Indonesian Street Food Secrets [Hardcover]

Keith Ruskin Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

A culinary travel odyssey in which the reader is introduced to a wide variety of exotic, yet obtainable ingredients and then initiated into their usage in the greatest street cuisine on the planet. An accompanying MAC and PC compatible CD-ROM includes hours of movies, music and sound that provide the viewer with a window into everyday Indonesian cultural and culinary life.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The multimedia cookbook puts in an appearance in Indonesian Street Food Secrets by Keith Ruskin Miller. Travelers to this tropical island nation enjoy eating from the produce of its many street vendors, who sell all manner of grilled, fried, and steamed snacks. Miller has gathered recipes for some of these items. Since Indonesian ingredients are a mystery to most Americans, Miller begins with an illustrated guide to keluwek, pisang, and other exotica. Recipes rely on the local availability in American markets of these native Indonesian spices and vegetables. The guide and recipes are reproduced on the CD accompanying the book, and these are supplemented with film clips that illustrate Indonesian urban street life accompanied by indigenous music. These add significantly to the book's cultural value, but they don't make it any easier for the cook to reproduce these foods. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Keith Ruskin Miller has traveled extensively in Asia, stopping to live in various regions for extended periods. Although he has often worked as a chef and has always been fascinated by Asian cuisine, Miller's first love is documentary photography and filmmaking. With his latest book, Miller has included it all with wonderful photographs, tantalizing recipes, and a bevy of video snippets that document the culture and culinary practices of Indonesia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 130 pages
• Publisher: Hawkibinkler Press (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972106901
• ISBN-13: 978-0972106900
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,115,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Diverse collection of Indonesian food secrets !!!, February 13, 2003

By 

greg pearlman (portland, or United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indonesian Street Food Secrets (Hardcover)

I love this book. Having traveled in Indonesia I found the foods particularly unique. Its great to have this book as a resource to make some of the wonderfull I experienced there. The book, has wonderfull photos and descriptions of each individual element that goes into a dish. It was very helpful to get the descriptions of various obscure nuts and fruits and such that go into an Indonesian dish. The diversity of dishes is great too, there are vegetarian dishes as well as meat, appatizers, entre's and drinks. The books also came with an interactive cd rom that actually has videos of the dishes being cooked. A great resource for any kitchen. Thanks to the author, Keith Miller !!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The food ROCKS!!!!!!, February 13, 2003

By 

brian s bracelin (Portland OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indonesian Street Food Secrets (Hardcover)

This is one of my greatest finds. It is written extremely well and the recipies are outstanding. If you like to cook or have an interest in asian food this book is a must. *****

Brian S. Bracelin
Leadership Training Inc.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Title: No "secrets", but plenty of good recipes, December 28, 2005

By 

Eric Rose "Bookworm" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indonesian Street Food Secrets (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book for fans of Indonesian culture and cuisine. It comes with an interactive CD-ROM that augments the content with music, videos, scalable recipes and ingredient pronunciations! Any Indonesian traveler will immediately recognize favorites such as gado-gado, tempe kering and opor ayam. The recipes are easy to follow and result in authentic-tasting food.

On the downside, the CD-ROM has a few minor problems. Navigation is slow and cumbersome, the graphics are grainy and there are spurious characters in some of the descriptions. (Perhaps due to my running it on a PC.) The content focuses mainly on Central Java, the cultural heartland of Indonesia, interesting for beginners but leaving many other areas, such as Bali, barely touched. Hardcore Indonesiaphiles will be disappointed. This also goes for the recipes - few from Lombok, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Kalimantan or the Moluccas. Some of the photos in the book are grainy, poorly reproduced or just not very good.

Despite the downsides, the book is well worth the price. Enjoy!