Customer Reviews

The Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would love to give this book five stars. When I first bought it, I certainly would have. However, as I worked my way through the book and cooked with more of the recipes, I found myself with headaches as often as I had great food.

Here's why: This book is not edited well, and it is not written with a beginning or even an intermediate cook in mind. That combination spells disaster. In roughly a third of the recipes in the book, vital details are missing, details that might seem minor to a casual reader or obvious to advanced cooks but mean the difference between beautiful food and a disgusting, and in some cases expensive, catastrophe.

Here's a good example. Many of the book's recipes call for a meat substitute called seitan, a sort of gluten loaf cooked in broth. A recipe for seitan is provided in the early chapters of the book. Interested in making at home what can be a very expensive item in the store, I set out to make seitan one day according to the recipe provided in Petrovna's book.

So, I followed the directions to the letter, going through the entire process of making the dough and rinsing out the starch and kneading the resulting gluten ball, a process that takes place over the course of hours. Then, I prepared the broth that the gluten is cooked in - a very salty broth, I should add - and put the whole thing on the stove to cook, a process that also took hours. However, as I put the pot on the stove, I found myself rereading the directions over and over again, hoping that I'd find a clue as to whether or not to put the lid on the pot while the seitan cooked. There was none, except a picture of the seitan cooking, which featured a pot with no lid on it. So I decided to take a chance and leave the lid off.

What I got at the end was a very time-consuming, very messy ball of salt. This is no exaggeration. Eating the seitan was comperable to taking a shot of salt and washing it down with another shot of salt. The liquid had boiled down, depositing all of the salt in the gluten loaf. I had no way of knowing that this was probably not the intended effect until I tasted the seitan and found it completely unedible. Had I been instructed in the directions to simply put the pot lid on, I might have had something to show for my effort besides a huge loaf of gluten-flavored salt.

Unfortunately, there are a ridiculous number of this type of omission in "Native Foods." Slips as simple as forgetting to instruct readers to grease a pan, to drain canned vegetables before using them, or to add more water if a recipe gets dry can leave all but the most experienced cooks with a disaster instead of dinner. Most of the recipes in this book are fun and imaginative, and if the directions are clear they come out beautiful and delicious. Unfortunately, every time I use this book I feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette, so I've come to pass this book up for ideas unless I've got a lot of time and money to buy groceries.

This book was recommended to me by a vegan chef whom I hired to teach me how to cook some healthier meals.

The Tempeh pate recipe (serve it w/plain, unsalted rice crackers, mmmm . . . ) is worth the price of the book alone. I have tried the tempeh provencal recipe, and I didn't find that to my liking, but I think some of my ingredients weren't of the highest quality and may have been old . . . I have eaten at the Native Foods Restaurant a couple of times and the food is excellent - if you get a chance eat at one of her locations (I frequent the Westwood one). She has a website: http://www.nativefoods.com/

I have eaten a lentil soup, a cauliflower "Cream" soup, a baja surf ("fish") taco and the Bali Surf Burger at the restaurant. Unfortunately, only the Surf Burger is included in the recipe book - but all were FABULOUS. I am no culinary expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I am picky and these recipes are easy to follow - and that Tempeh Pate, you just have to try it (a sidenote: the deglaze recipe for the tempeh can get a little salty, so I used 1/4c of soy sauce for the deglaze instead of the 1/2c the recipe calls for)!

Even though I haven't had the chance to try many of the recipes, I am looking forward to trying more . . . judging from her restaurant fare and the pate recipe, I'm confident this book will earn a prominent place in my cookbook library!

If you're vegan, one thing you sorely miss is ranch dressing. If you only make the Black Creek Ranch Dressing recipe, you will have already spent money wisely. The recipes in this book are easy, delicious, rich, and outstanding. Try the Kissed French Toast, and you will want to make it for everyone you know. I have the pleasure of living close enough to eat in Native Foods restaurants, but if you don't, please do yourself a favorite and buy this book. Heck, even if you do live close enough, you can make some yummy treats at home. Includes recipes for vegan bases, in case you don't have access, and it is a very informative, entertaining book as well.

