Customer Reviews

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a Vietnam-born Vietnamese American, I know and love Vietnamese food. When my family moved to America, it became a struggle to find ingredients and recreate the traditional Vietnamese dishes. Because I learned how to cook in America, I am more used to the American equipment, measurement, ingredients, etc. This is why I have always tried to look for Vietnamese recipes and cookbooks that are written in a way that a Vietnamese American cook like me can understand. This book does just that. Everything is written in clear English, American cookbook style. It gives wonderful instructions on how to prepare dishes, identify and buy ingredients, use equipments, etc. - all tailored to the modern American kitchen. The level of details is simply amazing. However, the taste of the dishes remains authentic Vietnamese. Take a look at any recipe, such as the popular Pho, and you will realize that Andrea Nguyen does not compromise Vietnamese flavors. But she also knows how to guide you, step by step, to achieve that flavor with things you can find in America.

I also find the stories and introductions interesting, and true to Vietnamese traditions. They are similar to the stories I have heard in Vietnam. I have an American husband, and we love to read these stories together, so that he can understand more about Vietnamese society. He also loves the dishes that I have prepared from the cookbook.

This is by far the most comprehensive, well-written, througough, authentic Vietnamese cookbook I have ever seen. If you want to know more about Vietnamese cuisine, it is a must-have!

I own several Vietnamese cookbooks but I must say that this is the most comprehensive and detailed Vietnamese cookbook to date. Ms. Andrea Nguyen ventures into unchartered Vietnamese culinary territory by covering recipes from charcuterie to specialty noodles, and even desserts and pastries (which a lot of Vietnamse cookbooks lack). What is particularly noteworthy is that each recipe is exceptionally detailed and thorough; you can read and imagine yourself performing each particular step with Ms. Nguyen. Another factor that I think sets this book apart from the rest is that this is more conventional and up-to-date, making it feasible for the average American housecook to execute the recipes. What I particularly appreciate are the follow-up notes that Ms. Nguyen adds to the end of most of the recipes which give hints and additional information. But aside from the literal aspect, the major question is: are the recipes delicious? I have to say that, of course, each taste palette is different and seasoning is to one's own but all the recipes that I have tried came out scrumptious and mouth-watering! A must have for anyone who wants to learn Vietnamese cuisine.

I bought this book a few weeks ago and just cannot put it down. I think I will be cooking my way through it this summer. Vietnamese food is so perfect with hot sticky weather. The flavors are light and bright and savoury.

This is an excellent book for novice cooks as well as experienced cooks. If you have never tried making Vietnamese food at home it is the first Vietnamese cookbook you should own. It is clear and concise. I love that it has a glossary with how to pronounce the ingredient correctly, that makes shopping a whole lot easier. I was really pleased to find a chapter on Charcuterie. In a Vietnamese/Asian grocery you will see these foil wrapped frozen rolls and know that they are used in Pho or Bahm Mi but they are hard to interpret. Now I can make my own.

Some highlights so far have been the incredible corn and coconut fritters, I made a quadruple batch for a party 2 weeks ago and guests were gobbling them up as quickly as I could get them out of the skillet. The shrimp toasts are lighter and crisper than restaurant versions, I made the cucumber and shrimp salad on Thursday evening. The veggies in it are still crisp and when I had more for lunch today the flavors were even better. The Cha Gio I made for the same party disappeared quickly, you just cannot have too many of those things and make a bunch and freeze some to have on hand later. I love stuffed squid and her tip about piercing the tail end with a skewer as a steam vent took all of the frustration of trying to keep the filling in the squid body. Next on my list is her deviled crab. I've not had the book long and pages are already getting spatters. If you are a fan of Asian cooking your cookbook collection is sadly lacking if you don't have this book.

This book is great for beginners because it's very detailed and comprehensive. It has informative background information about Vietnamese culinary culture. Other Vietnamese cookbooks (i.e. Andre Nguyen's "Quick & Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking For Everyone, Diana My Tran's "The Vietnamese Cookbook") are also good for beginners because the recipes have been simplified, but they do not have detailed explanations of the ingredients and they do not include a wealth of information about the Vietnamese cuisine. On the other hand, this book is different because it guides the beginners through everything from selecting the best rice brands to selecting the best fish sauce brands. If you want a good understanding of the Vietnamese cuisine, then this book is a must. Then, you can add other Vietnamese cookbooks to your collection later. The author has a wealth of knowledge about Vietnamese cooking, and she sprinkles her pearls of wisdom throughout this book. If you're serious about cooking Vietnamese food, then you have to buy this book and Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table". The reasons I like this book are:

