Basically the foods of ASEAN, it covers all 10 member countries, with recipe contributions from local cooking authorities. Only about 80 dishes in all, the book is a font of information for ingredients, background. Deft editing gives us easy to understand English ingredient translations for the esoteric, something which lacks in most similar Asian-sourced books.

www.bookwise.com.au

Peranakan is one of the world's more quixotic, yet delicious cookery styles. Nonya Flavours A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine is the best book yet on this hybrid Chinese-Malay culture evolving along the Malacca straits, from Thailand south to Penang, Malacca and Singapore. Includes some 150 original recipes compiled from family archives. Fine photography, with excellent introductory chapters on local history, festivals, even Nonyaware crockery, this book is essential. Unfortunately, the introductory ingredients chapter fails to identify numerous uncommon ingredients featured in the book's recipes (cincalok, kedondong and eukam are just three missing examples). Compiled an edited by Julie Wong. Jointly published by Star Publications, Selangor Malaysia and The State Chinese (Penang) Association.

www.selectbooks.com.sg

Culinary Cultures of Europe, is an ambitious project of "Indentity, diversity and dialogue" as its subtitle reads. And with two major international book awards, editor Dara Goldstein (whose previous stellar tasks ranged from a Georgian cookbook to flatbreads, and Gastronomy magazine) seems once again on the right track. Unfortunately, this weighty 500-page tome is too heavy for its nimble paperback cover, and the recipes themselves have absolutely no editing style, flirting inpexplicably between metric weights to cups (whether American or metric cups is not explained, either). Not only that, are the recipes traditional (which seems the theme of this book) or modern? Luxembourgs saddle of lamb wrapped in potato crisp, for example is a recent winner of the Paul Boucuse prix d'or. But does that make it a justifiable entry? Koneman Publishers did the European food concept better in their Culinaria series -- and at a better price.

www.amazon.com

For a comic look at Chinese cooking, literally, get Origins of Chinese Cuisine. 14 classic dishes are illustrated in comic book format -- from Buddha jumps over the wall, to Pock-marked Mrs. Chen's tofu. Compiled by Xu Shitao and illustrated by Fu Chunjiang.

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www.asiapacbooks.com

This is an insightful look into one of our favorite destinations. Brand new and profusely illustrated, its written by Philip Cornwall Smith, an English expat with many years’ residence in this Kingdom of Smiles. Indeed, Very Thai is so good, it’s already heading into Thai translation. Highly recommended

www.amazon.com  

www.amazon.com

We've made a vow to stop using the term Chinese New Year. This festive lunar holiday -- falling anywhere between late January and early February -- is celebrated throughout Southeast Asia and the Orient -- not just by the Chinese. (Some Americans may remember the Vietnamese Tet offensive during that war.)

Yet we'll use the word once more when describing the new book Chinese Feasts & Festivals a Cookbook, by S.C. Moey. The cover and pastel prints superficially belong to a children's book, yet the contents are anything but -- with many authentic holiday recipes we've longed to source.

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We all know that olive oil is one of the world's healthiest, brimming with antioxidants while decreasing low density lipid cholesterol. (What you probably didn't realize is that many cold-pressed nut oils have the same benefits -- so start shopping for oils in the health food stores, instead of supermarket aisles!) Better yet, olive oil can be re-heated many times without the deleterious effects present in others.

But for those who prefer their olive oils cold at the table instead of hot on the stove, read Judy Ridgway's Best Olive Oil Buys Round the World. Originally printed in '02, her new edition includes both tried and true varieties from Span, Italy and Greece, and less familiar new world brands from Australia and Argentina. Ridgway notes that recent EU regulations require olive producers to include results of a "peroxide test" which is a better indication of likely shelf life. Look for peroxide levels well below 20 -- the threshold for extra virgin status, she advises.

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While promenading down Bangkok's trendy Sukhumvit soi 55 to the chichi Playground Mall, we incongruously chanced upon Le Gaspacho dix facons de le preparer, or 10 ways to make Gazpacho, by Alberto Herraiz. Its simple, yet stylish, red cover with uncut lime green interior pages is a mere 12 pages, and at €6.50, it's expensive for its weight. Only 1800 copies printed, and there's a complimentary single-subject series, from capers, to orange flower. In French, from Les Editions de l'Epure and Presses du Louvre. You will need a knife to separate the page folds -- which had us recalling 19th century readers decrying the advent of pre-cut pages, claiming they made all books seem used.

