The Good-For-Your-Health All-Asian Cookbook

Rating:
Summary: The best of its kind I've ever seen. Nothing similar exists
Review: I have lived and traveled in Asia for over ten years. Foods here are fantastic but not always healthy (too much oil, MSG, salt, etc.) but they are delicious and unique. Another problem is finding the proper ingredients to demystify the making or recreating at home the unusual culinary experience you reminisce about and can't quite explain to your friends or family so far away when you visit or return back home who have never tasted it first hand. Another problem is that all the books you can find on the subject (Asian Cooking) are too gourmet oriented to be able to prepare the featured dishes easily (I'm a man and not a chef so cooking is not my forte). Whether you have lived or travelled here in the Orient, this book can help you create the experience easily *from scratch* (no exotic searches for odd ingredients) and the book is oriented (no pun intended) toward health with low cholesterol, low sodium, low fat, low calorie considerations. It is a from the ground up, everyday living, you name it's in there, type of book. The author lived in Thailand and Asia from a seemingly "Lonely Planet Guidebook" type perspective rather than the usual rich businessman's wife, expat in Asia with a fat paycheck and imported food shipped in from the "home country." She has lived IN the culture and not just observed it from the outside or surface level. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. She also adds the romanized words of the original language names of the dishes along with the Western names or meaning of the dishes' names in English. The book is broken down with indexes by country and indexes by food category (such as soups, vegetables/salads, rice/breads/noodles, etc.). From scratch curry powders and pastes, and from scratch tandoori sauces! Countries covered: Japan, Korea, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India and Pakistan. Don't miss this book!