Pacific Flavors: Oriental Recipes for a Contemporary Kitchen [Hardcover]

Hugh Carpenter (Author), Teri Sandison (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 1989

A frequent traveller to the Orient, the author has produced a book of food that combines Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese seasonings with ingredients from his native Pacific coast. The result is food that is light, healthy and easy to prepare. The book won the Best Asian Cookbook of 1988 IACP/Seagram Awards.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Carpenter, a talented California chef, creates unusual dishes using ingredients and techniques that are a blend of the Oriental and the European: Spicy Swordfish Salad, Roast Chicken with Chinese Herbs, Rabbit Chinois. They are original, ingenious even, rather than merely trendy (though the recipes are almost overwhelmed by the lavish format and new-wave photographs); easy to prepare; and inviting. Costly, but buy this if you can. JS
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Virgin Books (March 9, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862874394
• ISBN-13: 978-0862874391
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,169,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Chinese/Asian Book, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pacific Flavors: Thai and Chinese Cooking for an American Kitchen (Paperback)

This is a great cookbook! It's got a great combination of basic and highly creative recipes. It seems that with many Chinese recipes and cookbooks, everything tastes similar, just with different ingredients. This book's recipes are very broad in concepts, flavors, presentation and preparation styles (some stir frys, barbeques, dumplings,sautes,sauces, etc.). If we could only have one Chinese cookook, this would be it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll LOVE this book, February 20, 2005

By 

Denise "dbcreates" (Salt Lake City Best Snow on Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pacific Flavors: Thai and Chinese Cooking for an American Kitchen (Paperback)

Hugh Carpenter is one of my favorite cookbook authors: James Beard, Jacques Pepin and Rose Levy Berenbaum being the others. All write with explanations for the process---why you do something the way it is indicated in the recipe---is it the author's whim, tradition, or vital to a successful result?! Hugh Carpenter tells you what to do as far as preparation, whether it can be done in advance, and all needed information regarding the recipe, including plating the final results. What separates this book from so many other very good cookbooks is the actual recipes. If you want to try your hand at asian cooking, this would be my guide of choice. As Frommers travel guides are to the traveler, so are Carpenter/Sandeson's books to the intrepid cooks. As another reviewer stated, it is not recommended to 'blind' try a recipe for guests---that is, don't plan to serve an untried recipe for the first time to guests. But with this book (or any of his others, for that matter) you can do this fearlessly. The flavors are vibrant, bold and he tells you if you need to raise the level of heat. Do what he says: if he tells you something needs to marinate overnight, or be cooked a day in advance to allow the flavors to mellow or settle, DO IT! He and his wife have traveled all over the Pacific Rim and bring authentic flavors to the American cook who wants veracity and integrity in their cooking.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth having!, January 11, 2000

By 

Kenneth J. Koskiniemi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pacific Flavors: Thai and Chinese Cooking for an American Kitchen (Paperback)

Out of +150 cookbooks we own, this is one of the top five. Hugh Carpenter isn't afraid to have you use spices to produce wonderful dishes. His method of separating the recipe into advance preparation and cooking is a great help in preparing something new. His serving sizes are very accurate and menu ideas useful. The photography is outstanding and an added plus in first time preparation. At a dinner party, we rarely dare to prepare a dish we haven't tried, but have done this on five occasions using "Pacific Flavors", all with compliments from everyone. This book is not only an excellent cookbook, but a beautiful coffee table piece also.