If you've been a vegetarian or vegan for a while this is probably a good resource. For a beginner, however, it's just too much and the recipes are too involved. Also, many of the recipes require the use of other recipes in the book, and we simply don't have three hours to prepare a meal every night.

My recommendation would be to check it out at a local bookstore (like Barnes & Noble) before you buy it. Had I done this, I wouldn't have bought it.

We recently returned from a vacation in Palm Springs and had the good fortune to eat at both locations of the Native Foods Restuarant. The food was delicious, so much so that we ate there 5 times in 9 days. We sampled a variety of sandwiches, wraps, tacos, bowls and a desert or two and then bought the cookbook The cookbook contains recipes for most of the dishes we ate and the recipes are clear, concise and produce yummy results. Vegan food never tasted so good (and we are not vegans).

Tanya Petrovna is the head chef of the popular Southern California based "Native Foods" restaurant chain. In The Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook Petrovna draws upon her many years of professional and personal experience to put together a vegetarian cookbook that offers diverse and delicious menus offering her fellow vegetarians delicious, guilt-free options for the dining table. After an informative 3-part introduction ("Native Foods and Me", "The Vegetarian Lifestyle", "Passionate about Organics"), Petrovna goes over the basics of vegetarian cooking from how to equip the kitchen, to a glossary of cooking terms, to overview explanations of basic vegetarian ingredients. Then come a wealth of recipes that have as their common denominator an adherence to vegetarian sensibilities and terrific taste! From Shallot Mushroom Gravy; Tanya's Tempeh Salad; and El Bruncho Burrito; to Bali Surf Burger; Tangerine Yams; and Mexican Hot Chocolate, these are dishes that would grace any table and satisfy any appetite.

My boyfriend and I had the pleasure of visiting a Native Foods in Los Angeles while we were visiting for a friend's wedding. The food was absolutely fantastic. I snapped up the cookbook immediately, and we've been whipping up some of the same dishes served in the restaurant. Right now, I'm addicted to the Thai slaw, because the Sesame Orange Vinaigrette dressing is the best! The Rockin' Morroccan marinade is also fantastic. Honestly, there are too many to name. You just need to buy the cookbook and find out for yourself.

The first recipe I tried out of this book was the Mecca Aztecca Salad. The first words out of my mouth when I tasted the Mango Lime Vinagrette dressing were "I want to bear her children!" I've tried several recipes since, and with every new dish I renew my desire to see this kind of culinary mastery reproduce! You go, girlfriend! ;-)

I'm reminded of my first meal in Paris. The ingredients in whatever I was eating were all common and familiar, but something about the way they blended drove every thought other than the flavor from my mind. I remember thinking "I didn't know you could DO that with food!" I feel exactly the same about these recipes. Simple ingredients, quick preparation, and flavor that knocks your socks off. How she does it, I don't know, but I'm delighted that she does it.

Now my favorite gift combo is The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and this cookbook. (I've purchased five copies of each.) The China Study is an overwhelmingly compelling health-based explanation of _why_ you should stop consuming animal products. This book is fantastic introduction to _how_. When healthy, inexpensive, low-environmental impact, compassionate food can taste like this, eating any other way is...well, stupid.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book. Treat yourself to fantastically flavorful dishes that, oh by the way, will dramatically lower your weight, your cholesterol, your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and scores of other "diseases of affluence". But if you find, as I did, that you want to bear her children, remember: I've got dibs on that - get thee behind me, buster! :-)

I own a broad and varied range of cookbooks, but this one absolutely rates as my #1 Five-Star favorite.
You may not think of a cookbook as being a 'good read', but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one front to back. The author, Tanya Petrovna, writes with an engaging style that is truly gracious and respectful toward the subject of healthful cookery, while also imparting a charming wit and humor throughout.
Her recipes are, in my opinion, fan(that's me)tastic. Seriously great! They are presented with simplicity and are easy to read, while her anecdotes are neatly placed off to the side where they won't interfere or distract you while cooking.
My advice is - Buy it, You'll like it.

I have tryed a couple of these recipes. It has been great so far. I new the book would be great. I have been to the resturant. It is great.