www.epure-editions.com

Keep an eye out for The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire by Richard Adams Carey Although Iran gets quite a beating in the American press these days, sturgeon conservation is one area where the Muslim theocracy outshines neighboring Russia. Not that we’re personally buying any Caspian caviar these days. Its not only too expensive, it’s just too at risk! When will America follow the lead of countries like Australia, which have long banned beluga imports because of its endangered status?

www.amazon.com  

This book is so full of graphics, illustrations and photographs that it looks a bit like an "Insight Travel Guide" in hardback guise, squashed to an oversize square format. Inside, the text is extremely thorough in covering the wats or temples in every notable tourist destination. Outside of that, the reader may be left wanting.Particularly because, while the information may be extremely helpful during travels, the book's cumbersome size and weight prevents porting it about - even in your suitcase.After a return home, the detailed information on the temples will, on the other hand, probably seem too thorough, if not esoteric. If memory doesn't fail me, I have seen this book in many a Thai hotel room. Again, unfortunately, unless you devote considerable time from your travels to read through this book, it serves little more than as an illustrated jaunt through pretty pictures. I approached this book hoping to plan a Thai itinerary, and while some cities were helpful, the books' proposed itineraries are so infrequent, and irregular, that they are useless. Two especially good things about this book are its un-sanitised version of Thai life, and secondly its fluent English. In regards to Bangkok's notorious night life, both Pat Pong and Soi Cowboy are mentioned, along with the fact that "most Thai boys contact prostitutes before marriage." Likewise, quirky entries for a Miss Garlic Festival, and a transvestite durian (a kind of fruit) are listed. These is the sort of things appealing to some foreigners, but usually censored from our readings. On the other hand, while the English may be proficient, its Thai sourcing acts as an apologist to some of the more embarrassing facts of Thai culture and history. Buddhist schools were "necessarily limited to boys." Necessarily? How so? The pro-Japanese wartime prime minister was "unable to resist the Japanese." Unable, or unwilling? Instead of Thailand ceding Laos and Cambodia to the French in the 19th century, "The French exerted pressure... to redefine the borders of Indo China." Likewise, the editing could have been tighter. Explanation of the Thai dance known as the Ramikien is repeated several times on the same page, and curiously the city of Chiang Mai is listed as "Thailands fifth largest city after Bangkok and Khon Kaen." What happened to three and four?As for cooking and cuisine, only cursory attention is paid here. While a full page recipe is devoted to duck curry, the ingredients list peas instead of "pea eggplants" (not at all the same animal), and its directions for cooking coconut milk would probably curdle unless one differentiates between the thick or cream coconut, and its thinner milk.But mostly, I longed for the addition of local market foods and specialities in each region. Instead, there is only the very occasional mention of leading plantation products such as pineapple in the south, or the off-hand mention of delicious seafood restaurants along the waterfront of selected towns. Buy this book it as a souvenir of Thailand only if you plan to head back a second or third time. Then photostat the pages you need about the temples in each town. But don't lug this unwieldly tome. And don't rely on using it as a food guide.

But don't consider this all too esoteric. On the contrary. Even more pages were devoted to common entries such as clove, pepper, salt and vanilla. This is a book for layman and specialist alike, as the entries are thorough and readable. Because Mr. Hemphill has spent his life in the spice trade - his parents were Australian industry pioneers in the 1950s - his expertise on a very broad subject shines throughout.

While both spices and herbs are grouped together in the bulk of the book's "Spice Notes" section, spice blends are arbitrarily grouped later in "The Art of Combining Spices." As for the recipes? -- and there are some 50 in the book. Admittedly this is not a cookbook, so much as an encyclopedia, or "compendium" as the author puts it.

But I would have preferred recipes that singularly allowed a particular herb or spice's character to shine, instead of being grouped in a curry-like melange. The aforementioned ajowan, for example, has a biscuit recipe calling for not only ajowan, but also ras el hanout and nigella seeds - most unavailable to all but the seasoned shopper, or those in physical proximity to Hemphill's gastronomic spice palace in the Sydney suburb of Rozelle. (His shop, Herbie's, does offer a mail order service, and they do ship overseas.)

Here, the author could have come to the rescue by recommending select spice shops around the country as well as the world, but I suspect he has written off publishing abroad, because this book is exclusively in metric. The book's scope, however, warrants distribution outside the Australian realm.

I do have a few minor quibbles, such as the book saying salted capers are cheaper than brined (which may be the case on the European wholesale market, but certainly not at a New World retail level); chicory (or Belgian endive) is listed under the English usage "chicory" and the not common variant witloof (and why this salad green is included at all is another matter entirely!); and for style continuity reasons, I would have preferred "Vietnamese mint" to have been simply grouped under the heading "mint," just as Thai basil was listed under the generic "Basil."

