Customer Reviews

The Elephant Walk Cookbook: The Exciting World of Cambodian Cuisine from the Nationally Acclaimed Restaurant

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As my girlfriend is from Cambodia, I have looked for a source to learn to prepare some of the dishes her mother also makes, and I've managed to surprise her a couple of times with the mostly very authentic recipes that are in this book (not ALL dishes are perhaps uniquely or typically Khmer, but that does not change the merits of the book! (cfr. the other reader reviews)). The book is very complete, and a pleasure not only to use for cooking but also simply to browse and admire the pictures. For those who wish some extra sources of "authentic" khmer cuisine, I can recommend that they look for the book by Nusara Thaitawat (The Cuisine of Cambodia - I don't think it's on Amazon, but can be found on the internet) - they will find a great second book that also lists a large number of marvellous recipes, with equally exquisite pictures, but does presuppose some more familiarity with the ingredients and measures - which can be acquired by reading and using "The Elephant Walk" first.

I was very excited to recieve this book in the mail. I tried a few recipes and love them! I, like others have never been able to mimick my mothers Khmer dishes and my mother wasn't able to teach me well enough. I go by measurements and my mother goes by taste and experience. So this book made it easier for me to learn how to prepare Khmer meals for my growing family. I wanted to be able to serve my children meals that I grew up loving and this book helps me in every way. True it is a bit "Americanized" but it is better than what I haven't seen published out there. This is a must have for anyone who wants to learn how to cook these delicious dishes. I plan on purchasing a copy for my two sisters, who as well have been struggling to learn how to prepare our mothers meals.

If you love exotic cuisine and preparing it at home, then I would suggest that this book should be on the top of your list.

Just for starters, Cambodian cuisine is probably the tastiest of the SE Asian cuisines that I have tried. And what's more, the recipies are usually quite simple to prepare. I was surprised that some barely required anything beyond my neighborhood grocery store. Even for a back woods person like myself, getting some of the exotic ingredients required only a few stops on the web, and I was ready to cook anything from this book.

The cookbook is expertly laid out. It begins with a lengthy introduction, including everything from information on the history of Cambodia to the art of shopping in an Asian grocery store. The recipies are arranged in a pretty logical fashion: appetizers, meat type, noodles, and deserts. The last section covers the basic ingredients of Cambodian cooking which may be new to the western eyes. For someone coming from a small town, I had never used a lot of these ingredients. Even more handy about this book is the fact that there are many coloured pictures of the dishes and the exotic ingredients. If you've never shopped at an Asian grocery store, it's very useful to know what the product looks like, and Longteine de Monteiro also tells what exactly to look for when purchasing said items. Of course, the pictures really help so you know what type of result you want.

I'm really impressed by the amount of work that Longteine put into this book. Not only are the recipies great and it's loaded with information, it looks good too! The research was a bit exhaustive and the commentaries on each dish gave me some background or at least, entertainment.

Weaknesses of the book? Well, sorry to say, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head without really asking for too much (pictures of EVERY dish, for example). All around, this is a great cookbook, if not my favourite from my collection.

Being an avid cook and having visited Cambodia, I was thrilled to find this book. It is rare to find a cookbook (especially such a specialized one) where every recipe works as expected, where every ingredient is either available or has reasonable substitutes (and is fully documented in the glossary), and where the technique is described precisely. I cannot comment on authenticity, but the results are as I remember from Cambodia - the books has found the balance between authentic results and the limitations on available ingredients. This is one of the top 3 cookbooks I have ever used (the other two are Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking" and Julia Child's "The Way to Cook"). It is rare for me to find a recipe - let alone a whole book where I have no desire or need to make my own adjustments. This is one.

Even a white guy can cook like a Cambodian with this.

The books very well laid out, easy to follow and could even be a coffee table book. It has a good cross reference to explanations of ingredients that even allow a Texan like myself to impress my Cambodian wife by cooking some dishes as well as her mother. It's a lot of fun trying anyway.

The people who wrote it are real nice. I couldn't find Prahok here in Miami, so I emailed them and they sold me a couple of jars from their store and took the time to ship it to me (at cost).

My family hails from Cambodia, and although I grew up near Boston and now live in Los Angeles, I have had a lot of experience with Cambodian cusine from my parents' cooking. I regret that I never took the time as I child to learn from my mother all the dishes I loved and gobbled up, but this book has many of my favorites and I few I didn't know about. I recently bought it, and although I have tried out only one recipe, I highly recommend this book. The meals are not EXACTLY the same as my mother's, but each family has there own ways of making things and their own little secret ingredients. I wish there were more pictures of the dishes, and more recipes for that matter, but for the price and this rarely covered subject, this book is a treasure. If you love food, especially the tasty kind, get this book.

This is by far the most useful Cambodian cookbook I have come across including those available in Khmer. The recipes are spot on and the instructions clear. Moreover it has so much of the local flavour that it puts the food into context - and by the way makes people home-sick.

Superb, well written and well illustrated - a credit to both author and publisher.

I am Cambodian. As a collector of Cook Books I have many cook books from South East Asia. In this book you will find the influences of many countries but there is a theme that is purely Khmer. Thoes of my family that survived the war all cook our food basically the same way. Once in a while we meet another family that does it a bit different but this book does everything the fancy way with style and class.

Some reviews below seek to attack this book because the food isn't exactly authentic Cambodian. I don't know about that, all I know is that if you've eaten at the Elephant Walk, you will know that the food is DELICIOUS, whatever it is. There is an odd creative mix of Asian and French elements to the cuisine, and the results are extremely flavorful. If you can't eat there, this book is the next best thing.

The Elephant Walk is one of Boston's most unique places to eat and really introduced me to the beauty of the Cambodian cuisine. The founder and owner of the resturant happens to have a very interesting story that explains how the interesting blend of her signature cuisine came to be: Growing up as the sheltered daughter of a Cambodian Politician and married to a diplomat, her fate and her families fortunes dramatically changed with the Kmer revolution. Fascinated with food since childhood she picked up many things in her family's professionally run large kitchen. Exiled to France her kitchen skills became the survival line for the entire family when she opened her first restaurant. In France her cuisine picked up a European twist while staying truely Cambodian at the same time. As Longteine tells her story, she introduces us to her favorite dishes from the restaurant and teaches us about the many exotic ingredients that flavor her country's food. This book is as good a read as it is a superb guide to an often overlooked Asian cuisine. The food photography and presentation of the different dishes is also extremely well done. The whole book is a well-crafted pleasure