Customer Reviews

Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia

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IT'S not entirely clear to me if it's because of the San Francisco Bay Area's great cultural diversity - or in spite of it - but there's no denying that more than a few of us (and not just self-professed foodies) suffer from Jaded Palate Syndrome. The most obvious symptom: A pronounced grumpiness and malaise around lunchtime. We've become so accustomed to finding everything from East Indian to Ethiopian cuisines, all as close as the nearest suburban mini-mall, that the region's signature pairing of whine and food should be: "OK, amuse me. Show me something really new."

And into the breach steps the intrepid James Oseland, with a masterful introduction to a rich, intensely vibrant cuisine that has yet to find more than a token presence in the United States. With "Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking From the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore," Oseland, the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine, lays out a vast map of hitherto uncharted culinary territory. The book is not an addition to an existing canon of literature. Rather, for any non-Indonesian chef it will more than suffice as both the first and last word on the subject.

How could an area as vast and populous as the Malay Archipelago escape notice for so long? As one Indonesian acquaintance told Oseland on his first trip to the region more than two decades ago, "We're the best-kept secret in Asia. Too few of us are living abroad to share our cuisine." If you've tasted any food from the region at all, it was most likely cosmopolitan, Chinese-influenced fare from the city-state of Singapore and not the home-style cooking typically found in the far provinces of Indonesia.

"Cradle of Flavor" is more than the sum of its parts. It is a compendium of exotic recipes, but it is also a short course on how the many cultural streams at play here - Chinese, Thai, Dutch and Indian among them - came to intersect in the kitchens and alley food-stalls of Indonesia. And the book works as what -- for lack of a better term - we'll call anecdotal ethnography. Food is culture. It's impossible to read a chapter without coming away with some understanding of the rhythm of everyday life in Indonesia.

While the instructional passages are authoritative and straightforward, they're interwoven with a cultural portrait that's intensely personal. It begins with Oseland's first journey to Indonesia at age 19. His extended stay with an aristocratic Jakarta family would include, among other things, a bout with dengue fever and a portentous meeting with a screen-star-turned-fortune-teller who informs him that he is fated to keep returning to Indonesia for the rest of his life. You've got to love a cookbook author who would begin a chapter titled "Fish and Shellfish" with an eyewitness account of the great exodus of Muslim fundamentalists streaming through the port of Ambon after the Bali bombings of 2002.

Oseland is the sensible, streetwise friend any American visitor would want as a guide through the open-air markets of the region. Indonesian cooking techniques are neither exotic nor particularly demanding (except, in my case, reducing coconut milk, something I am about as likely to master as Tuvan throat-singing). But the ingredients are another story. The greatest challenge facing the novice cook is procurement, not processing. "Cradle of Flavor" includes an encyclopedic and obsessively detailed section on ingredients - how to evaluate them, where to buy them, how to handle them, how to store them. For those of us who don't know our lemon basil from our lemongrass, this should save untold expense and frustration on forays through the local Asian supermarket.

The focus here is on classic home dishes. The 100 recipes - from condiments to cocktails - have been carefully selected with the success of the American non-professional chef in mind. In other words, you will not need to acquire specialty kitchen gadgets or send halfway around the globe for ingredients in order to master an Indonesian feast that's both authentic and delicious.

David Plotnikoff
sushimonster - at - emeraldlake.com

I am not much of a cook, and certainly not of exotic foods that require many spices and shopping in special markets. But I bought this book because I had heard that, apart from recipes, it offers a travelogue and historical glimpse into the mystery and wonder of the ancient "Spice routes," a subject that has always fascinated me. Oseland too is captivated by this mystique and his adventurous spirit also takes him deep into the hills and paddys and homes of the Spice Islnads. We get not only the whiff of history but also perceptive glimpses of modern Indonesia - its religion, politics, social tensions and customs - all boiled down through the experience of individual families around a dinner table of delicious food.

So imagine my surprise when I tried a couple of these recipes and they were actually easy to cook! I'm sure not all the recipes in the book are simple, but even I had success with "Fragrant Fish Stew with Lime and Lemon Basil."

Oseland learned these recipes by working alongside the people he met and befriended in his travels in Indonesia. The are real family cooking, and - especially if you brek them in easy with delicious dishes like Celebration Yellow Rice, your family will love them too! It's also a fun adventure to take the kids to your local Indonesian (or other Asian) market, if you have one. Oseland gives instructions on how to find these ingredients in most areas, and also some suggestions for substitutions for harder to find items.

