Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food

Rating:
Summary: how could it be better?
Review: I cannot imagine undertaking a task such as this. The authors have obviously spent countless hours in painstaking research - befitting the immaculate illustrations. The result is a comprehensive guide to the essential foods and ingredients of the cuisines of Asia, informative yet not without warmth and humour. (See the entry on that much maligned South-East Asian delicacy, the durian.) To add to the evocative descriptions of unfamiliar and exotic ingredients are recipes on how they may be used. If you never imagined you'd want to eat banana skins, try the recipe on p.282 for Green Plantain Skin Temperado. Not a lot of ingredients, but incredibly tasty. A great guide book for those wanting to get intimately acquainted with the essential flavours of Asia. Although this book stands alone as a textbook and cookbook, if you're really enthusiastic about cooking and eating authentic Asian dishes, you'll also want to own The Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon. Her recipes are always easy to follow and reliable. There is a recent edition of the The Complete Asian Cookbook with new photographs, but the recipes are the same. I've had mine since 1976. In spite of a swathe of newcomers on the subject, Solomon's tome keeps getting reprinted year after year. That says something.

Rating:
Summary: Could be better
Review: This book should earn 5 stars -- it's got all the essential ingredients. So why do I only give it 3? The index can be hard to use (I often have trouble finding what I'm looking for). At least one recipe I've used was inaccurate. It could be more complete. A good companion book to this one is called simply "Southeast Asian cooking" by a German publisher (no author listed), because that book often has information missing in the Solomon book. However, there are many positives about this book. There are pictures of many unusual (for the western cook) ingredients and what to do with them. There are lots of good explanations about certain ingredients. For value for money, though, I'd wait to see if a new, cleaned up more complete edition comes out -- this book is pretty spendy for what you get. Check it out at the library before you buy it to see if it's really what you need.

Rating:
Summary: Truly encyclopedic - with great recipes included
Review: This is a truly encyclopedic work, essential for anyone interested in serious Asian cooking or eating. Not only is it full of good information on the foodstuffs of the region, it's chockablock with excellent recipes.