A Taste of Madras: A South Indian Cookbook [Paperback]

Rani Kingman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Southern Indian dishes are less familiar restaurant fare generally, but as India's cuisine becomes more popular, interest increases in the cooking of this region. Kingman spent her early years in the state of Madras, now called Tamil Nadu. She offers illuminating descriptions of the influences of cultural and religious traditions on food and how ingredients are mixed together to produce balance. One favorite southern Indian dish that often appears on menus, masala dosai, consists of pancakes stuffed with a potato and vegetable filling. Kingman provides directions for this and numerous other delicacies, including fish and seafood dishes, which are a cornerstone of festive Madras meals. Alice Joyce --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

A cookbook can be many things besides the sum of its recipes: travel guide, picture book, storybook, and shopping list. This book is a bit of all of these. It is not a book for beginning cooks, even though the recipe instructions are very clear, because it assumes an advanced knowledge of cooking techniques. Quite a few spices or uncommon ingredients are needed for all recipes except sweets, so the investment in ingredients assumes a more than casual interest in Indian food. The excellent glossary is a good place to begin, both to become acquainted with any unfamiliar ingredients and to stock the pantry with missing supplies. A where-to-find ingredients' list includes sources for mail order. The short description of Madras, chapter and recipe introductions, and gray-area asides are full of food-lore, folklore, myths, and legends to give the recipes a cultural context. This is a large-format book with an attractive, easy-on-the-eyes design. The illustrations are mouthwatering, and the smell of authenticity starts with the grinding of spices. The index could be better; it lacks both cross references, which makes an entry like fish and seafood incomplete, and commas, which is unsettling and inelegant. -- From Independent Publisher --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Publishing Group (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566561965
• ISBN-13: 978-1566561969
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,348,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover South Indian Cooking, April 2, 2000

By 

Gwilym Archer - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Taste of Madras: A South Indian Cookbook (Paperback)

For anyone who already owns an Indian cookbook - and the place to start is Madhur Jaffey's encyclopedic Indian Cooking - this is a rich source of authentic South Indian recipes. I have tried most of them, and have yet to be disappointed. Be warned though, these recipes produce hotter dishes than most Indian cookbooks, and assume a basic familiarity with Indian cooking techniques. South Indian cooking is associated with vegetarian dishes, but this is Tamil cooking, and there are as many meat dishes as vegetarian, including beef, lamb, pork, chicken and duck. As for seafood, there are wonderful crab, lobster, shrimp and fish recipes. This is an excellent source of recipes for an underappreciated region of Indian cooking.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not an authentic south indian cookbook!!!, April 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A Taste of Madras: A South Indian Cookbook (Paperback)

A huge disappointment!! If you are a Madrasi/looking for authentic or serious Madrasi - tasting dishes, forget it!! This will be O.K for somebody wanting to imitate Madrasi/south indian cooking or for a brand new beginner. Most of the recipes call for couple of basic spices (eg. chilli pd.,turmeric pd.,ginger-garlic)...That's it! But, the names given to these recipes are madrasi-sounding definitely.Any way what kind of cookbook author would call a curry leaf- neem leaf!! I am pretty sure it was not a printing error.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of south indian cuisine, March 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A Taste of Madras: A South Indian Cookbook (Paperback)

As a person brought up on South Indian cuisine, but now living in the West, I found this cookbook invaluable in reprising the tastes of my home, and introducing me to some new dishes that I had never tried before. It was clearly written and all the recipes I attempted were very delicious. It has cemented my belief that South Indian cuisine is the 'best kept secret' for the modern food connoisseur.