1) "Guide To Ingredients" at the back of the book. The names of the ingredients are both in English & Vietnamese so that you can read labels on jars/bottles/packages that have been written in Vietnamese. Detailed descriptions of all the common ingredients used in Vietnamese cooking are included, including how best to use them and which brands are the best. There is a great section about the difference between rice papers that are made from 100% rice flour and rice papers that are made from a combination of rice flour and tapioca flour. This author tells you which type of rice paper is better...very helpful information. Other Vietnamese cookbooks do not give their readers advice on how to select rice paper, which is an important Vietnamese ingredient. This author knows the difference between yellow rock sugar and white rock sugar, and she makes sure her readers do not make the mistake of buying white rock sugar because they're usually sold side by side on store shelves. Other Vietnamese cookbooks do not take pains to differentiate between these two types of rock sugar; this is important information to have. This author offers so many useful advices such as these. This book has the most detailed and helpful "Guide To Ingredients" of all the Vietnamese cookbooks out there, and I should know because I own several Vietnamese cookbooks.

2) "Note" sections at the end of recipes that give more instructions on how to store food or how to turn the recipe(s) into vegetarian dishes. It also gives advice about how to select, use, and prepare certain ingredients such as chestnuts.

3) This book is beautifully presented in color and is very organized. It's easy to follow and understand. Too bad not every recipe is accompanied by a photograph to encourage readers to try making the recipe, but this is a minor issue, I suppose. I think only 50% of the recipes are accompanied by a photo.

4) Good pork steamed buns recipe ("banh bao").

5) The charcuterie chapter so you can make your favorite Vietnamese cold cuts at home and modify the amount of fat you want in your cold cuts.

If I were you, I would buy this book before buying other Vietnamese cookbooks later on. After buying this book, I would buy Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table", which has fantastic and authentic recipes. Even though I'm recommending that you buy this book before buying Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table", Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" is still my favorite Vietnamese cookbook on the market today. The recipes in Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" are more authentic because they are based on those of street vendors and home cooks in Vietnam. This book is geared toward the American kitchens and adjustments to the recipes are made accordingly (i.e. ingredient substitutions for convenience). The only reason I'm recommending that you buy this book before buying Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" is that this book has a great "Guide To Ingredients", which all beginners really need. One negative thing about this book is that its binding is not at all durable, and readers will have to baby this book if they want the pages to remain intact.

I love this book. I recently married the love of my life who happens to be Vietnamese/Chinese and I was sad to think that I had to send him to his moms if he wanted "authentic food" as I am Hispanic. BUT I found this book and it is perfect for me! I love to cook and was up to the challenge of learning a new type of cuisine..and this book is perfect, as it explains very basic things such as the different spices, and even how to handle rice paper.The flavors apparently are very authentic(that is what the husband says) and it is very clearly written for someone who is unfamiliar w/ Asian meat/vegetable preparation. I have tried about 50% of the recipes and they are all great! Thank you so much for creating such an authentic Vietnamese book in ENGLISH..just wish you had a recipe for Banh Ran(sesame mung balls) as that is my favorite Vietnamese Dessert!

Not only is this a beautiful and well-written book, but all the recipes I've tried so far result in very tasty dishes. I actually rarely follow recipes exactly. I am a culinary school graduate and have worked in professional kitchens for over a decade, so I typically look at cookbooks mainly for ideas. For the most part, I don't usually need to know the procedures or amounts of ingredients in much detail. However, when I find an interesting cookbook and buy it, I always start out by following the first few recipes exactly as written as a way to gauge how much skill and effort went into the book. As I said before, the recipes I followed exactly worked very well.

Some of my favorite things I've found in this book are the "basics" like the nuoc cham. For some reason whenever I try to make this particular sauce without a recipe, it doesn't come out quite right, so I really like Andrea's nuoc cham recipe. Another deceptively simple favorite is the beef stir-fry marinade. I wouldn't have thought to combine fish sauce and soy sauce (I usually think of it as an either/or thing). But this is probably the best asian marinade for beef I've tried and I use it all the time now in lots of different applications.

`Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors' by Vietnamese / American culinary journalist and teacher, Andrea Nguyen is a superior book on a minor national cuisine. What is surprising is how rich this `minor' cuisine can be in comparison, for example, to other `minor' cuisines I know such as those from the Philippines, Poland, Malaysia, and Hungary.

Just as Poland's cuisine is a satellite of both French and Russian cuisines, the Viet cuisine is an amalgam of Chinese, Indian (by way of Thailand), and French cuisines. The fact that the differences between Chinese and French cooking are so great has probably contributed much to the glorious variety we find in this delightful book.

