Posts Tagged “Asian food”
Vatch’s Thai Street Food is a lovely large-format volume with brilliant food and travelogue photography by Martin Brigdale and Somachi Phongphaisarnkit. Vatch is in fact Vatcharin Bhumichitr who is probably the most celebrated Thai chef in the UK. He has been cooking and running restaurants in Britain since 1976. Thailand has a vibrant and active…
This is a chunky, classy tome from Absolute Press (I hope they work the same magic with my book next year!). Its photography is stunning, urban and imaginative. It’s a cookbook, for sure, but it’s also a modern food history and a tale of a thriving empire. This might not be the book that you…
Korean food has a place in America’s restaurant and recipe book pantheon but it’s a newcomer on the European food scene. There are more and more restaurants to be found but they are not as common as Indian restaurants, or even fish and chip shops, those bastions of traditional British dining that seem to be…
The author, Kentaro Kobayashi, is a young man with both talent and passion. He started his working life as an illustrator but soon displayed his flair for food. (He gets that from his mum who is an award-winning cookbook author.) His motto has always been “easy yet delicious, stylish yet realistic”. He has featured in…
This is another amazing book from Murdoch. This publisher continues to amaze me with great cookbooks at unbeatable prices. Each recipe is triple-tested in the publisher’s own kitchens so you are assured that the food that looks so good in the book will be equally attractive on your plate and wil be delicious as well….
All you regular readers will know how I have waxed lyrical about other books by Kentaro Kobyashi and this one will be no exception. Veggie Haven from the Easy Japanese Cooking series has all the characteristics which helped to make Donburi Mania and Noodle Comfort so appealing. Kentaro Kobayashi is a young man with a…
I love Japanese food but seldom have I been offered anything other than tempura and sushi. Now, don’t get me wrong, I could eat both those lovely dishes every day but there is more to Japanese food than raw fish and battered vegetables. There is Donburi! What exactly is this donburi? It’s all about rice….
Indonesian Food is a fascinating autobiographical cookbook which starts in 1939 when Sri Owen was a small girl. She has memories of food at her sister’s birthday party: boiled soya beans in their shells, which Sri now muses are an expensive starter at smart London restaurants. That says so much about our society! Gus Filgate…
Much was promised for this evening. SNOW. Our destination was at the Marble Arch end of Park Lane, a snowball’s throw from the bustle of Primark, Pizza Hut, MacDonald’s. A few yards, yes, but a world away in style. It. was like a scene from the old black-and-white movie of Lost Horizons (produced and directed…
I guess that just the word “diet” will have half of my dear readers turning the page (if they were able to do such a thing on a website) and the other half waiting with bated breath for the next word that will change their lives completely. For those diet-haters I ask you to read…
The author of Thailand – A World of Flavours is Christine Watson. The name doesn’t sound very Thai or even Asian but, in fact, Christine grew up in South-East Asia and so has been well placed to select dishes from Thailand that are certainly authentic but are also appealing to the western palate. Christine trained…
Street food is comfort. We in the UK might be drawn to the smell of fried onions wafting from a burger cart outside the local DIY store. Americans will think of potato knishes and hot Italian sausages with sweet peppers, and Thailand has enough street food to fill a book the size of the car…
A very apt title, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. The author, Andrea Nguyen, invites the reader into a kitchen that is both personal and representative of all such kitchens across Vietnam and in Vietnamese homes across the world. Americans have a familiarity with Vietnamese due to migration of the Vietnamese population at the end of the…
A culinary journey through Vietnam So, what does Koto mean? Is it Vietnamese for Brussels sprouts? No, it stands for Know One, to Teach One. This is a grass-roots charity that sets out to help street kids in Hanoi. It provides them with vocational training in cooking and hospitality. These children will hopefully find employment…
The Eastern and Oriental Cookbook: nice name for a cookbook. It has an almost old-fashioned ring to it. Hints of The Orient Express, perhaps the East India Company, P & O steamers and Edwardian ladies with parasols. All romantic notions but, in truth, this sumptuous volume is a companion of the celebrated E & O….
It all sounds rather mystical. A journey with Spirit House conjures visions of idyllic retreats for the world-weary, guiding a path to something enlightening and memorable. Well, that’s probably a fair estimation of what this particular Spirit House is all about, but it’s the spirit of Thai food which is venerated here, and the House…
To the untutored this might seem an uninspiring proposition, but it’s perfectly possible to eat noodles every day and perhaps even several times a day without feeling as though it’s an endurance test. Corinne Trang is a US based author, radio and TV broadcaster on the subject of Asian food. She is a well respected…
Just the title evokes visions of hot steamy nights with the exotic (and for me exciting) aroma of damp vegetation and soil. The atmosphere that assures one of tempting and flavourful food. Michal Haines has had a warm relationship with spices for all of her life. Her Chinese grandfather, Stan (you know that any Chinese…
I first came across Charmaine Solomon in the 1970’s. My first recipe book was Charmaine’s Chinese Cookbook and I am still using it today (well, actually, last Saturday night). It’s a treat to have The Complete Asian Cookbook, which is a mammoth one-stop Asian recipe book that covers those countries that constitute what we in…
Granted, this isn’t a cuisine that the majority of the British public will be familiar with but this should, on analysis, be one of the next big Asian food trends. It offers all the elements we need to feel that we have had a thoroughly exotic but not outlandish dining experience. It has the hint…