Customer Reviews

Indonesian Flavors

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I own a few Indonesian cook books already, so I browsed the index of this one carefully before ordering it. The recipes looked pretty standard until I noticed an entry for compressed rice, or lontong. I love lontong and was excited to think I would learn the secret to making it myself.

When I got the book, the first thing I did was turn to page 114 to see how to press lontong. Instead, I found a superficial overview of popular tropical fruits. I turned the page and under the heading "Puddings and Cake" found a capsule summary of the Badui culture of Sunda. Then again, for a cookbook, it was actually a pretty long section considering it said nothing about Badui cuisine other than that it is fascinating to watch them boiling palm sugar to sell.

I scanned every page looking for lontong. It appears only in the index.

The photos are lively, well-composed, and apt, but the text reads like an outdated travel guide. If this author's next work is a coffee table book of photos, I will buy it--provided she gets a partner to write the captions.