest food, easy to prepare. My copy is as dog-eared as Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"or Chef Paul Prudomme's Louisiana Kitchen". It's that good.



5. Mai Pham's book is outstanding. As a second generation Vietnamese-American, I'm always looking for ways to replicate the food that my mother and family cooked for me when I was young and this book has it all. Truly a great addition to my kitchen.

5 comments about Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart.

1. I did not order this book to cook out of, so as a disclaimer this is not a review of the recipes themselves. I ordered this book out of curiosity about a cuisine that I know little about, and it certainly fulfilled that curiosity.
   
   This is a beautiful book. Absolutely gorgeous. The presentation on this volume is worth 5 stars alone. This is more of a coffee table book then one you'd want to grime up with grease splatterings and batter drippings. It has a lovely almost fabric cover, and heavy crisp pages with well chosen delicate script for the recipes and light-filled close-ups of the dishes. But besides the presentation there is also a sweet heartfelt quality to this book-- a truly personal feeling. Intermixed between recipes is photos, mementos and a narrative of the story of a family, their life, immigration, a love of food, and the creation of a restaurant.
   
   And while I did not order this book for the recipes, I am intrigued and may try my hand at them one day. This volume is very heavy on seafood, more so than matches my cravings, but there is also plenty of other recipes offered. Lemongrass and Chile Chicken, Crab and tomato soup with vermicelli noodles, Carmelized white peach.
   
   This is a book for reading, but also for experiencing through the food. This book speaks of tastes I haven't tried. Of experiences I haven't had. It promises much and delivers this promise in a beautiful package.



2. My first impression is that this is a beautiful book. I like large cookbooks - I can see them from a distance without squinting. That's about the only thing I found familiar about the subject and the contents. If you are not familiar with Asian cooking, the recipes are bewildering.
   
   I have been to Vietnamese Restaurants many times. Not understanding all the contents did not diminish the impact. Vietnamese cooking is marvelous, heavy on stocks and crisp, fresh vegetables that are enticingly fragrant. It is intensely healthy. I survived off fresh spring rolls through most of my senior year at college. I still crave them when I have the flu. Nothing else seems quite so fresh and clean, and easily eaten.
   
   `Secrets of the Red Lantern' does go into detail about the foods and their preparations. The recipes are clear, the photographs well done. I especially like how Ms. Nguyen's narrative was followed by different recipes. Most of the ingredients can be found in a typical grocery store, while others require a visit to an Asian market. This is the part I found bewildering: I have no experience with most of the ingredients listed and would have liked a chart or diagram with lines and captions. This is not a beginner's book.
   
   Not all of the recipes are complicated and many of the ingredients are common. The thing that won me over was the multiple pages of family history. Ms. Nguyen, her parents and two siblings were `boat people' that spent a year in an internment camp before being accepted by Australia. They were initially refused by the United States, although her father had collaborated with American forces during the war. Their story is told in pictures and narrative. I found myself attracted to this more than the recipes.



3. This book is BIG. It looks lovely on a coffee table. The binding and artwork are beautiful.
   I don't think I will use it as intended as a cookbook. There are a number of ingredients which I am unfamiliar with and I don't know enough about Vietnamese food to try substitutes.
   Additionally, this book is only part cookbook. The remainder is a memoir staggered throughout the book. Just not what I was looking for in a cookbook.



4. Pauline Nguyen's "Secrets Of The Red Lantern" is quite possibly one of the most challenging books that I've read in quite some time. Handsome and ornate in it's presentation, it's a cookbook wrapped in a conundrum, a series of often painful personal recollections surrounded by sumptuous recipes and pictures of artfully prepared food.
   
   Ms. Nguyen communicates the book's intentions early on, right there in chapter one, in fact. She states plainly, "In my family, food is our language. Food enables us to communicate the things we find so hard to say." It is thus that the book begins, thrusting us headlong into a series of often harrowing stories from the Nguyen family archives. Leaving their their native Vietnam as "boat people", the Nguyen family is eventually resettled in Australia, there to face the challenges of a refugee's life. Stories of her often troubled and complex relationships with her parents naturally make up a large portion of the narrative, as the author recounts her abuse at the hands of her dominating and controlling father and her mother's subservient role as household matron. Often disturbing and forthright, the stories make up an amazing document of the pressures and difficulties encountered by a family displaced.
   
