Customer Reviews

Lemongrass and Lime: New Vietnamese Cooking

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I will give a fair warning and say that the following review is quite harsh, but I will try to be as fair as possible.

Okay, on the plus side this book has beautiful photos almost too beautiful to have in a working kitchen. Some of the pictures are so artful one asks the question of what is the picture's purpose? For many of the photos are not instructional photos that show techniques or states of the food except as finished product.

Design --

It is a outsized volume that is perfect for the coffee table but maybe a bit unwieldy in a book holder. The size I am sure, was determined by the photo layout and not the recipes for they occupy very little space.

The layout is of ingredients listed way on the bottom with instructions for the recipe not quite center with the use of a lot of white space and very artistic photos of something that may not be related to the dish. All thisdone on glossy paper.

Problems --

Poorly edited: The book forgets steps in the use of ingredients and has the unique distinction of having an editor who did not bother providing temperature setting equivalents for UK oven markings. So it is not geared for the American kitchen at all. What does Mark # mean for your temperature specific oven? Good guessing is required or a reference. The writer or editor might have tried to do the simple modification of providing both English and degree settings for the recipes. It shows a lack of care.

The Recipes --

I will grant that this is supposed to be 'NEW' Vietnamese cuisine but I find the book making way too many changes and tradeoffs to have it termed Vietnamese except in the broadest sense. An example is the use of butter in recipes e.g., beef and chicken stock. Also, the recipes may require more than what your average thrifty Vietnamese grandma might use such as, veal bones and 10 egg whites to clarify the stock.

The chicken broth/stock was pretty thin in the making just the use of chicken wings which creates a thinner less full broth which may shortchange the strength of broth based dishes. More traditional recipes would actually use a whole chicken to provide fuller flavor and maximize the thriftiness of having a chicken cooked at the same time for another dish.

Vietnamese cooking already has French influences and has chosen and discarded based on what is appropriate so I found it a bit disconcerting that some recipes seem to go very French in technique and then shift to what I term, (fast) cooking where trade-offs are made for unclear reasons. I guess what I am saying is that the vision of the book and its recipes were unclear.

The recipes seem to be a marriage of alot of French technique with some Vietnamese spicing. But is it THE torch of a new direction in Vietnamese cuisine? I hope not because it would be robbed of a depth of flavor and boldness of vision.

My recommendation is do not get this book if you are a serious cook or even a novice for the recipes are more complicated than the novice needs while the serious cook will gain nothing useful from the volume in either background, technique or flavor that is not already in their repetoire.

Lovely as a coffeetable book or to get your tastbuds going, but don't try to actually use any of the recipes.

In a casual review of recipes, I found numerous editing mistakes. For example, one recipe gives you detailed directions for baking and mashing a potato. It then moves on to the next ingredients and never tells you what to do with the perfectly mashed potato! Similarly, there are references to ingredients not previously mentioned and inane instructions like refrigerating fresh fish for a MAXIMUM of one hour.

Overall, it feels like the book was rushed to market and/or published by cookbook neophites. Disappointing as the title, pictures, and dish descriptions are all quite mouth-watering.

As a Vietnamese-American, I want to learn more about preparing and cooking Vietnamese cuisines. Along with Mai Pham's "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table," I bought this book because of its beautiful images of Vietnamese food. These images evoke childhood memories.
As soon as I finished skimming through the book, I was quite devastated that I didn't recognize anything as Vietnamese cuisines. All these recipes are practically French, New Age, or fusion hosh-posh. Yes! I am a purist when it comes to international cuisines.
Furthermore, the recipes are so difficult to follow. It seems that Mr. Read is so obessesive over the glossy photos that he forgets include complete instructions.
I donated the book to the local public library.

Although I agree with some of the criticisms raised about this cookbook, I think the harsh reviews are excessive. Indeed, the ingredient lay-out (in a line at the bottom of the page) is poor, and there are some errors in editing. And I can't say anything about its Vietnamese authenticity (I will trust those who wrote earlier reviews--that it is poor). However, all of the dishes I have tried so far have been wonderfully easy to make and absolutely delicious to eat. I'll admit I haven't made even a quarter of the recipes included (yet!), but I have enjoyed and expect I will continue to enjoy cooking from this book and being inspired to do so by its interesting dishes and beautful visual pictures.

I am usually wary when westerners write Vietnamese cookbooks and this book is the reason why. Get Mai Pham's book if you're looking for Vietnamese food. I don't know what this stuff is.