Customer Reviews

The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Patricia did a really good job in creating this cookbook with not just beautiful images but also the recipes are taste-proof (meaning that the dishes in this book has been cooked and for sure been worth the word - yummy!!! to be placed in the book!) This is indeed a great find as there is a lot of recipes and I know some of you out there prefer images, however this book is going to cook your way into your stomach. Do not be afraid to get one as this is on my top favorite cookbooks to choose from when cooking for friends!

Most of the dishes in here has been a long-time favorite, and I am licking my lips just typing about the it... heehee

A book not only has history of flavor, but also a mixed of wonderful imagination of taste!
Hope you will enjoy the book as much as I do and not be afraid to try try try!

Cheers :))

The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American KitchensThis one book replaced three others ( I gave them away)it has the very best selections of Asian recipes I have ever seen. The recipes are explained so even a novice cook can prepare them. I love to cook and collect a wide selection of cookbooks for me to replace three books with this one is unusual . The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook is so complete you won't need another Asian cookbook.

This is one of the best cookbooks I own. Visually, the book is beautiful from the photographs to the background patterns to the layout. More importantly though, the recipes are diverse, tasty, and the real thing. Who doesn't love that nostalgic well loved meal prepared by your grandma. Mine is across the country but I still remember all the holidays and large family meals. Here you find familiar favorites but also the more obscure authentic dishes. I look forward to finding out more of those secrets, usually passed down through families, that make a dish really special. Better get cooking!

For those of us who didn't grow up near our grandmothers or weren't lucky enough to grow up eating Asian American food - Ms. Tanumihardja brings us into the kitchens and cultures of so many amazing women. The recipes span the entire Asian Pacific region and Ms. Tanumihardja has taken the time to transcribe the recipes into easily understood and replicated instructions that clearly walk you through each step of making a dish. It's almost as if each grandmother is in the kitchen with you telling you all of her cooking secrets.

She also includes beautiful and informative photographs and descriptions of ingredients for all of the cuisines covered. She clearly illustrates the uses and differences of each variety of noodle, various vegetables, all of the sauces, etc. But she is also aware of that some ingredients can be hard to come by, and so helpfully lists acceptable substitutions where possible. As good as all of the recipes are though, I found the stories by and about the grandmothers just as interesting and at times moving.

I have a lot of Asian cookbooks but this one is my new favorite because of how much information it conveys about so many different cuisines, all from really interesting and amazing Asian-American grandmothers. This book is a perfect gift for yourself, or for anyone who wants to learn how to cook better Asian meals. I only wish this book had come out years ago because it has replaced most of my other Asian cookbooks. Buy this book, you will be glad you did.

Patricia had done a spectacular job on writing this book. I hate it when you buy a cookbook and the author sometimes purposely leave out certain ingredients or steps because they do not want to review all of their secrets but with this book you will not have to worry about that because grandmothers never lie! I have tried out a few of the recipes and they are so yummy and most importantly they WORK! I highly recommend this book to whoever love to cook asian food and who else is better to learn how to cook than our grandmothers right? The pictures are beautifully done in this book too. It is a must have in your cookbook library!

I LOVE THIS BOOK! It's especially useful because the ingredients are adapted to what is available (read:easier to find) in the U.S. market, yet they still maintain (somehow) that feel and taste of authentic Asian cuisine. Also, there are foods from many different regions of Asia, which makes for many interesting dishes and varied tastes. They even had a dish from Myanmar (not a very well-known country, but my mom was born there and reminisced about her childhood years enjoying that dish.) There are also pages with photos that help you identify what some of the ingredients look like. The pages that have "wisdom from the grandmothers/grandfathers" are interesting, but I personally didn't care too much for the history/personal accounts. Others might be, though, and they are insightful passages.

The detriment to having a physical book (as opposed to something that is online) is that it's a tad difficult to look up recipes, for example by main ingredient or even region. The book is categorized by meal type (like "appetizer" and "main dish".) There is an index, but sometimes I couldn't remember the name of the dish.

This book brought back floods of memories on how I remembered my granny used to slaved away in her kitchen and came out with some of the best dishes ever! In those days, there was no oven, no blender, no microwave, in fact, nothing electrical except a dark corner that represented a kitchen. Nothing was ever written and measurements were always, " a bit of this and a bit of that"

It was fascinating to read that other grannies cooked the same way too. Equally interesting is that all the recipes stood the test of time and were passed on from generation to generation. Pat Tanumihardja did a marvellous job by sharing this with us. Undoubtedly, a very special book and is highly recommended.

This is a great book! I bought it for my fiance after hearing about it on NPR. While I don't cook myself, everything he has made me from it has been delicious. And according to him, the ingredients are not that hard to find (a problem he sometimes has with Asian cookbooks).

The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook: Home Cooking from Asian American Kitchens comes from an author who interviewed, cooked with and connected with grandparents who contributed their own family dishes for this collection - many of which have been handed down verbally from mother to daughter for generations. With color photos and profiles of the grandmothers behind the dishes, this packs in a treasure trove of delights, from Steamed Meatballs with Tangerine Peel to Black Bean Steamed Fish. Any library strong in Asian cookbooks will find this a winner.

Awesome cookbook!

Tons of recipes from all over Asia that use really unique ingredients. I've loved all the recipes I've tried out so far and I really like the 'profile of a grandmother' sections.

The only reason this book is not five stars for me is firstly that we do not eat pork or beef and many of the recipes call for one or the other and second that there is no clear way to search for a specific recipe. There is an index in the back and the recipes are grouped by appetizer, main and dessert but finding a specific recipe usually takes some flipping through the book to find.

This a great resource for anyone who is interested in learning some Asian cooking.