I am an Indonesian who moved to the US 2 1/2 years ago. This book has fulfilled my craving for Indonesian food. It has easy to follow recipes, descriptions of ingredients, where to find them and how to store them. I totally recommend it.

I was originally quite skeptical about this book. I mean this is an American guy who's writing recipes from Indonesia, what could he possibly know? After borrowing the book from a local library, reading it, trying a couple of recipes, and then deciding to buy it from Amazon, Well.. I guess A LOT!

I was born and raised in West Sumatera, Padang to be exact (this city is mentioned a lot in the book). I got shipped out of Indonesia to the U.S. in my early teenage years. I wasn't interested in food or want to learn to cook then. I took it for granted that I wouldn't miss anything and get used to the American food. It was not until I arrived in the U.S., got homesick, and craved for sambal and rice on a regular basis, that I realized how hard it was to create or get a taste of home. Most Indonesian restaurants here were either Javanese (which is different from spicy West Sumatra's food) or "Americanized". When my mom died, all hopes of learning to cook food I grew up with was gone. Whenever I felt homesick, I'd cook Indonesian food based on recipes found on the web, blogs, and little bits of knowledge that I picked up on my annual visit home. But nothing seemed to taste the way I remembered. That was until I tried recipes from this book. Everything smells and tastes almost exactly as they are supposed to be. The book goes into a lot of details explaining how to handle the ingredients and the step-by-step cooking process, which definitely makes the difference in my cooking. I use this book all the time now, and follow the instructions to the T. The only thing I don't do is adding sugar when cooking main courses. I see a couple of reviews complaining that there aren't many pictures in the book. While that's true, it's not exactly a deal breaker. To get an idea of what the dishes look like, google for images, that should help.

I got this book a few weeks ago and was immediately engrossed by the descriptions of food in the Malay Archipelago. It makes the unknown world of Indonesian and Malaysian cooking approachable. I found the chapter that explains the ingredients very helpful, as were the color photos. (I wish there were even more pictures, though.) Since I've never done any "Spice Islands" cooking before, I figured I'd start with something relatively easy. So I tried the "Sate Ayam" (chicken satay) and it was a big hit with my family. We all thought the flavors were perfectly balanced. The directions for the satay are very clear and walk you through every step. Now I'm ready to try some of the more complex dishes. My only complaint is an esthetic one--I wish the margins were wider and the typeface for the ingredients was less blocky looking. Nonetheless, the cookbook has definitely inspired me. Now I want to go shopping in Chinatown...or better yet, in Indonesia.

`Cradle of Flavor' by culinary journalist and `Saveur' executive editor, James Oseland is easily the best presentation I have yet seen of a minor Far Eastern cuisine (excluding India, China, Thailand, and Japan). It is certainly superior to the two I have recently seen on Filipino and Viet cuisines (even though these were very good indeed) and it is better than the broad brushed effort of writer Naomi Duguid and photographer Jeffrey Alford, the culinary travelogue, `Hot Sour Salty Sweet' covering nearby mainland Southeast Asia. This effort is easily comparable to the very best works on Italian, French, and other Mediterranean regions such as `Saveur' colleague Coleman Andrews' `Catalan Cuisine' and Lynne Rossetto Kaspar's `The Splendid Table' on the cuisine of Emilia-Romagna.

One of the most illuminating aspects of the book is that it sparks a moment of clarity in my thinking about the region, when I realize that so many of the world's essential spices come from this part of the world and the outstanding geographical feature of this region is its islands. This is exactly the kind of landscape which modern evolutionary theory says will foster great variations in species. Thus, we get a great diversity of foodstuffs in a relatively small area (compared, for example, to the expanse of north central Asia (the Russian steppes).

Another thought illuminated by this book is a comparison with Mediterranean cuisine, where the cornerstones are olives, grapes, wheat, milk, pork, and salt. In this land governed by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, the cornerstones are coconut, rice, soybeans, chilis, spices, tropical fruits and shellfish. Coconut oil traditionally is used in place of olive oil and coconut milk plus soy milk takes the place of cow, goat, and sheep milk, even so far as to create tempeh and tofu, substitutes for European soft cheeses. Like major Mediterranean cultures and nearby Thai cultures, we also had important royal households leading to large kitchen establishments.

