Customer Reviews

Fine Filipino Food

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

 

 

There are surprisingly few cookbooks covering Filipino food on the market and new titles are few and far between, which would make the appearance of this guide an unusual event in and of itself - but its attention to recipes gathered during the author's travels to the Philippines makes Fine Filipino Food exceptional even in its genre. Each classic dish is accompanied by a small history of its origins, plus a variety of variations on the theme. Thus you have classics such as Adobo which go beyond the usual Chicken Adobo to include such dishes as Cinnamon-Garlic Beef Adobo and Lumpias which include Pork and Shrimp with Lemongrass and Garlic Shrimp and Bamboo Egg Rolls. Dishes are easy to make too - no color photos, but this doesn't need them.

This filipino cookbook is informative but I found that the way in which it is written is off putting. The recipe directions are not written for the everyday cook and instead seems to be geared toward those cooks who have been cooking filipino food for years.

There were some recipes that were easy to follow but most of them required ingredients that one must search diligently for.

This is an interesting introduction to Filipino cooking, although I have not tried out any of the recipes yet. There is some discussion of the historical development of Filipino food -- as I am pretty much completely unfamiliar with Filipino culture and food, I cannot opine on its accuracy, but I have a general sense that there is more information out there.

For those that have an interest in unfamiliar cuisines, this is a worthwhile read. The absence of pictures in a cookbook is a real handicap, though. It is a tremendous help to know what a dish should look like and taste like when it is done. For more familiar cuisines that's not as big a problem -- for totally unfamiliar dishes, it is.

I don't cook much, wife has taken lead on that. This book is great, it has definitions of ingredients and historical facts. Like the previous reviewer mentioned, images would make this perfect. I am using an iPad for Kindle, it would be great if that can be integrated.

Great book and very interesting...but I was expecting and wanted more. We live a visual culture..the lack of colour photos was what let it down.

Worth a read!

Ian

http://www.bragazzis.com