No comments about Koto.

3 comments about The Songs of Sapa: Stories and Recipes from Vietnam.

1. Luke speaks fluent Vietnamese and so his journey through Vietnam is made easier. The television series that goes with the book is refreshingly honest and insightful. Luke has a well developed sense of humour and an abiding interest in food that he wants to share with others.



2. This is far more than a cookbook. It is full of stories, anecdotes, and points of interest about the many culinary regions of Vietnam. Luke Nguyen writes in a casual yet engaging manner and not only makes you want to try his recipes, but get on the first plane out to Hanoi. Visually the book is gorgeous - it would be equally at home in the kitchen or on the coffee table in the loungroom. The recipes are easy to follow and most of the ingredients are readily available.



3. This is such a lovely book! I love that there are oodles of pictures and that they are colorful, genuine, and don't seem overly styled or stiff. To me the highlight of the book is the personal insights Luke Nguyen shares about his relationship with the food and those who make it. I felt there were wonderful insights into Vietnamese culture which for me was my favorite.
   
   I cannot comment yet on ease or accuracy of recipes because I haven't made anything. I'm still just enjoying the pictures and storytelling aspect of the book.
   
   I'm now planning on purchasing Mr. Nguyen's other book!

No comments about Culinary Vietnam.

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

1. 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.



2. 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.



3. 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.



4. 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. I'm asian and have always been a huge fan of both Vietnamese and Thai food but felt intimidated by the thought of making it at home. My husband, the foodie, had this book in his collection for years but never really used it. About 6 months ago I picked it up and made a simple curry dish and was completely hooked. The book is fantastic. While there are quite a few ingredients that you don't find in the average American kitchen, it's well worth a trip to your local asian market. There is nothing like using fresh basil, lemongrass, and thai bird chilis in your food. The flavors are simply amazing. I've made about a dozen dishes and everyone turns out incredibly well. Side note: the author is a restaurant owner.

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

1. 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.



2. Like a Betty Crocker recipe, these recipes use shortcut ingredients like store bought soup base or a combination of ready made sauces. I would recommend this book for someone who wants to get good Vietnamese food on the table with little hassle but not for someone who wants to learn how to make authentic Vietnamese. My mom would smack me with a chopstick if she saw me using Ketchup as an ingredient! Best things about this book are the step by step pictures of the cooking process and the ingredient pictures. It's so much easier to go to the Asian grocery store and know by sight what to look for. I also appreciate that the dishes look very close to how it would be served at home, not an over-stylized, gourmet plateing.



3. I bought this book because I'm new to Vietnamese cooking and I thought it would be a good starter cookbook. It was disappointing to say the least. A lack of instructions does not make it easy for me. I don't like guessing at what I'm supposed to do. There are various things that leave you scratching your head - like one recipe that lists coconut milk and then neglects to tell you what you're supposed to do with it.
   
   There are plenty of pictures but even some of them are incorrect.
   Some recipes will list an ingredient and then show a picture of something different. My Vietnamese friend says that some of the recipes are not even Vietnamese!
   
   I did make a few of the recipes that turned out good but I'm looking for something better.



4. This book is a good cookbook for beginners. The ingredient lists are simple. Most of them can be found at your local grocery stores. I've tried some recipes. The taste is closed enough to mama's home cooking.



5. Most of these recipes are one page each, with a main picture, an ingredient list, and four small pictures chronicling the four "simple" steps on each page. This layout works well with a truly simple dish like Fresh Spring Rolls (Goi Cuon).
   
   They work not so well for more complicated dishes. For Tomato and Crab Noodles (Bun Rieu), the last (fourth) step instructs: "Pour meat mixture into boiling stock. Season stock with fish sauce and sugar. Add tomato. In a large bowl, place noodles and pour over soup." OK, how long is the meat mixture in stock supposed to be cooked at boiling? Should the heat be turned down at some point to cook the mixture (because it can quickly get overly dry)? What about the tomatoes? Is this a simple blanching to peel off the tomato skin? Or should the tomatoes be cooked until they're softened? A few of the meat dishes require marinating but too many leave out the length of marinade time.
   
   In short, for the sake of keeping the recipes seemingly simple, the instructions leave out too many critical details.
   
   I appreciate the ingredients page with pictures at the beginning, but it is by no means comprehensive. And I wish that if the recipe called for unusual ingredients like Vietnamese soy sauce (which I can't find in NYC's Chinatown) then it would suggest substitutes. I also agree with some of the previous reviewers who said some of these recipes are too salty, almost inedibly so.
   