While Mr. Oseland is not a native of the region, he has brought over 20 years of experience in the region plus the discriminating eye of a professional culinary journalist (an interest created by his first visit to Java) to his task. This means he makes many important contrasts and comparisons with major European and Chinese cooking methods to help us Yanks to understand the food from this part of the world. Like the Thais, for example, the Indonesians don't use the wok for searingly fast frying.

The most interesting discussion contrasting cooking methods is the treatment of the rendang technique that the author describes as `backward braising'. It also happens to be very similar to neighboring Philippines' technique of adobo cooking. Like braising, rendang is a long cooking technique. Unlike braising, the `browning' is done at the end of the method rather than at the beginning. And, unlike braising, the cooking liquids are allowed to evaporate down to a paste rather than to cook the mix in a tightly sealed pot.

Yet another revelation was the chapter which covered eggs, tempeh, and tofu recipes. I always look forward to eggy chapters, yet there were but two simple recipes here, both of which were imitations of the French omelet rather than any typically Southeast Asian dish. The lion's share of the recipes in this chapter were based on the soy byproduct, tempeh.

Anyone familiar with `Saveur' will recognize that magazine's distinctively thorough way with recipes. Every recipe description is a little classic in explaining the origins of the dish and all the variations possible with the method or the principle material.

If you are a foodie or a devotee of Southeast Asian food, you need no excuse whatsoever to acquire this book. If you like `Saveur', no further enticement is necessary. If you happen to just like reading about exotic cuisines, this is almost as good as Duguid and Alford's culinary travelogues, but even better from a strictly culinary point of view.

Even though I have read no other culinary books on this region, I'm willing to bet this is easily the best or one of the best.

No wonder this book was a James Beard winner for 2007. The text is exceptional-you feel like you are there. The photos are perfect. All the food is interesting and the ingredients are available-if you know where to obtain them. Many foods can be bought locally and if you run into a snag, there are internet sites listed. An exceptional book.

I'm a chef and have been fortunate to travel somewhat extensively to the three countries whose cuisines are covered in this book, particularly Indonesia. I love this book. I'm actually relocating to Malaysia soon, and this book will go with me. It's great as a cookbook, but its true delight is found in the prose that accompanies the recipes, recounting the author's experiences in SE Asia, discussing hints for shopping at an Asian market, selecting the best spices, etc. I've had many of the dishes in the book, from satays in Bali to Padang-style food in Jakarta to the wonderful gudeg and ayam bubur in Yogyakarta to a fantastic fusion of Chinese, Malay, and Indian street food in Kuala Lumpur, to the comfort-food appeal of Nyonya cooking in small, family-run restaurants in Melaka (Malacca) to the fantastic crossroads of cuisine found in Singapore (indeed, about the only things to really do in Singapore are shop and eat).

It's been said that food is the most apparent uniter of any culture, and that once everything else has been watered down or weaned away completely (think of Greek or Italian immigrants who have come to America), the last cultural identifier that remains is the food. It's so true, and this book absolutely takes you on a cultural and culinary journey. The author's passion for food and for the people of these fascinating countries practically leaps off the pages. The wonder of Indo-Malay cuisine is indeed the best-kept secret in Asia. Any sizeable city in America is likely to be overrun with Chinese and Thai restaurants. Vietnamese food is plentiful, and you can usually find Korean or Japanese food without much difficulty. But try to find an Indonesian restaurant, or a Malaysian restaurant serving up Nyonya chicken. If you do find one at all, it's likely to disappoint if you've ever spent any time in these countries. This book is the cure for what ails you.

Any cookbook will offer a list of ingredients, preparation instructions (in varying degrees of clarity and depth), and occasional notes on the dish itself. This book utterly transcends the basic offering. Virtually every recipe is replete with anecdotes, personal observations, and a truly in-depth guide to making the dish spectactular. I do wish there were more color photos, the few that are included aren't really sufficient, but the quality of the recipes and the fantastic depth of the writing more than makes up for it.

Highly, highly recommended.

I did some traveling in Malaysia and Indonesia a few years ago and loved most of what I ate. This book has given me the opportunity to try making some of those foods at home. His mouthwatering descriptions of the key ingredients include even some brand recommendations and make finding and purchasing these novel and exotic items much less intimidating. He explains in great detail the required cooking techniques and his recipes are extremely easy to follow. Every recipe I have tried so far has been fantastic.

Great writing and excellent recipes. I've tried the beef sate recipe so far and it's is very tasty.