- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Dec 8 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684864444
- ISBN-13: 978-0684864440
- Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 19.6 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 748 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#1,048,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44 in Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Vietnamese
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Authentic Vietnamese Cooking offers remarkable insight into the history and details of this seemingly simple yet enchantingly sophisticated cuisine. Author Corinne Trang shares the story of her family, starting with her grandparents, who emigrated from Hunan, China, to Cambodia and then to Vietnam. Eventually, Trang herself made homes in Paris and New York, as well as Asia. The resulting blending of cultures and culinary traditions in her family is a common experience for Southeast Asians who, over the centuries, have had to flee from one place to the next to survive despotism, hunger, and war.
Trang clarifies the distinctions between dishes from the three regions of Vietnam. There is the Simple North, where stir-fries are common and the seven-course beef meal, Bo By Mon, originated. The Sophisticated Center features Chao Tom, shrimp paste grilled on lengths of sugar cane created to please the wealthy families of Hue. In the Spicy South, sea trade with India, plus Cambodian influences, led to the development of aromatic, golden curries. Today, the Vietnamese serve them with Banh Mi, the light, crusty Saigon baguette made with rice and wheat flour.
In addition to the four groups of condiments essential to Vietnamese cooking (sweet, pungent Nuoc Cham, vinegared vegetables, sate, and table salad), Trang gives recipes for rice-paper-wrapped Summer Rolls, filled with rice noodles, pork, and shrimp, and Mint Rice with Shredded Chicken. Requiring only rice, chicken stock, shallots, fresh mint, and cooked chicken, it has the clean and layered flavors typical of Vietnamese food. Western sensibilities may recoil at Trang's brief, honest discussion of the exotic meats served in Vietnam, including dog, snake, and monkey, served mostly to demonstrate machismo or status (no recipes are given). Christopher Hirsheimer's artistic black-and-white photos enhance the poetic simplicity of Trang's deeply involving text. --Dana Jacobi
From Publishers Weekly
Vietnamese cuisine, which fuses French and Chinese traditions, is no stranger to the American palate, and food writer Trang, raised by a French mother and a Cambodian-born Chinese father, is ideally suited to become its latest proponent. Subtly combining such familiar ingredients as chilies, cilantro, garlic, star anise and lime, Trang also calls for rarer components like Thai basil (for which Italian is no substitute), lotus seeds, and dried squid and shrimp. Though home cooks will have to scavenge Asian markets for ingredients, they will not be intimidated by the recipes. The dishes are as intriguing as Pineapple and Anchovy Dipping Sauce for beef and as familiar as Chicken Curry. Stuffed Fish is a carp or sea bass filled with a redolent paste of pork, reconstituted shiitake mushrooms, ginger and fish sauce. Spicy Beef and Carrot Stew with its five-spice powder, lemongrass and coconut milk has evolved from the classic French dish, Boeuf aux Carottes. Because most Vietnamese main-course recipes call for sugar or another sweetening agent, the desserts are traditionally fresh fruits. Trang, however, does offer recipes for Toasted Coconut Ice Cream and Sesame Rice Dumplings. Her inspired, often simple dishes will nicely stretch the boundaries of home kitchen fare. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
CONDIMENTS are an integral part of nearly every Vietnamese dish. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
CONDIMENTS are an integral part of nearly every Vietnamese dish. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
You call this Vietnamese cooking?,
By
This review is from: Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table (Hardcover)
Those who gave positive reviews about this book...let me ask you this...are you even Vietnamese? Did you grow up on some of these foods and did you see your mom, grand-mothers, aunts and uncles make these dishes? And by the way, if you said YES, then obviously, you would NOT need a Vietnamese cooking book to show you how to make these meals today. Get out....re-steam banh cuon at that stage? Yes, you re-heat food when it has completely cooled down or has become cold, but this is not the way banh cuon is made. Is this author even real? I can't even give this book one star, or even half a star (I still had to give one because I was required to rate it) since the book is just darn ugly. Some cooking books may have unclear, imperfect and flat out not tasty recipes but to compensate for all those lacks, the books may have gorgeous pictures of the dishes. This one not only has very very UNAUTHENTIC, Americanized dishes, it is just a plain boring book altogether. It just rubs me the wrong way when people try to articulate in books certain things that cannot be put into words, and Vietnamese cuisine is one of them. My family and I have cooked Vietnamese dishes all of our lives and except for a few exceptional dishes, we have never followed a recipe...we just go with the taste and the feel of it...that's just the Vietnamese way and it's great, amazing, authentic foods. Granted, not everyone grew up eating and cooking these traditional dishes and one needs parameters, recipes and instructions to cook certain ethnic meals that one is not accustomed to. However, please please please....do not think that this book can remotely sell AUTHENTIC Vietnamese recipes....it is only authentic if you don't know what that is and can't compare with it. If this survey had more stars, I'd give it a minus 10.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not authentic at all.,
By "lantran2003" (San Francisco, CA (USA)) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table (Hardcover)
Don't let the title of this book fool you. The recipes are not authentic at all. They have few ingredients and therefore easy to cook, for sure, but they're not authentic. On top of that, there are no pictures of the food. Her mentioning of eating dog meat is probably for shock value, and it turns me off completely. I wouldn't want to own this book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
O.K. cookbook on Vietnamese cooking,
By "booksfoods" (Sacramento) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table (Hardcover)
I'm Vietnamese, and I don't think Corinne Trang knows much about Vietnamese cooking. She probably likes Vietnamese food & decided to learn how to cook certain dishes from someone and compile the recipes into this book. Her recipe for "Banh Cuon" is flavorless, and I don't think the "banh cuon" needs to be re-steamed once one has put the cooked pork filling on the "banh uot" and rolled it up. She should have noted that "banh cuon" could be served at room temperature. Better Vietnamese cookbooks are "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" by Mai Pham or "The Foods of Vietnam" by Nicole Routhier. I also like "The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam" by Bach Ngo, but this book is out of print, unfortunately. I was ecstatic when I found the recipe for "Banh La" in "The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam". "Banh La" is what Vietnamese people make at home and what's sold by Vietnamese food vendors in Vietnam. One recipe I do like in Corinne Trang's book is the one for "Banh Mi" (Saigon Baguette). Beyond that, I don't like anything else in her book.
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