One important observation is that this book is not, a la Paula Wolfert, a study of `authentic' Viet cooking. As the subtitle clearly suggests, there is much in the book that is `modern', for which we must read `post-Vietnam war and emigration from Vietnam'. On the one hand, Ms. Nguyen was a very young girl when her family escaped the collapse of South Vietnam, so all her adult culinary experience has been from life in California. On the other hand, her primary source of ethnic recipes is a little notebook compiled by her mother while they lived an upper middle class life near Saigon. A good illustration of the tug of traditional and modern influences can be found in the very first recipe for baked shrimp toasts, adapted from the more traditional Chinese / Viet fired shrimp toasts. Rather than copy directly from Mom's cookbook, the author borrows a Susana Foo recipe.

I generally need to find only one or two things to make me excited about a new cookbook, but this one has several.

The first thing to impress me was the degree to which the author remained true to her Viet ingredients. While the author did some modernization (see paragraph above), she made every effort to remain true to her homeland's original flavors. Fortunately, almost all common Oriental ingredients are readily available in either megamarts or Asiatic markets. Unfortunately, there are still a few fresh herbs that may still be beyond the pale. For those, the author helpfully supplies sources for seeds where, if you really need to, you can grow your own.

The second very good thing I found was the rich source of noodle dishes. There is just something so iconic about noodle soup which extends far beyond the classic Jewish mother stories. It is the central theme of the great Japanese foodie movie, `Tampopo' and it seems to pop up in all sorts of well-known Sci Fi movies such as `Blade Runner' and `The Fifth Element'. Almost seems as if Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis can't get through a thriller without some comfort food.

The third good thing was the recipe for the Chinese classic steamed buns (in Vietnamese, Banh Bao), done with baking powder instead of yeast. Every reasonably authentic recipe I have encountered usually runs to two or three pages, so any reasonable simplification is welcome, since these little goodies are such terrific treats.

The fourth good thing are the Crepe recipes, which I'm sure are a pure intersection of French and Oriental culinary traditions. The most important aspect of the recipes is that the primary starch is rice rather than wheat flour.

The fifth good thing is the charcuterie recipes. Amazingly, this is not all transplanted French technique. These few recipes may be a bit much unless you are familiar with charcuterie techniques (see `Charcuterie' by leading culinary journalist Michael Ruhlman and Charcuterie expert and chef, Brian Poleyn for the skinny on this technique), but if you are willing, this is a whole new dimension to the technique.

The sixth good thing is the uniquely Asian chicken stock that includes ginger and little else aside from the chicken and onions. Every time I get tired of seeing yet another recipe for chicken stock, I'll remember this one as an exemplar of a simple recipe that makes a difference.

The last `good thing' I will note is the recipe for Mood Cakes (Banh Nuong) which seem to have a strong family resemblance to German Springerle cookies, for which you need a special mold to impress a design on the surface of the cake. Hidden in this really long recipe is the fact that these are very special kinds of savoury filled pastry like the Chinese steamed buns cited above. This is one of those recipes you want when you want to impress even the most jaded foodie. Just be sure to realize that this may end up being a two or three day project.

This is the first Viet cuisine cookbook I have reviewed, but I can see it is superior to most cookbooks I've seen on other `minor' cuisines. It's just that after reading this book, I'm not sure the Viet cuisine is `minor', as it seems to have as many distinctive features as it's neighboring Thai cuisine.

If you want or `need' to cook Viet, this book is a must. If like me you just happen to omnivorously lap up any and all unusual cooking styles, this book is a great addition to your collection.

I have been cooking Vietnamese food for 30 years. My son and I visit every Vietnamese restaurant in the Twin Cities area always in hopes that their menu dishes are better than we could make ourselves. My children's Aunt owned her own Vietnamese restaurant and is a great cook. I learned from her an other women from the family along with MANY Vietnamese cook books through the years. This book is a gold mine. One thing you must know before trying to make Vietnamese food is what the dish is suppose to taste like authentically and how to use the condiments with the food. Never ever eat Bun Xeo without the Nuoc Cham ect. I was very happy to see the recipes in this book and very excited to try them all I can tell they will be great.

"Into The Vietnamese Kitchen" captures the reader's eyes with delectable pictures and fills the stomach with honest to goodness Vietnamese comfort food. Because I am not able to fluently read Vietnamese, there was a real lack of good English written Vietnamese cookbooks for me. Andrea really encapsulates the Vietnamese culture through the recipes in her cookbook. Her book is modern enough for the younger cook, while maintaining accuracy and authentic ness for the more seasoned cooks. Her poignant shared family stories add a unique personal touch to the cookbook, making it all the more pleasurable to read. This cookbook is a must have for your bookshelf! It's a great cookbook for a Vietnamese American like me who just wants to feel like she's back at her Grandma's dinner table.

To get a taste of Andrea's cookbook, she also has a website you can visit : www.vietworldkitchen.com . It's full of insight, good reads, cooking tips, and additional recipes.

Tried many, but this is one of the best Vietnamese cook books out there. Ingredients are detailed and the directions are easy o follow. Results are super!!!