   In between chapters, the reader is treated to a variety of different family recipes, developed over the course of years and now proudly served at the real Red Lantern restaurant. It seems an odd juxtaposition, but I realized early on that the author was using food as catharsis, letting the recipes themselves speak the forgiveness and redemption that she herself has often found hard to convey with language. With time and experience, she comes to understand her parents better, letting the relationships gather flavor and depth much as a soup base would when cooked with labor-intensive care over a long period.
   
   Most of the recipes presented here would be difficult for a Westerner to prepare without special training and a familiarity with the ingredients used. You would need to live close to an Asian market to be able to try your hand at most of these dishes, though there are a few easy to make exceptions. Personally, I will use the book as a reference guide as to what might be good to try on my next visit to a Vietnamese restaurant.
   
   Recommended.



5. This is a stunning book and would make a gorgeous gift for any armchair chefs you know who love to read about cooking and food, intertwined with stories of people's lives.
   
   This is the story of the Nguyen family and their emigration from Vietnam to Australia, their building of a successful restaurant, and the family experiences and clashes that happen in so many families, particularly when two cultures collide.
   
   The story isn't always a happy one, but the photographs and recipes mingled in with the text make the story feel rich and full of life. I don't think this is a book that most people will read front to back like a proper novel, but rather they'll probably enjoy dipping in for a chapter here or there when they're thinking of preparing some Vietnamese food.
   
   The size of the book makes it hard to read the story like an autobiography, all the way through, and it might have been better as two books, an autobiography and a recipe book - but overall I feel that the balance provided by the smiling family photos and the recipes is needed to balance out a lot of the sadness in their family story.
   
   One thing you should be aware of is that the measurements here are Australian tablespoons which are slightly larger than American tablespoons. I am a pretty loose chef and tend to sort of toss things together in approximate amounts and make my own substitutions to the recipes, so this isn't a big deal to me, but it is something to be aware of.
   
   This is a gorgeous book and I really enjoyed getting to read the family's story, connect with them through the photos, and drool over the recipes. I loved that so many of the recipes have full-color photos.

5 comments about Quick & Easy Vietnamese: Home Cooking for Everyone (Quick and Easy Series).

1. Of all six vietnamese cookbook, this came pretty decent. The pictures are great to prep for the food. I like the fact that you don't have to worry if you bought the wrong ingredients or not. I am glad I bought this one. Banh Xeo and Bun Rieu is pretty decent.



2. Giving pictures of the major ingriedients was very thoughtful. The recipes are pretty streamlined and easy but thats fine with me, I don't have any aspirations to be a chef. Personally I wouldn't go to the trouble of making my own soup stock like the author suggests when you can just buy the cubes, but I guess it just depends on how serios you are about cooking. So far the book has been easy to follow and the food produced has been delicious which is whats most important to me.



3. The recipes in this book is pretty much basic vietnamese cooking. It is simple and easy to follow instructions. Great pictures that would leave you salivating and wanting to try the recipes.



4. I cook Vietnamese all the time but I got this book for dishes where I am not sure how to make. There are some shortcuts that I would have never thought to use. After trying it, it taste just as good and save me time.



5. Simple yet with the right info pictures and instructions...and with practice, Vietnamese cooking won't be so intimidating. Highly recommended for beginners like myself. I was hoping to see a recommendation for substitute ingredients, such as lemon grass... if you can't find lemon grass, what can you substitute with, and daikon, ??? I live in Italy and most required ingredients are non existent.

5 comments about The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon.

1. This book is a great book if you want to explore the Vietnamese cuisine. The food is wonderful and so interesting. I was exposed to vietnamese cooking by my wife and got this book to surprise her. It was great and she was extremely happy. It really surprised her that I could do such a good job cooking the food that she grew up with. It was easy enough to cook, and very interesting to get exposed to what other cultures eat. I loved it.



