Customer Reviews

Asian Dining Rules: Essential Strategies for Eating Out at Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Indian Restaurants

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This little book is a very entertaining read. Part storytelling, part instructional, often very personal, every page is engaging. Steven Shaw writes in a style that is something between a columnist's approach and an essayist's. The result is a series of interesting, short segments that loosely hang together within each of the cuisine-specific chapters of the book. The closest comparison I might make to the flow is to a travel show on television.

Is the author authoritative on the topic? I can't honestly say, though I'm mostly convinced. I hedge because of issues with the advice itself - the "rules" referenced in the title - and the limited coverage. See more below on that. The book carries two Asian heavyweight endorsements on the front and back covers, though: Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook. So presumably the educational content is accurate.

This is a 250 page book that covers 5 major cuisines. Each cuisine chapter is, therefore, regrettably limited, especially when you toss in all the personal stories and offbeat - if interesting - segues (e.g., pairing French wines with Japanese food). And there's the rub - the book is supposed to be about "dining rules," here meaning what you need to know and how to act in order to be treated like an insider and get the good stuff. The overview-level coverage winds up coming short of the goal, in turn leading to the doubts concerning the author's authority mentioned above.

The Japanese section illustrates all the points mentioned above. The entire section is only about 50 pages long. Shaw occupies the first several with a charming story about the Ushiwaka Maru sushi bar in New York City, followed immediately by some sushi myth-busting, a few pages on sushi history, several more on a personal sushi story and a sidetrack into Kaiten sushi not particulary relevant to US readers, finally devoting 8 or 9, quite usefully, to sushi basics. If you are getting the idea that there is a heavy sushi focus to the Japanese cuisine chapter at the expense of the remainder of the cuisine, you would be correct.

The author has STILL not got on to the task of advising us on the "dining rules," however. And before he gets there, there are nearly 5 pages of his personal odyssey into making sushi at home. Sigh.

We finally get to the advice on page 47, under "Guerrilla Sushi Tactics." I'm primed and ready. I'm educated and entertained. Only to find that the advice amounts mostly to bravado and things you probably already know, including sitting at the sushi bar and talking directly to the head sushi chef. The most interesting thing here is, literally, the author's comments on the various cuts of tuna.

That done, we're on to a discussion of red wine and sushi - taking 4 pages, then 10 pages - 10 - titled "Beyond Sushi: Taking in the full scope of Japanese Cuisine"! To say that this is the briefest, barest, sweeping survey coverage of a limited number of food items would be an exaggeration. And to end the chapter, Shaw takes 5 pages on a completely off-the-wall topic - sushi (again) and pregnancy!

Whew!

What this book needs is a consistent focus. Starting with what's promised in the title would help, as the advice turns out to be thin. The format is also problematic. This is a pulp paperback and there isn't a single picture to be found. It's as if the author and publisher assume the reader is already knowledgeable. But that invalidates the premise of the book, doesn't it?

As I struggled for a cogent title for this review, it all boiled down to the single word "entertaining." If you approach this book as a diverting read written by an engaging author, you will enjoy it. If you go looking for a comprehensive look at any of the cuisines, or, frankly, substantive advice on being treated like an insider, you're going to be a little disappointed.

I assumed this would be a book about 'Asian dining rules' and I was pretty much wrong. Maybe I have a different definition of what 'rules' are, but I assumed that meant things like etiquette, what not to do, etc. I love going to eat at authentic asian restaurants and figured this book would show me how to interact with the staff properly.

In my opinion, the book seemed like it was aimed more at people who had never ate at an Asian restaurant before (who those people are, I have no idea). The advice was common sense, like if you go to a Chinese buffet, fill your plate right when it's brought out from the kitchen so that the food is fresh. And, avoid the lomein because it'll fill you up. The Japanese section of the book focused almost entirely on sushi, and frankly I think there's a lot more to Japanese cuisine than that. It's sort of like writing a book about Italian food and only talking about pizza. I had figured this book was going to tell me things like what 'itadakimasu' means, etc.

Like I said, I think this would be a good book for someone who really hasn't had much by the way of Asian food, and would like help choosing menu items. But if you already have a passion for is, you should probably pass this one up.

Reading Asian Dining Rules is like spending time with a good (and funny!) friend who explains what food critics already know about how Asian restaurants really work and how to get the most out of your experience. He takes you through Guerrilla Sushi Tactics, explains "Thai spicy", and lets you in on the secret of the Two Menus in Chinese restaurants. The real stories about families who have started and run their own restaurants are great. I find myself thumbing through the book before heading out to Asian restaurants now. I would recommend the book to both novice and experienced diners.

