Customer Reviews

Savour the Pacific: A Discovery of Taste

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

 

 

I have too many cookbooks, and I come back to this one very often. It's crammed with delicious, original and doable recipes. In fact, the recipes are not always exact pacific recipes but rather the author's approach of creating modern recipes with typical pacific flavours. Simply the titles of some recipes should convince you: "Prawns with chili mango sauce", "coconut passion cake", "grilled scallop salad with citrus chili dressing", "kokoda: coconut ceviche", "lemongrass and chili risotto", "duck and mango salad" etc. Langbein's recipes are very convincing and never intimidating to make. Her salad dressings are incredible. Of note: there are plenty of nice photographs about the pacific in the book. In short, a strongly recommended book!

PS I also recommend Langbein's "Cooking to impress".

I don't review many products but let me say this is the best of the smaller cookbooks I own. In the back there is a section called "Basics" packed with simple, one-paragraph recipes that have simply become how I cook: rice, dipping sauces, salad dressings- everything with a light, refreshing flair. The recipes are simple, low fat, and most call for only a few ingredients, mostly staples if you do any pan-asian cooking at all. But the flavors are huge and every time I use this book people are amazed at the results. Really one of the very best cookbooks out there- I give it to everyone.

This is a beautiful book, well written, clear recipe steps and lovely phtotgraphy. I know many pacific islands have been heavily influenced by the Asian culture in various parts, but reading this book you would think they rule the region. The book is full of recipes like vietnamese roast chicken salad, satay chicken salad, chargrilled squid on soba noodles and duck wontons??? The recipes remind me of dishes you may find in a tropical bistro or restaurant, there to please and give the impression of being authentic and exotic but are far removed from the fact. Also if you are talking Pacific why not include Hawaii, at least it has some well known distictive recipes which could have been included rather than these other so called pacific dishes. The recipes are fresh and tasty (I love the tropical fruit bars) but nothing is particularly exciting and new.

If you want a good book on pacific cooking you cannot look past the award winning Me'a Kai. This is a wonderful book, authentic and full of recipes.

Annabel has a trademark style throughout her many cookbooks - simple, easy to prepare food that is big on flavour and uses easy to source ingredients as well as giving many options within the one recipe. For example a duck recipe can be substituted with fish.
This book has a wonderful laid back Pacific vibe and is packed with extra information and an excellent section at the back for great side dishes. While not truly recipes from the Pacific Islands this book draws huge inspiration from the region with a fresh modern twist and healthy recipes with wonderful clean, light, fresh flavours.
I have hundreds of cookbooks but this is easily my favourite and definitely my go-to for recipes and inspiration.

I was very disappointed with this book as the recipes definitely were not from the Pacific. Ms Langbein uses primarily Asian ingredients, and Asian recipes to dress up food found in the Pacific. For example, she uses lots of coriander, sake, white rice vinegar, kaffir lime leaves. Admittedly, she does state in her introduction that "The recipes in this book do not represent the traditional cooking of the Pacific" but then why put "Pacific" in the title of your book? Why not call it "Savour Asian flavours". She condescendingly describes the traditional cooking of the Pacific to be "rather bland subsistence fare". I take exception to this, having grown up in a Pacific home. If she had spent any time in a real Pacific kitchen, she might have discovered that food from this region is as tasty as anything found in Asia (the area from where she REALLY drew her inspiration. Having said that, if you are after Westernised and Asianised (!) Pacific fare, then buy this book. If you want something more authentic, try Sam Choy's books.

Now that I've had my rant and rave, there are good points about this book. Firstly, the stunning photographs by Keiran Scott are so vivid and inspiring, this could easily be a coffeetable book. Secondly, the recipes are laid out in a clear, concise fashion so you can easily see what you need and how to prepare each dish.

One star for exploiting the Pacific to sell yet another Asian cookbook.

Nice book, great photos. Not much in the way of recipes. Mostly for ingredients I can't get. I'll keep it for an inspiration book, though.

You can't rate something you don't receive!!!! I never received it and thus I just have a review of Amazon.com. Probably won't use it again!