2. I found "The Little Saigon Cookbook" to be amongst the best of any of my Vietnamese/Asian cookbooks. It is vivid in its descriptions and illustrations. It also provides any serious enthusiast with some excellent recipes. My last dental assistant was Vietnamese and taught me a great deal before I had to retire and this cookbook reflects much of what she took the time to teach me. I also found the narrative of the author's coming to this country very interesting and inspiring.
   
   I regret that there is a "one-star" rating on this book. But I have found that if you investigate grossly deviant ratings/reviews you can usually disregard them due to personal agendas, lack of experience, etc.
   
   No, I am not Vietnamese, but I have been cooking and learning about Vietnamese cooking before most non-immigrants even knew much about this incredible cuisine. I can remember finally finding one of the few Vietnamese grocery stores at that time in south downtown Houston. This was just south of my dental practice and the owners couldn't believe that this "round-eyed" American was interested, much less knew anything about their foods. My first cookbook was a first edition by Bach Ngo. Since then I have collected most Vietnamese cookbooks in print and several out of print.



3. I've tried a few recipes in this book and it is not too bad. There isn't a book out there that you follow exact steps to get a perfect dish. You will still have to modify it a bit to fit your taste bud. This book was able to be that base starting point for me. Highly recommended.



4. This book of recipes is complete and easy to follow. It is also in brand new condition.



5. I was excited to order the book base on it great review. When I receive the book I open to read through some of the recipe that I would like to try. First off, the quality of the paper just feel cheap. Not the kind you get when you buy a cookbook with smooth hard paper type and everything and I seriously mean everything is in black and white. There isn't any color and don't expect any pictures to go with the recipe you trying to make. The only color and good pictures you will get is the book cover, that it. I don't understand why this book receive 5 star, when some of the recipe is off. One of my favorite is "Pho" and I was excited to give it a try but when I read the direction, it was off. Like how you were suppose to pre-boil the bones 10-15 min before you transfer it in another pot to cook. So the broth would be clear. After you broil the ginger and onion how you suppose to clean it. Little things like that wasn't mention anywhere in the book, including several other recipes like you suppose to know it. I just wish that they would include color pictures with good quality paper and detail recipes. That how cook book should be.

5 comments about Wild, Wild East: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam.

1. ...i am so thankful that someone has taken the time to make good vietnamese cuisine assessable to those of us who can't cook! I recently saw a segment on a local TV program with the author/chef and his personal story fascinated me...a SF native who finds a home away from home in Hanoi, Vietnam...and finds comfort in the food and culture surrounding him. Bobby Chinn's book succeeds in bringing all the fresh and contemporary elements of Vietnamese cuisine to the forefront with easy to follow recipes that make it a pleasure to cook! His playful take on traditional recipes is fresh and unexpected and the book is jam packed with healthy, creative dishes that anyone can reproduce. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys being creative in the kitchen....it makes a wonderful gift.



2. ..i am so thankful that someone has taken the time to make good vietnamese cuisine assessable to those of us who can't cook! I recently saw a segment on a local TV program with the author/chef and his personal story fascinated me...a SF native who finds a home away from home in Hanoi, Vietnam...and finds comfort in the food and culture surrounding him. Bobby Chinn's book succeeds in bringing all the fresh and contemporary elements of Vietnamese cuisine to the forefront with easy to follow recipes that make it a pleasure to cook! His playful take on traditional recipes is fresh and unexpected and the book is jam packed with healthy, creative dishes that anyone can reproduce. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys being creative in the kitchen....it makes a wonderful gift.



3. There are so many delicious recipes - I've tried a few so far and they turned out great. Vietnamese food is flavorful but very light. I love looking at the photos of food and scenes from Vietnam. I put this book on my coffee table for my guests to enjoy. Before this cookbook all the Vietnamese cookbooks I've seen were poorly laid out or the recipes were just too difficult to copy. I finally found the Vietnamese cookbook I can use and enjoy for a long time.



4. Bobby Chinn is a big fan of Vietnamese food - and considers it light, healthy and diverse. His own fusion-style recipes make WILD, WILD EAST much more than just another Vietnamese cookbook: it pairs color photos by Jason Lowe and stories by Bobby about all dishes along with recipes home chefs will relish, from Duck a la Banana to Carmelized Prawns. An outstanding presentation recommended for collections catering to neo-professional home cooks.



