Customer Reviews

Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America

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

 

 

I bought this book after years of searching for an accurate cooking guide to Hmong food as my partner is Hmong and I wanted to be able to cook authentic for him. Not only does this book contain delicious authentic recipes but it explains the traditions surrounding the serving of that food. I just made the Chicken Larb last week and even his father and mother said it was great and they came over from the camps in Thailand several years ago. If you ever want to cook traditional Hmong food buy this book, it is invaluable ! Thank you to the authors for bringing these spoken word traditions into the written world, I am forever in your debt.

I am Hmong and so I understand that many of the recipes in the Hmong culture have been borrowed from many other cultures throughout Southeast Asia. However, this cook book didn't really offer many traditional Hmong recipes (I also happen to know from personal experience, that many Hmong women, the traditional cooks in the family, are pretty stingy about sharing recipes to people outside the immediate family). While this book does offer recipes for a lot of the foods that Hmong people customarily eat, the book is lacking in detail about how to complete some of the tasks of cooking. To elaborate, there are few pictures and usually they are just depicting how the finished dish looks like, there are no photos for example, of how to actually roll an eggroll or how papaya should look after it is shredded for the spicy papaya salad dish. Fortunately, my wife is a good cook and she learned all these subtle but intricate details growing up. Unfortunately for the uninitiated, some of the recipes may prove hard to accomplish.

This is a great cookbook! I do not regret purchasing it. It's a definite must-have for the 1st generation Hmong children. I found some recipes in here that I've been looking for, for a long time! Already put them to use, and they were pretty right on, minus a few adjustments according to your personal preference. I bought one for myself and my Sister Inlaw who's been trying to cook hmong foods for her Chinese husband. She loves it too. It does include a lot of Hmong history in there, but I think that's great! I look forward to passing this on to my daughter one day, so not only will she be able to continue cooking these traditional foods for her family, but learn about the culture and the rich history. Minus One Star because I wish there were more pictures of some of the dishes. Thanks Ladies!

A lot of pride and love went into Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America. The Hmong are known to be private and it's so difficult to find literature written by a Hmong person. This book seems to be a great collaboration among good old friends. Most English books about Hmong are written by non-Hmong that don't speak the language, or have assumptions and stereotypes. It's a blessing that a little bit of the Hmong culture is being recorded and shared through recipes.

Most of these recipes are variations that I already use but some personal recipes looked good too. There are recipes that I grew up with that are not on the list. Maybe those recipes are too strange for Westerners or maybe the authors will make a second edition to include more later on. I like how the book integrates history, background, and stories for those not familiar with the Hmong. I also like how the recipes include alternative ingredients if the grocery stores are limited. It's nice to be able to make these Hmong dishes that mom and grandma made, especially since I live and travel so far from the Hmong communities.

There are some recipes that may not suit the American appetite, but there are some recipes that Americans are familiar with which were adapted from the Hmong living among the Vietnamese, Laotians, Chinese, Thai and American cultures. My favorite parts about the recipes are that they are home made from scratch, healthy, and some only need a few simple ingredients. There are some recipes that require more effort and practice, but that just means more tasty! This book is a long awaited fresh addition to the kitchen, and provides a better option than the American fast food, microwaved excuses for sustenance, and over-processed boxes of unknown chemicals labeled food.

I haven't gone through the whole book yet, but from skimming through the book, it is pretty complete with all the Hmong dishes and ingredients listed and most of the recipes are simple to make. The author also wrote about the history of the people and the dishes.

One thing that bugged me was there were no pictures to correspond with the dishes, although there is a picture section in the middle of the book, it is not complete.

I do recommend this book to those who want to try Hmong dishes, but if you're not too sure about the recipe, I would advise you to try it at a restaurant first before trying to make the dish yourself using this book.

I am really happy there is a Hmong cookbook now but I'm disappointed that majority of the photos in this book are all in black and white. The pages feel like Xerox copies and the quality of the paper is thin. I've seen much nicer cook books with beautiful pictures inside them but this is nothing to that degree. The recipes are pretty thorough and if you're not Hmong, you should be able to understand what the ingredients call for. There are alot of information into the background of the dishes in this book plus a bit of history about the Hmong peoples.

The book reads more like a novel than a cookbook, but it is very interesting.

The book is very informative and orgainzed. I love the pictures included in the book.