Learn to cook if you like to cook. Learn to COOK :: Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table

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Learn to COOK - Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table

List Price: $27.50
Our Price: $18.15
Your Save: $ 9.35 ( 34% )
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Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks

Average Customer Rating:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.59597
EAN: 9780060192587
ISBN: 0060192585
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 242
Publication Date: 2001-08-01
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 2001-07-31
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks

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Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking: Favorite Recipes from Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafes The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon Quick & Easy Vietnamese: Home Cooking for Everyone (Quick and Easy Series) Authentic Recipes from Vietnam (Authentic Recipes Series)

Editorial Reviews:

A land of vibrant cultures and vivid contrasts, Vietnam is also home to some of the most delicious and intriguing food in the world. While its cooking traditions have been influenced by those of China, France, and even India, Vietnam has created a cuisine with a spirit and a flavor all its own.

Chef and restaurateur Mai Pham brings to life this diverse and exciting cooking in Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. Born and raised in Saigon before emigrating to the United States, Mai has often returned to her native land to learn the secrets of authentic Vietnamese cooking, from family, friends, home cooks, street vendors, and master chefs. Traveling from region to region, she has gathered the simple, classic recipes that define Vietnamese food today: Green Mango Salad with Grilled Beef, Stir-Fried Chicken with Lemongrass and Chilies, Caramelized Garlic Shrimp, and especially pho, the country's beloved beef-and-noodle soup. With more than 100 recipes in all, Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table offers home cooks the chance to create and savor the traditional flavors of Vietnam in their own kitchen.

Filled with enchanting stories and stirring black-and-white photos of life in Vietnam, Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table provides a captivating taste of an enduring culture and its irresistible cuisine.

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good for experienced cooks
Comment: 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

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great authentic Vietnamese recipes.
Comment: Other reviewers mentioned that "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" is not for them because they are not hardcore cooks who want to slave over the stove for hours, and I know what they are talking about. I can sympathize with their problems because there are many ingredients they have to deal with. But if they live near major Vietnamese or Chinese supermarkets, then they definitely would not have to worry about finding the ingredients. For me, "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" is special because I want to learn how to cook these Vietnamese recipes authentically, meaning taking more time and effort rather than using short cuts. It's important to me because I'm Vietnamese, and I want to learn and preserve Vietnamese cuisine as authentically as possible for future generations. I love Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" for its cultural values via authentic Vietnamese recipes. The author actually went back to Vietnam and collected these recipes from excellent street vendors and home cooks. This book is a real treasure because it is the only Vietnamese cookbook out there that has authentic recipes as they are cooked in Vietnam today by street vendors and home cooks. This book is well written, the procedures are detailed, and the recipes are delicious. The reasons I like this book are:

1) Excellent recipe for "banh beo" (steamed round rice cakes with shrimp), which is delicious. The author got this recipe from a vendor (in Vietnam) who has been making and selling "banh beo" for decades. This recipe is different than the one in Andrea Nguyen's book "Into The Vietnamese Kitchen", and I have to say that I like this recipe better than Andrea Nguyen's.

2) Marinated daikon and carrots recipe. I like the fact that the author offers the readers a choice between using rice vinegar or distilled white vinegar. Other Vietnamese cookbooks tell readers to use distilled white vinegar entirely or to use rice vinegar entirely, rather than giving them a choice between the two vinegars. Personally, I prefer rice vinegar. This recipe would go great with Vietnamese sandwich, but you would need to slice the daikon into thick matchsticks rather than thick slices.

3) Great lotus stem salad recipe.

4) Great "bun bo Hue" recipe.

5) Fantastic Vietnamese spring rolls ("cha gio").

6) Great rice paper-wrapped salad rolls ("goi cuon"). This book has the most authentic Bean Dipping sauce for these rolls because the sauce is made from fermented whole soybeans. Other Vietnamese cookbooks use short cuts such as using hoisin sauce and peanut butter to make the bean dipping sauce. This book is so valuable because it teaches readers how to cook authentic Vietnamese foods as seen in Vietnam today. No short cuts here.

7) Delicious Vietnamese rice cakes in banana leaves ("banh chung") for the Lunar New Year celebration.

8) Great chapter on Vietnamese vegetarian dishes.

9) Interesting background information regarding the street vendors and home cooks who contributed the recipes for this book.

This book has all the common recipes that you usually order at Vietnamese restaurants and delis. The only negative thing about this book is that its Glossary/Guide To Ingredients is not as detailed as that in Andrea Nguyen's book "Into The Vietnamese Kitchen". However, the recipes in this book are second to none. Don't be afraid to cook from this book because the recipes are not unreasonably complex. In fact, I find it easy to cook from this book because it's well written and thorough. Of all the Vietnamese cookbooks written in English on the market today, this book is the most authentic one, and it's charming. There are no color photos, and most recipes are not accompanied by photos; but this book is still my favorite Vietnamese cookbook. It's priceless. You won't regret buying this book.

Customer Rating:

Summary: just like the restaurant!
Comment: Great book! Easy to follow instructions, gives background info about the ingredients, and everything tastes great. The only complaint that I have, is that the book is not glossy, so it is easy to destroy if it gets wet.

Customer Rating:

Summary: "Just like mom makes it!" as stated by my husband!
Comment: My Mother-in-law (MIL)is Vietnamese which makes it difficult for us to find a great Vietnamese cookbook since we're always comparing it to her cooking. We wanted a cookbook that featured authentic dishes. And being that I'm hispanic it was really hard for me to replicate instictively what I saw my MIL make in her kitchen. But after getting this book...Wow! The dishes truly tasted the way they were supposed to! I know some reviewers have stated that the recipes are too time consuming, but you can always "modernize" a bit if your in a rush (Ex. She tells you to make the coconut milk from scratch. Very Time consuming! But just substitute for a good asian brand of canned coconut milk and the results are VERY close, specially if you're in a time crunch. That's what my MIL does!). The first time I made a recipe from this book my husband couldn't believe I had made it myself! It's true that you would need a pretty good asian/vietnamese market nearby for best results but I've done slight modifications when needed and still had a tasty meal at hand.
This is a great book to have in your library. You might not use this book every month but it has the BEST truly Vietnamese recipes I've ever tried. If you're not concerned about the authenticity of a recipe then you might prefer a different book that is "easier" but probably more suited to our american palates than the vietnamese...

Customer Rating:

Summary: great cookbook
Comment: aesthetically pleasing book with interesting background information on the dishes and good recipes. more pictures of the actual dishes would have helped, especially for those that you are not familiar with, but the easy to follow step-by-step directions made up for the lack of pictures

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