The Food of India [Hardcover]

Priya Wickramasinghe (Author), Carol Selva Rajah (Author), Jason Lowe (Author), Alan Benson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002

The food of India gives you a real taste of one of the world's great cuisines. Each recipe is photographed as it is made and is accompanied by many helpful pictures. There are special sections of the book that open out to explore the background and essence of Indian food and the culture that surrounds it.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Murdoch Books (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740452879
• ISBN-13: 978-1740452878
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, January 20, 2004

By 

liat2768 "liat2768" (dallas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Food of India (Hardcover)

This gorgeous oversized hardcover (yes amazon has the wrong picture . . .) first gave me the impression that the authors' priority would be pretty pictures and recipes would come second. I was very pleased to find that I was wrong. The book has lovely and accurate recipes for everything an Indian Kitchen should have including how to make panner (indian home made cheese) chenna (cheese used to make desserts) yoghurt, obscure indian vegetables and the main staple recipes of most indian cookbooks. I do have two complaints - the recipes are given without possible western substitutions for indian ingredients . . E.G wrapping things in bananna leaves and cooking them. Sounds great but my indian store doesn't tend to carry bananna leaves. Would foil work?? I don't know. It usually helps if a recipe is tweaked to accomodate a western supermarket. Julie Sahni's book Savoring India does that wonderfully.
Also, ocassionally there are fold out pages with little blurbs and pictures of things like street foods or snacks without a recipe for them. Nice to see but no way to cook them is provided.
I would also like to make a comment about the growing size of the cookbooks nowadays. I hated the teensy weensy pocket paperbacks but these huge SUV's of the kitchen take up the entire counter space above a cabinet and are way to long and heavy for a standard cook book holder. about six inches shorter would have worked fine although some of the pretty decor would have had to go.
All in all, a nice book for indian cooking

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious recipes and photography, December 4, 2006

By 

SJK (Georgetown, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food of India (Food Of Series) (Paperback)

When I decided to purchase an Indian cookbook, I looked extensively through the recipes in many different ones before buying this one. Yes, the pictures alone make this a coffee table book worth having, but the recipes were also very well laid out and looked acheivable.

For a point of reference, I am a fairly experienced home cook, but not a pro by any stretch (except possibly a pro at cookbook collecting). This past Saturday night, I had a few friends over and made the following recipes (making them for the first time, I might add) - Butter Chicken, Lamb Korma, Matar Paneer, Raita, Carrot Halva (plus some spiced basmati rice). It was unbelievably scrumptious - with the added bonus of very straightforward, foolproof recipes. I hope to make my way through some more of them very soon. :)

Ditto to several other reviewers' comments that you will need some special spices/ingredients if you don't already have a kitchen stocked for Indian cooking, but nothing that I was unable to find (in the Salt Lake City area). I highly recommend this cookbook.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, June 4, 2003

By 

"kaycekay" (tamil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Food of India (Hardcover)

though the cover picture is wrong but the recepies aren't- i am a professional chef with quite a good expertise in indian cuisine and in pursue to sharpen my skills in south indian- i find the recipes easy and also authentic in every aspect- the author may be a srilankan national( a wild guess by her name) but the work and the dedication has made her a authentic indian to her work. It is very appreciable hats off to the author priya. I have tried a few reciepes which are perfect and the pictures in the book are extrodinary to the western eyes bringing the streets of indian market to them..
I with no doubt give 5 star rating to this book