   Despite all these criticisms, I still give this a cookbook 4 stars because if you have some experience with cooking, and if you have eaten enough homemade Vietnamese food, you can recreate your favorite dishes relatively easily and reliably. I appreciate the simple 1-2-3-4 approach as it seems less intimidating than some of the Vietnamese cookbooks I have -- books that are lovely to look at but don't inspire me to try because they seem so laborious. I now cook with this one and occasionally reference the others if there's a missing step here or there in these recipes. Try this book. You just have to experiment with these recipes and you'll soon be able to fill in the gaps that will allow you to cook some very tasty Vietnamese meals.

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

1. 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.



2. 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.



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



4. 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. Book contains really good recipes and is presented well so following the recipes is not a problem.

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

1. 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!



2. 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



3. 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.



4. 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. So far, everything I've made from this cookbook has been fantastic, and my friends are getting tired of me raving about it. Big bottles of fish sauce, soy sauce & sesame oil (from an Asian grocery store, not the expensive specialty stuff) are now permanent fixtures in our kitchen. I do think that if you live far from an Asian grocery store, some of these recipes could be challenging, but most of them use ingredients that are readily available.
   
   The recipes really are quick and easy, in my experience, and everything is packed with flavor. I had no idea what a great combination fish sauce, garlic & brown sugar could be! I do find that I often end up adding more vegetables than the recipes call for. The only recipe that failed for me was the chicken with caramel sauce, which was still quite tasty but didn't live up to its photo; I'm not convinced that I made it right.

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

1. This is an absolutely beautiful book that is part memoir, part Vietnamese cookbook. I am not one to read memoirs, even less so when I'm looking for a recipe, and that is why I gave this book four stars instead of five. The cookbook part is one of the best books I have as far as Asian cuisine goes. It has lots of good recipes and easy to follow instructions. The author provides a great section on substitutions that can be made for some of the more obscure ingredients, which is helpful with Asian cuisine if you are not living in an area that has specialty grocery stores.
   
   There is a passion about cooking that comes through in the recipes contained in this book. They are diluted though by the amount of text that is contained in the book's 300 plus pages.



2. This book is not for people with weak stomachs. This is not because of the food by any means. It is because of the unflinching narrative written by Pauline Nguyen of her and her family's harrowing escape from Vietnam and their difficulties in Australia. Her completely dysfunctional relationship with her father is extremely emotionally moving.
   
   It is evident that the recipes are remedies for the traumatic experiences her and her family underwent. The Red Lantern restaurant and this cookbook is their path to salvation. You can see in in the extremely high production qualities from cover to photos to the layout, that the authors have taken pride in this cookbook. One of the best cookbooks I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Pauline and Luke, thank you.



3. This is a memoir with recipe. While the title may make it out to be a "cooking book," the recipes in this book a actually not very many. Which isn't to say they aren't good, they are just less than I expected for such a big book.
   Since I got the book mainly for recipes, I will focus on that here:
   There's definitely a number of very traditional recipes, which I like. It's down to earth home cooking. The bad part: it's REALLY hard to find the exact recipe, even after you read the book, because they are scattered all over. I thought recipe organization could be a lot better. Yes, it's a memoir, but there are plenty of other travel/memoir food books with better organization and index.
   There are childhood stories, which I will leave for others to review, because unless there is something really unique about the story, of unless the author is a spectacular writer, I find them heavily filtered through porous memory and overwhelming sense of nostalgia - and you will find that here too.
   So while I love cookbooks, I don't consider this a "must-have" especially in such a market crowded with so many other cookbooks. Unless, of course, you have an attachment to memories of Vietnam, then this will provide some interesting tidbits.



4. The book is a celebration of food,family and diversity. The honesty of the narrative seems to have troubled some, I found it enlightening and consistent with many stories of the children of 'New Australians'. The writers love for her family resonates throughout the entire book.
   
   This book has brought much joy to my family. Having been in possession of a copy for over a year now, not one week has passed without making one or more of the dishes within. It has also given me the basics to explore variations.
   
   Great recipes.



5. It took me quite a while to cook and read enough of this book for me to form much of opinion on it. While I feel that the book succeeds on its individual fronts it's my opinion that the combination detracts from the accomplishments of individual segments.
   
