Customer Reviews

The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking

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3 star:		(1)
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This book suffers from the fact that it deals with the same subject as a true culinary classic, 'Asian Ingredients' by Bruce Cost which has recently come out in an updated paperback version (see my Review of this book).

The few areas where this book is a useful supplement to Cost's book are based on the fact that it covers more than Cost's venue of Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand and it is slightly better as a reference, being a true dictionary. Yet, in comparison to a book on Japanese ingredients, 'The Japanese Kitchen' by Kimike Barber, I found Passmore's book wanting. It's strength is in broad coverage, but you will invariably need Cost's book to really understand this subject.

Get Cost's book first, then see if there is anything you are missing and consider this book as a supplement to cover the Phillipines, Indonesia, India, and other remote Asian venues.

My strongest recommendation for this book is that it does include the Latin scientific names for all biological entries. It would have been worthless without these.

I must say, however, that since I originally reviewed this book, I have reviewed several other books on Oriental ingredients and I have found this book a very decent quick reference to check on the accuracy of other books' facts. So, my opinion about this book has come up a bit in the last two weeks. Since Amazon is not letting me change my original three stars to four, I hope you, dear reader, will spot this comment and consider it well.