Customer Reviews

Wild, Wild East: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are so many delicious recipes - I've tried a few so far and they turned out great. Vietnamese food is flavorful but very light. I love looking at the photos of food and scenes from Vietnam. I put this book on my coffee table for my guests to enjoy. Before this cookbook all the Vietnamese cookbooks I've seen were poorly laid out or the recipes were just too difficult to copy. I finally found the Vietnamese cookbook I can use and enjoy for a long time.

The receipes in this book sound wonderful. However, this is the worst, and I have hundreds, cookbook I have ever encountered for mistakes. Where is the second brining in the smoked duck? How much sugar and water do you use in the Lychee Sorbet? I have even emailed the publisher for help to no avail. There are some vital parts to both of the receipes missing that I've tried to make. If you are not a very accomplished cook, look elsewhere.

..i am so thankful that someone has taken the time to make good vietnamese cuisine assessable to those of us who can't cook! I recently saw a segment on a local TV program with the author/chef and his personal story fascinated me...a SF native who finds a home away from home in Hanoi, Vietnam...and finds comfort in the food and culture surrounding him. Bobby Chinn's book succeeds in bringing all the fresh and contemporary elements of Vietnamese cuisine to the forefront with easy to follow recipes that make it a pleasure to cook! His playful take on traditional recipes is fresh and unexpected and the book is jam packed with healthy, creative dishes that anyone can reproduce. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys being creative in the kitchen....it makes a wonderful gift.

Bobby Chinn's personal stories recounting his adventures in Vietnam and colorful past intersperses fusion style recipies. This is a great gift for anyone who loves both traveling and cooking. I specially recommend the chicken wings marinated in ginger and lime which became an immediate hit with my friends. This book is an excellent gift!

...i am so thankful that someone has taken the time to make good vietnamese cuisine assessable to those of us who can't cook! I recently saw a segment on a local TV program with the author/chef and his personal story fascinated me...a SF native who finds a home away from home in Hanoi, Vietnam...and finds comfort in the food and culture surrounding him. Bobby Chinn's book succeeds in bringing all the fresh and contemporary elements of Vietnamese cuisine to the forefront with easy to follow recipes that make it a pleasure to cook! His playful take on traditional recipes is fresh and unexpected and the book is jam packed with healthy, creative dishes that anyone can reproduce. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys being creative in the kitchen....it makes a wonderful gift.

This book made me ill. Depressing, vulgar, and self-aggrandizing, it was more than merely a waste of time--it was an insult to my intelligence. After wading through as much of this thing as I could stomach, I was left with two clear impressions: 1). Bobby Chinn desperately wants to be Anthony Bourdain, and 2). Bobby Chinn is NOT a chef. Not a good one, anyway.

How do I know he's not a chef? Because when a chef takes on the task of feeding customers, that chef takes possession of the kitchen and its staff. And only a complete amateur would allow gazpacho laced with gasoline to be set in front of his guests, as Chinn admits he did. But does he take responsibility for serving toxic soup to his customers without so much as a taste or a sniff from the "chef"? Oh, no. Instead, he bores us with a vile story about how he screamed obscenities at some ignorant, lazy old woman in the kitchen. We're supposed to be impressed. And entertained, I suppose. I was neither.

Or how about the time he and his drunken buddies sat nearby and howled with laughter while his bartender abused a customer who wasn't happy with her drink? We're supposed to think this is a hilarious story. I guess you had to be there.

Despite the half-hearted forward by Bourdain himself, "chef" Chinn misses the Bourdain mark by miles. Instead, he comes across as sort of a potty-mouthed Jeffrey Steingarten: piggish, vapid, and hopelessly convinced that if he keeps boring people with stories about the all the "lovely" offal he's consumed, someone will think he's cool. He tells us about the time he and his buddies went slumming (pheasant feathers in hand, I presume), looking for dog meat. According to Chinn, dog is stringy and tough and not particularly good to eat. But that's not really the point, is it? The point is to be able to horrify dog lovers by telling them you've eaten it. Never mind the fact that people who eat dog generally do so because they can't afford anything else. Chinn seems to get extra pleasure from the fact that the animal he's consuming and not enjoying suffered so he could feed his hedonistic curiosity: "We sat there speechless as the sound of a moaning dog filled the air like a cruel winter wind." Yum.

Does this book contain delicious recipes? I wouldn't know. I paid five bucks for it (used), and after reading what I could stand, I put it in a box and set it in the moldiest, dampest corner of my basement, where it will rot and turn to dust. You can thank me later.

Okay recipes (some had errors, like listing an ingredient and forgetting to include it in the dish), and I could have done without the 'colorful' language. Some of the stories were completely out of place in a cookbook, like the one dealing with a crazed restaurant owner hacking away at an oven full of live rats with a cleaver. Who wants to cook, much less eat, after reading about something like that?

My husband enjoys using and reading this book. It takes him on a vacation he says.

It's about time that Bobby Chinn put his talent down on paper. As one who had the good fortune to be able to eat at his lovely lakefront restaurant in Hanoi in its early days, I can't wait to try all the recipes and hopefully relive some of the unique culinary experience.

Bobby Chinn is a big fan of Vietnamese food - and considers it light, healthy and diverse. His own fusion-style recipes make WILD, WILD EAST much more than just another Vietnamese cookbook: it pairs color photos by Jason Lowe and stories by Bobby about all dishes along with recipes home chefs will relish, from Duck a la Banana to Carmelized Prawns. An outstanding presentation recommended for collections catering to neo-professional home cooks.