Rating: 
Summary: Veggies: A Weighty and Useful Reference
Review: I've had a copy of Elizabeth Schneider's "Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables" for about three years and refer to it quite often. Flipping through that book, I note page markings for arugula, cilantro, spaghetti squash, mangoes, radish sprouts, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, tomatillos and others. When published in 1986, these items were "curiosities." Schneider's book is recognized today as a classic that influenced cooks and the produce market. Now, 15 years later, Schneider has produced an updated version of the 1986 book. In "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini," she has dropped the fruits and winnowed out the veggies. Cilantro and other "spice" type veggies are not in the new book. Sprouts, squash, and other single items in the old book are now presented within generic headings. There is lots of new material. The format and presentation of the new book-with large heavy weight glossy paper, 275 good photos, 500 meat and meatless recipes and 220 more pages-is as elegant as the old book is text bookish. The 1996 reprint of "Uncommon Fruits" ...; "Vegetables" goes for twice that! If I had neither and wanted a vegetable reference book, I'd go "Vegetables," price notwithstanding. Schneider has been writing for 30 years, "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini" is likely her magnum opus. It is a 2001 nominee for a James Beard Foundation book award.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but why not complete?
Review: Just swell, but why leave out the basics? Regular vegetables deserve the same deluxe treatment! It wouldn't have been much more work and it's not clear from the title (I'd say zucchini are prettyu common)that only selected vegetables are represented. Other than that, it's great. And well worth the high price.
Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic
Review: My wife and I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) this summer. Each Monday for 20 weeks we receive a "mystery box" filled with the vegetables grown by a collective of local organic farms. Some of the vegetables, such as garlic scape and radish greens, aren't used in any of our everyday cookbooks. Fortunately, we heard about this book. And so far we've been very pleased. We've learned a ton about the "mystery" vegetables we've received since and even learned some good recipes for them. Buy it for the beautiful descriptions and photos of vegetables and their varieties; the storage, preparation, and recipe suggestions are the clincher.
Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic
Review: My wife and I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) this summer. Each Monday for 20 weeks we receive a "mystery box" filled with the vegetables grown by a collective of local organic farms. Some of the vegetables, such as garlic scape and radish greens, aren't used in any of our everyday cookbooks. Fortunately, we heard about this book. And so far we've been very pleased. We've learned a ton about the "mystery" vegetables we've received since and even learned some good recipes for them. Buy it for the beautiful descriptions and photos of vegetables and their varieties; the storage, preparation, and recipe suggestions are the clincher.
Rating:
Summary: Worth every penny
Review: The idea of buying a $60 cookbook (however much discounted) makes me gasp. At that price, it had better be awesome.Fortunately, Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini delivers... and then some. If you're interested in non-mundane foods, particularly "ethnic" foods, then you've probably had the same experience I have. You find an odd looking vegetable in the grocery store, and are intruigued. You pick it up, and contemplate bringing it home. And then you realize that you have absolutely *no* idea what you'd do with one of these (other than think, "I'm sure I read about bitter melons or chayote *some*place). So you sadly put the veggie back on the shelf, feeling as though you've missed out. VfAtZ is a perfect answer to this dilemma. In this fat book (you could squash a *huge* spider with this tome), the author goes through all the "interesting" veggies with a predictable and welcome formula. There's a clear photo of the item, usually with some indication of size and with a "cutaway" so you know what the thing looks like once you chop it open. The author explains what the vegetable is (genus and all that jazz); where it came from (i.e. originally from South America, but now most popular in Asia); the varieties you can expect to find and the differences between them. I very much appreciate her clear instructions about choosing the vegetable in the market (i.e. heavy for its size, and no black marks on it), and the "basic" method of cooking (boiling, steaming, etc.) There's always at least a few recipes that highlight the essential tomatillo-ness or chayote-hood or whatever, plus a "Pros Propose" section where she gives you recipes from chefs and other cookbooks. (The latter are intentionally vague -- "he grills tomatillos with garlic and onlon" without indication of quantities -- presumably for copyright reasons. You get the idea anyway.) In short, after reading one of her 3-4 page entries for each vegetable (they're much longer for some items, such as the range of squash and mushrooms), you can confidently stand in the grocery store looking at the aforementioned veggie and Know What To Do With It. Other reviewers criticize the book for not including EVERY vegetable (I admit I'd like more, but only because I'd enjoy anything this author wrote), and that the recipes aren't all that great. They're generally okay, but I admit that few of them are awesome. But I see the recipes as an exercise in learning about the vegetable rather than a source of "what to have for dinner." I often reach for this book because some other cookbook was too vague. Case in point: a recipe in another cookbook for a Sichuan hotpot suggested you could cook sliced lotus root in the hotpot. I dutifully picked up a lotus root at the Asian market. When I got it home, I had no idea how one slices it -- do I peel it first? What about these knobby chunks? I grabbed Schneider's book off the shelf, and five minutes later I knew just what to do. (It tasted darned good, too.) I don't grab for this book when I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner. But I'm glad I have this book when I want a definitive answer about using a vegetable, or learning how to cook it.
Rating:
Summary: A STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT!
Review: There is only one word to say about this book: thank you. Ms. Schneider should get a Pulitzer for this work. Without question the best veggie book ever. A global approach ... now I have the courage to try some newbies like breadfruit and revisit the stand-by's like onions. As a vegetable grower, I was awed by her inclusion of ramps and fresh baby corn. And disappointed by her exclusion of tomatoes ... on fruit grounds I suppose. I love the Pro's Propose section where she shares great chef's uses of a particular veggie. The only veggie book you'd ever need!! I look forward to cooking my way through Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini!!
Rating:
Summary: stunning
Review: This book is amazing. Each vegetable's entry includes: the latin name, varieties and species, color photographs, history, how to select, how to store, how to prepare -- including quotes from outside experts. Next, there are a few well-chosen recipes. Following that are detailed descriptions of dishes that Schneider collected by interviewing a wide range of the best chefs. Throughout, Schneider is informative, interesting, opinionated and frank -- if a vegetable's a dud, she'll say so. It's a great read -- but don't plan on carrying this 800 page, large format book on the train with you, unless you've got a backpack or cart. My only quibble is that I want more! Schnieder doesn't include the best known vegetables -- tomatoes, peppers, etc., since she feels there is plenty of information elsewhere. I'd also love a taxinomic chart showing major families and relationships. And it would be great if the book had a key, so that you could find the identity of a vegetable using its description. But these are very minor omissions, and the book is quite large enough as it is. This book is a magnum opus of the vegetable kingdom -- we can only hope that Shneider will be writing on future books about fruits and grains.
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