5. The receipes in this book sound wonderful. However, this is the worst, and I have hundreds, cookbook I have ever encountered for mistakes. Where is the second brining in the smoked duck? How much sugar and water do you use in the Lychee Sorbet? I have even emailed the publisher for help to no avail. There are some vital parts to both of the receipes missing that I've tried to make. If you are not a very accomplished cook, look elsewhere.

5 comments about Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors.

1. I just wanted to say that this is easily my favorite cookbook. I was new to cooking vietnamese when I bought this and it made cooking vietnamese food accessible to me. With pictures and descriptions of common ingredients, beautiful photos of finished foods, and detailed history accompanying the recipes, you really learn about the food you are cooking. The recipes are great and from what little I know from eating in vietnamese restaurants taste very authentic. My friend who was born in vietnam has served as my guinea pig and said she was surprised a lazy white kid could make authentic-tasting pho :) One other nice point is that, while she provides detailed description of the traditional (and usually time-consuming) ways to make the dishes, she often describes alternate "quick and dirty" methods for when you are in a time crunch. I would also like to add that I checked out the author's website ([...]) and it has some nice additional recipes and other adjuncts to the book. Anyway, hope this helps, and happy cooking...



2. So this is my sister's book so I can't comment on it personally since it would be biased, but I have give several dozen copies to friends and they have give positive feedback to me (maybe they just want to be nice). For many, the recipes were easy to duplicate and "tasty" in their representation. A number of my vietnamese friends use it daily in their kitchen as a resource guide to plan their daily meals.
   I hope that everyone at least go to their public library or find a friend that has a copy and try one to two recipes out, then you can make up your own mind if :
   1. Vietnamese cooking is for you
   and
   2. This cookbook is for you.
   
   Happy cooking



3. I'm Vietnamese, I only went abroad 5 years ago to study but I went back home at least once a year so you can bet that I know how Vietnamese food should taste like!
   
   Before leaving Vietnam, as many other students, I knew many famous food street vendors and I ate there quite often. When dinning out with parents, I went to upscale restaurants like Daewoo, Sofitel so I'm confident that I know how GOOD Vietnamese food should taste like!
   
   However, I'm disappointed about this "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" book. It's probably the worst investment I've ever made in cook books. The techniques are long and inefficient, the taste is really not good. I've never bought any other Vietnamese cook books so I can't say whether there's any better ones than this. But recently I discovered many good Vietnamese food blogs where people share their recipes with others. I've learned a lot more from those blogs than this book
   
   The only reason I gave it 2 stars, not 1 is because the pictures are good. I can use it to find inspiration about which Vietnamese food I should cook.



4. "Into The Vietnamese Kitchen" captures the reader's eyes with delectable pictures and fills the stomach with honest to goodness Vietnamese comfort food. Because I am not able to fluently read Vietnamese, there was a real lack of good English written Vietnamese cookbooks for me. Andrea really encapsulates the Vietnamese culture through the recipes in her cookbook. Her book is modern enough for the younger cook, while maintaining accuracy and authentic ness for the more seasoned cooks. Her poignant shared family stories add a unique personal touch to the cookbook, making it all the more pleasurable to read. This cookbook is a must have for your bookshelf! It's a great cookbook for a Vietnamese American like me who just wants to feel like she's back at her Grandma's dinner table.
   
   To get a taste of Andrea's cookbook, she also has a website you can visit : www.vietworldkitchen.com . It's full of insight, good reads, cooking tips, and additional recipes.



5. I was looking for a serious Vietnamese cookbook. This one together with the one by Mai Pham (Pleasures of the Vietnamese table) were the best I could find. The key problem with both of these books is that they are written by Vietnamese-Americans living in the US. It is unclear to what extent the recipes are adaptations for an American audience or genuine. The recipe for cha ca is stated to be a simplified version - I'd much prefer the original version (and then the simplified version as an alternative). I would prefer a book by somebody who has spent at least ten years living in Vietnam and knows the current (and historical) cooking inside out. But writing in 2009 and not 2019 this book is still pretty good. The book has a number of nice colour pictures. Still it is a toss-up between Nguyen or Pham