Asian Greens: A Full-Color Guide, Featuring 75 Recipes [Paperback]

Anita Loh-Yien Lau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2001

Finally, a cook's guide to the delicious, nutritious, and slightly mysterious asian produce that crops up in grocery stores and corner markets everywhere--water spinach, chinese broccoli, bok choi, kohlrabi, lemon grass, kaffir lime, and more. Comperhensive, lively, and spanning Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and other cuisines, this book will become a trusted favorite for everyone who wants to bring these exciting flavors to their kitchen and table.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312282826
• ISBN-13: 978-0312282820
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greens are Good!, January 5, 2002

By 

Kerrie McManus (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Asian Greens: A Full-Color Guide, Featuring 75 Recipes (Paperback)

How refreshing to read a cookbook which is both informative, easy to follow and is written simply and cleanly.

Being located in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia to be exact) I find this book well suited to the modern Australian taste bud and palette. Australians are very familiar with and fond of Asian cooking, if not always the authentic version, at least some formulation of it. Ms Lau's book provides easy at home directions for the new home cook/chef starting out, which is the category I fit into. As with the UK's Jamie Oliver, "Asian Greens" is adventurous, and the layout is such that it invites the reader to try new things which at the same time are not difficult or daunting.

I can see this book being a favourite in Noosa (Queensland) and Byron Bay (New South Wales) if people can get their hands on it. I discovered it by looking on amazon.com

I particularly like the the glossary of vegetables, the so called "Greens Guide". For the non-Asian or the uninformed, this guide is most helpful for getting what you want and need into your shopping cart/trolley/basket.

Many of the meals are great for the single person who is oft not inspired to cook (this does inspire!), while also being suitable for couples and families.

I enjoyed the personl anecdotes and descriptors with each recipe. I particularly like the cover and the layout of the book and the information about the author. With chefs like the wonderful Jamie Oliver about, we want some character and fun in our writers and presenters and a little bit of who they are.

The new approach to cooking - keeping it simple, clean and fun, it what we all needed and I am excited to add this book to my slowly growing pile of useful books (and tossing the huge, complicated ones out!)

I just love love love the Asian pesto on page 47, the choy sum and tofu on page 77 and the unusual spiced tofu and long beans with turkey on page 94.

I liked the low level use of pork, as being a non-pork eater it is great to find a book not bursting with this meat. I much prefer the emphasis on the greens, tofu, fish and other meats in the book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book on Asian vegetables and how to use them, November 1, 2001

By 

L. F. Hunter (somewhere in the ether....) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Asian Greens: A Full-Color Guide, Featuring 75 Recipes (Paperback)

I purchased my first copy of this book in Australia, whilst visiting. The recipe for yard beans caught my fancy, and it is *excellent*. The initial index on how to identify Asian vegetables is invaluable, an excellent prelude to cooking them. Since then I have purchased copies for dear friends, they will be great gifts.

If you have an inkling to learn to identify and cook healthful meals for yours and family, and you like Asian food, do your self a favour and purchase this cheap book. It was more expensive in Australia, where it was published, than from amazon.com. The recipes are not difficult, as you will see, but the flavours are superb.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Versatile, practical, every-day recipes, April 23, 2002

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Asian Greens: A Full-Color Guide, Featuring 75 Recipes (Paperback)

This is a cookbook used both by myself and my grown son. I bought it for the very simple but elegant recipes such as Wilted Amaranth in Pine Nut Dressing, Mixed Vegetables with Peanut Sauce, and Quick Asian Greens Soup. In all cases the recipes are flexible i.e. one can readily adapt the recipe to the vegetables at hand. My son, however, focuses on recipes such as Chicken with Thai Basil and Beef Brisket Stew with Daikon.

In all cases, ingredients are readily available in an urban area. The instructions are clear.

That is not to say that the recipes are perfect. Chicken with Thai Basil, for example, is too salty for our taste ... so we cut the fish sauce with sake. The Asian Vegetable Stew, a recipe that caught my eye when purusing the book, has an excellent flavor but I have yet to find a butternut squash that will cook sufficiently when instructions are religiously followed - so I keep experimenting with how long to cook the squash alone. However, these recipes are so simple and versatile it takes little effort to adapt to one's own taste.

In short, I highly recommend this cookbook.