Quick & Easy Vietnamese: Home Cooking for Everyone (Quick and Easy Series) (Paperback)

by Andre Nguyen (Author), Yukiko Moriyama (Author) "A colorful tray of appetizers is a good way to start the evening..." (more)
Key Phrases: ear mushroom shreds, saifun noodles, coconut soda, Cooking Sauce, Marinade Sauce, Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
INTRODUCTION
Vietnam is a country of natural beauty with a coastline of sandy beaches stretching about 2000 miles (3225 km) from the northern to the southern tip of the South China Sea. Along the coast, fishing is the main livelihood. The majority of Vietnamese people are Kinh race people (87%) with the remaining of 53 different ethnic minority groups. For more than 2000 years, the country has been subjected to a near continuing series of foreign occupations from China, France, Japan, and America. One consequence of these occupations is the lasting influence on Vietnamese cuisine. Among Vietnamese dishes, perhaps the best known in the West is Pho, a noodle soup. Another is the deep-fried spring roll called Nern in the north, and Cha Goi in the south. Rice is a staple food used as a side dish, or a main dish when combined with other ingredients, such as beef, pork, chicken, or seafood. Vietnamese dishes consist of many different blends of herbs and spices. Most dishes are not fiery hot, nor greasy. Seafood and vegetarian dishes like An Chay are very popular. Today, Vietnamese cuisine is gaining increased international attention due to the fact that it is quite healthy.
This book is an introduction to a new generation for a delicious journey through Vietnamese cuisine. While the combination of flavors may seem experimental to some, they will result in a savory experience. All ingredients used in these recipes can be found in supermarkets, natural food stores or in Asian food markets. It is our pleasure to share these quick and delicious Vietnamese recipes with you. Enjoy the good nutrition that comes with it.

From the Publisher
For more than two thousand years, Vietnam has been subjected to a near continous series of foreign occupations and that has created a lasting influencing on its cuisine. Today, Vietnamese cooking has gained international attention for its wide variety of healthy and delicious dishes. Most of the recipes are not fiery hot or greasy and are made with many different blends of herbs and spices. Quick & Easy the Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone contains recipes for some of the best-known dishes including, Goi Cuon (fresh spring rolls with rice noodles and mint), broiled prawns skewered with stalks of fresh lemongrass, and Chicken Pho (a delicate broth of chicken and noodles seasoned with cinnamon and anise). In all, this book introduces over seventy of the most famous recipes and is loaded with helpful hints. All ingredients used in these recipes can be found in supermarkets, natural food stores and Asian food markets.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Japan Publications Trading (September 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4889961259
• ISBN-13: 978-4889961256
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,492 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Practical & Easy, January 31, 2005

By	Punchy (Ft.Worth, TX) - See all my reviews

Update May, 2006:
Watch out for the salt content on some of the recipes for chicken that also has a cooking sauce, such as Chicken with Mushrooms and Lemon Grass Chicken. I reccommend 1/2 teaspoon salt for 10 oz of meat or 1 teaspoon per pound of meat; you can always add more but you can't remove them once they're in.

Original review:
This is a nice cookbook with no personal or cultural anecdotes, just simple recipes with practical ingredients and very good results. The recipes are laid out one per page, with photographs of the dish, the ingredients and preparation. With so much photos, the instructions are necessarily streamlined, which works for many of the recipes except for a few, like beef pho. Telling one to combine all the ingredients in boiling stock and cook over low heat just won't do for pho. It assumes you know a thing or two about preparing this soup, like how long to simmer it. I reccommend at least an hour or more.

There is a wonderful recipe for chicken simmered in coconut juice and flavored with Maggie sauce, which is essentially Ga Roti in my book. It tastes just like my mom's and no other vietnamese cookbook I've come across have it. In fact, the ingredients the author uses are exactly my mom's, except she would measure in pinches and tads and touches of this and that. Ditto for the caramelized pork and eggs (thit kho & trung).

There is also an ingredients list containing color photographs that is handy for shopping.

Overall, a good selection of easy, homey, delicious recipes like bun rieu, bun suong (another hard to find recipe), and vietnamese sandwiches. Also, if you like cookbooks that contain more photos of how to prepare the food and optimal (minimal) use of words, this is a good choice.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Vietnamese cook book yet., April 8, 2007

By	Kim Knudsen "ishagok" (Nome, AK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have gone through many expensive Vietnamese cook books and have not used a single recipe out of them because they're difficult or "it's not the way my mom made it." This book show pictures of the ingredients so you know what to look for in an Asian store and pictures of the end product. If I don't know the name of a dish I can look at the picture and recognize it. I tried learning from my mom but as everyone knows most women from Vietnam don't measure, it's a little of this and some of that. So some of the time my recipes are just right and other times they weren't. My mom would try to explain what a certain ingredient was but would not know the English name for it. This book explains it all. Very easy to follow recipes and they turn out just like "the way my mom made it."

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars just like mom use to cook, March 20, 2006

By	gabrielle (columbus, ohio) - See all my reviews

I am Vietnamese and moved to France with my parents in 1946. My mother was an exquisite cook. I unfortunately did not benefit from her gift. However, when I turned 30 I began to ask for recipes from my cousins. I have bought 5-6 copies pf this book for my children and friends. It is the most concise Vietnamese cookbook. The illustrations are very helpful.