I have an interest in Asian culture and history, and so thought this book might prove interesting. I never assumed that it would be such a page turner. Within the pages of this book lies advice for eating in restaurants, etiquette rules, history, and much more. Of course, the author gives advice on how to make the most of your dining experience, but what makes the book really interesting is all the stories the author has to tell of his personal experiences. This book is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in Asian foods and Asian culture.

Like author and famed foodie Steven A. Shaw, I enjoy eating at Asian restaurants A LOT. Therefore, ASIAN DINING RULES, packed as it is with useful information about the most popular Asian cuisines in North America, may well approach Biblical status with me. Whether your favorites are Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean or Indian, Shaw very likely knows much that you don't about your cuisine of choice. (He has the perhaps unfair advantages of living in NYC, being a culinary expert, and having lots of Asian friends, but that is beside the point.) Chapters are arranged by region, with Japanese and Chinese getting the most coverage. Indian gets the least, perhaps reflecting Shaw's order of preference, or perhaps his degree of familiarity...it's hard to tell.
Of particular interest are the descriptions of unusual dishes, for those who like to eat "outside the box", and strategies for obtaining non-menu items, as well as dishes not geared so much toward "Western" taste. The chapters include many side essays on various related topics, and these should definitely not be skipped over, as some fascinating info is to be found there. Alas, there will always be those diners whose idea of great Asian cuisine mainly consists of Pu-Pu Platters and Fried Rice, and this fine book is certainly not for them. For the rest of us, ASIAN DINING RULES is a must.

One would think that as a Japanese-American, I would get preferential treatment at Japanese restaurants to have the best dining experience possible. Nothing could be further from the truth because I have exhibited little of the savvy that author Steven A. Shaw writes about with dexterity and humor in his all-encompassing book about how to get the best food at almost every kind of Asian eatery. At first, Shaw, a former lawyer who turned into an online food connoisseur by starting the eGullet Society discussion boards, seems like the least likely candidate to write this book. In fact, I would seem more likely to write this book. However, his love of Asian food must be as deep as mine since he grew up in New York across from a Taiwanese family who ran a restaurant. From them, he started learning the ins and outs of being an "Asian" diner.

His best tips evolve around getting your hands on the real Asian menu at a restaurant. There's the one handed out to tourists expecting to see the usual take-out suspects, and then there's the other hidden one only given to regulars who demand the quality dishes of often unusual origin and are willing to pay extra for it. Yes, there are definitely items like frog and the internal organs of a pig, but focusing on seafood is often a safe route with lobsters, soft-shell crabs and steamed fish prepared in various ways. Land animals are a bigger toss of the dice, and the idea of anything staring back at you is rather daunting. I happen to like steamed chicken with scallions, which is offered on the regular menu in only a couple of places in San Francisco's Chinatown. Yet, when I persist in finding it elsewhere, there it is on a menu just in Chinese.

Not all of Shaw's insights are so revelatory. He encourages people to eat at the sushi bar at Japanese restaurants and let the chef guide the meal ordering. I would consider that pretty common knowledge. He gives specific instructions on how to use the tabletop grills at Korean barbecues to get a good char on the beef. Yet, I don't really find that to be a great new-found skill as common sense (and a look at another table of Korean customers) will ultimately guide you to the same result. Shaw also brings out his more worldly side with history lessons on the various cuisines. Particularly interesting is how many Bangladeshis actually own Indian restaurants but instead of serving their own cuisine, they serve the Westernized Indian menu originated in the UK. It's a fun read, especially for the uninitiated, and you can learn a few things the next time you go out for Asian without copping out and going for fusion.

This is a tough one to rate, because despite the fact that the book isn't about 'rules' per se, it is a fairly interesting appreciation, and there are a few bits of trivia and history that will appeal to foodies.

Once you get past the title, and the oddly placed first chapter on Japanese food (oddly placed because it talks almost exclusively about sushi - and as a person who frequently eats in Japan as well as New York Japanese eateries, sushi is a small fraction of that country's cuisine) you'll find a fun meditation on asian dining, littered with anecdotes and New York - centric history.

The book is very heavily centered on Manhattan. That might be a consideration if you're in a less populated area, or won't ever be in New York.