   Vietnamese cooking is both something I have never attempted at home and have had very limited access to eating prior to this book. While I'm certain I didn't do a single one of the dishes within the book much justice I do feel that I eventually cooked enough of them well enough to form an opinion on the recipes and procedures contained within. Now is as good a time as any to state that I don't care much for fish or seafood in general, it's something I can enjoy when in the mood and I'm always willing to try but it's definitely towards the bottom of my list of favorites. There's a lot of fish in this book. With that said I was actually surprised by some of the dishes in this book. I definitely cringed at the site and thought of many of them but I would say that on the whole they yielded food I'd deem above average in this realm. I loath shrimp but there's a recipe for some kind of Honey Shrimp that I tried that was quite delicious. On the cooking side I'd say that's the greatest asset this brought to me, and maybe it's just me, but it was surprising me with things I don't typically like prepared in such a different way to warrant a try and I typically found positive results in this regard. Anyways, I feel that the recipes are easy to follow and well thought out. I can't say whether or not they are authentic Vietnamese cuisine but it's certainly something different than what I've had.
   
   The stories are heartfelt and at times a little heavy. I can't say that's the path where my reading usually takes me (graphic novels, fantasy, sci-fi...) but I had a lot of respect for the content despite the fact that I wasn't overwhelmingly enthralled by what I was reading all the time. It's certainly interesting to reflect on the struggles of others and conseqeuntly to relish in their triumphs. I commend her bravery in throwing it out there, the biographical portions of this book I have a fair amount of faith will strike quite a cord with certain readers.
   
   On a side note the presentation and quality of the book are fantastic. I got the hardcover version and I would consider it to be "the works". Good heavy paper, solid binding, colorful images, quite a bit of page formatting, and numerous other details make this one of the better quality books I have.
   
   In summary I did enjoy the book but I try to look at all of my reviews from a practical standpoint. This book would have been much better served in my opinion if it was split in to a biography at length and a cookbook. At times I feel like the stories or recipes are being forced on the reader, and who knows perhaps that a good thing, but there's something about reading about hardship all the while eyeballing a really interesting looking fish dish that detracts from the immersion of the book. While attempting to read about Nguyen's life I couldn't help but feel that my attention was syncopated by the recipes and vice versa. On that note in good faith I can't wholeheartedly recommend this book as a whole despite its overall quality.

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

1. 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



2. My first cooking experience, long ago, was with a Vietnamese immigrant who was absolutely thrilled that her daughter had brought home a boy who liked to cook. Since then I've picked up a little bit from a lot of cuisines, but hadn't done much with Viet cooking in years. Sadly, I no longer have access to my then-mentor; looking for help from other sources, I stumbled across this.
   
   Most of the contained recipes contain bits of context regarding where you might actually find them in Vietnam, which cuts of meat are traditionally used (and, from time to time, which ones you might have to substitute when they're hard to find), and, where appropriate, which ingredients might take some work to find -- and how to go about doing so.
   
   Perhaps my favorite thing about this book is the inclusion of various recipes for kho, which is an absolutely excellent dish based on caramelized sugar and fish sauce. It's far outside of any experience I've ever had, and it's one thing that helps set this apart from many you've-probably-had-this-in-a-restaurant cookbooks out there.
   
   A very solid find for anyone interested in one of the most intriguing but lesser-known Asian cuisines.



3. i actually first saw this book at my sister's house, and while flipping through it i decided that i wanted one too. there are many beautiful color photos and i like that the book is square and doesnt take up as much counter space as my other cookbooks. i have only tried a couple of recipes, but they came out very nicely. pho was quite involved, but i already expected that recipe to be a bit difficult. i am excited to try out more. i want to take this home to my mother so she can tell me if the recipes are close to the traditional authentic recipes that she uses.



4. This book is full of great history of the author and vietnamese food. She makes it easy to find the correct products when you are shopping for contents of these recipes. Great for beginners and TASTY!



5. i typically buy a book because i want more than what a google search will uncover. in the case of this book, i was disappointed to learn that i was fine with just the internet. my biggest complaint is that there aren't enough photos (approx 1 full-page photo for every 8 pages of text). ideally, i'd like to see every recipe be accompanied by at least one photo. it's especially important for exotic cuisines such as vietnamese. i'm fortunate to live in an area where streets are lined with pho joints, but for most of america pho is a mystery for which this book does not offer any visual insight. there's no doubt to the authenticity of the recipes and the author, but this book could've been so much more had it not skimped on the visuals. even the CIA book had more photos, each of which were incredibly useful.