I enjoy reading about food, and the book delivered. Here's a neat little piece I learned, something which has baffled me for years, and was answered in this book... as a student of Japanese, I used to translate the kanji on Chinese takeout menus, and noticed a few years back that 'garlic sauce' translates to 'fish dimension'. Why would that be? I asked some of the shop's employees and nobody could explain it. I chalked it up to the difference in meaning between Chinese and Japanese kanji usage and the seemingly nonsequitir usage of individual words to make a compound (a bit like 'hot dog' in English). Well, in the chapter on Chinese food in here I read that a very long time ago there were fishes used to make sauce in China, but the farther inland one got, the tougher it was to keep the sauce from going rancid - by using garlic, cooks were able to retain the fish sauce's pungency without need for extensive refrigeration. So 'garlic sauce' really does mean 'fish dimension'! Neat. That little bit alone made the book worthwhile.

So why only three stars? Because it is New York based, and because of the title. "Rules"? I don't think so. But it is a funny, informative appreciation.

In "Asian Dining Rules", food critic Steven A. Shaw, aka "The Fat Guy", encourages American diners to be more adventurous with Asian cuisines and offers a bounty of advice on how to go about doing that. The idea that "most Asian restaurants are two restaurants: the one where the outsiders eat and the one where the insiders dine" is a central theme. Shaw tells the reader how to find the good stuff on and off the menu in everything from hole-in-the-wall Chinese take-out joints to sumptuous upscale Indian restaurants. If I had to summarize Shaw's most-repeated morsels of advice, I'd say: Don't be shy! And don't judge an Asian restaurant by its location or décor.

Shaw doesn't attempt to present a comprehensive guide to Asian eating in North America. Instead, he chooses what he thinks is useful, important, or interesting, especially to the person relatively inexperienced with Asian food. An Asian food aficionado may not get much out of "Asian Dining Rules", but the book does cover Japanese, Chinese, South Asian (Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian), Korean, and Indian restaurants. If you're knowledgeable about one Asian cuisine, you still might benefit from some advice about another. There is no coverage of Indonesian restaurants, as there are too few of them to be of broad interest. Too bad, as vegetarians flock to them in Europe.

Each of the five sections dedicated to a different Asian nation or region includes some history of the cuisine in North America, description of the style of service in the restaurants and how best to navigate it, and advice for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced (experienced) diners. Shaw talks about specific foods, what they are and how to eat them. He doesn't usually say which items might be suitable for vegetarians or any other diet, but he provides enough information about ingredients that readers can figure out what they might, or would not, like to try. Interspersed throughout the book are interesting essays about specific restaurants and related topics, such as chopsticks or working conditions for deliverymen.

Shaw has a reputation for rejecting any notions that foods might be harmful to one's health. Along those lines, "Asian Dining Rules" tries to convince readers that there is no significant risk in pregnant women eating raw fish and that adverse reactions to MSG are imaginary. He ignores studies that have found unacceptably high bacteria levels in most fish on the market and doesn't seem to understand that the risk is to the fetus, not the mother. MSG is a neurotoxin whose long-term effects are hotly debated. But there is no neurologist who doesn't acknowledge that it causes everything from dizziness to panic attacks in sensitive individuals. I found Shaw's willful ignorance obnoxious.

But Steven Shaw's love of Asian food and adventurous spirit are infectious. "Asian Dining Rules" made me want to try some cuisines that did not appeal to me before. It alleviates the intimidation factor in Asian dining and encourages the timid or inexperienced to get out there and try the enormous variety of Asian food. While you do generally get better food at more expensive restaurants, Shaw covers all strata of restaurants in "Asian Dining Rules" and gives advice on how to get better food out of relatively inexpensive establishments. The book is very readable and a useful guide for those who might like more adventure in their dining but don't know where to start.

I'm a bottom-line kind of person. If I'm short on time and getting ready to try out a new restaurant, I need info and fast. This isn't the place to get it. The author is informative and interesting. The book is laced with personal anecdotes, history lessons which help the reader understand the origins of the cuisine and some mixed tips on how to get better food. The suggestion to "become a regular" isn't very helpful when you're going to a new place. The suggestion to "ask lots of questions" falls short to the novice and leaves one wondering what questions should be asked. The history pieces are interesting, but in some cases too long. Making it harder to read the histories are too many parantheticals in each story. By the time you read every aside it's hard to get the main theme of the story. There is information to be gained here, but if you're hoping for a reference to read on your way to the new restaurant, this is not your book. For an entertaining read with some cultural and historical notes it is worth reading. Being a bottom-line person, I will look for something more factual and a little better organized.

I enjoyed reading this book. It has good information in it, and I learned some new things. The author has some wonderful stories that he shares in the book and he's funny and entertaining. I love everything Japanese so I really liked that part of the book.

This is a book I will share with my family. My brother has already checked it out and while he didn't say he was interested at first, a half hour later he was still 'checking it out'!