Obviously, these varieties do not belong solely to these ethnic groupings; rather their use is most associated with them. "Nutmeg and Mace" are grouped together due to their similar origin, yet even the author clearly states that "nutmeg and mace are used in quite different ways." Casually thumbing alphabetically thorough the entries, therefore, might falsely lead you to their conclude that mace had no mention. I was also intrigued by Mr. Hemphill's tale of a Dutch trader who ordered the destruction of nutmeg trees in an attempt to manipulate the price of mace.

Probably pure speculation, for it is more likely that in the 16th century nutmegs were too precious to destroy - except where the Dutch monopoly of the nutmeg trade was at risk. In the case of the Spice Island of Run, where the nutmeg trees were indeed uprooted, this was done so because the English sought market entry there through a land claim. But these are little quibbles all. If anything, the book proves such a treasure of information that one easily becomes insatiable for more (and especially for a more thorough historical perspective).

There are also a few other negatives: the book's twee, embellished script and layout design, for example, but the absence of illustrations to identify each herb and spice is the most glaring. But on the whole, consider this a classic from a pro, warranting many reprints over the years. Let's wish for a more thorough historical introduction in a future edition - and line drawings.

Highly recommended.

Presumably they haven't tried to wade through its turgid text. Struggling to read the chapter on South East Asian foods, for example, reminded me of the worst required reading texts from university days. On the other hand, the volumes work brilliantly on many fronts as a bibliography source. But at its cost, it makes for a very expensive bibliographyNot only that, I fear the publishers may lack faith in this book's timelessness, for the paper is flimsy and will presumably yellow and brittle with age. For my money -- or actually for about a third less cost -- invest in Cambridge's arch-rival Oxford. The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson came out just last year, and it is not only comprehensive, but erudite.

www.amazon.com  

Certainly the book is Western orientated, as befits this publication. But the smattering of esoteric international recipes, such as Ethopian Chicken in Red Pepper Sauce, smacks not of paucity, but of whimsy. Certainly, classics like paprika chicken and coq au vin are represented, but I would have also liked to read the theory (or even a recipe) for Asian style chicken stocks to counter its more heavily-herbed Western counterpart.And why, for example, is an Indian curry recipe given, but no similar recipe to accompany Thai Green Curry Paste? Which, incidentally, is not a "flavour enhancer" to be rubbed onto meats prior to cooking. Sticking a curry paste into this ad hoc chapter betrays a poor understanding of Asian cooking. Moreover, while dried spices are roasted prior to grinding, in this recipe they are all grouped and cooked together, when in fact coriander- cumin and fennel seeds, as well as peppercorns, all toast at markedly varying times. (I also suspect there 2-3 minutes suggested cooking will render them bitter.) More specifically, in the introductory chapters, the two listed methods of roasting chicken (turning it over and not turning it over) totally overlook the most fundamental rule of juicy chicken: basting. And the mashed potato stuffing on page 23 confusingly calls for "leftover mashed potatoes" then proceeds to call for additional milk, stock and butter. Presumably, the mashed potatoes they are calling for are "riced", that is, pressed pure cooked potato, not mashed with milk, cream and whatever. If this is the intention, let's make this clear.And in a very American quality of microbe phobia, the text goes into great lengths about avoiding salmonella poisoning -- so much so that practically everybody will be scared off from handling raw poultry. Most of these rules are more applicable to a food wholesaler, not a home kitchen. "Never store raw birds, even when wrapped, next to an unwrapped food that will be eaten raw, such as salad greens or bread," alarmingly admonishes the text. So what to do? Empty the refrigerator totally? And another: "If the package contains an unusual amount of liquid, feels sticky, or has even the faintest off-odour, the contents are suspect," yet then contradictorily advises later: "If chicken proves to have a slight off-odour when you open the package, it can be refreshed."On the other hand, I was fascinated to read that "contrary to popular belief, the undercooking of chicken is rarely the cause of salmonella illness. (Stuffed whole birds are an important exception.)" But then the clincher: stuffing should be heated prior to inserting into the chicken cavity, because "if it is cold and packed tightly, it will not heat to this point (71 C) until long after the bird is done." For the past 20 years the rule has been to strictly cool stuffing before insertion, the reason being that most cooks will probably let the just-stuffed chicken rest a while before actually putting it into the oven, thus encouraging the growth of poisonous microbes.To be fair, this is not a bad book. But it is a far cry from the classic predecessor.

www.amazon.com  

Why, they even credited Doña Maria del Pina, (here listed as Marie Guimar), for introducing Portuguese sweets to Thailand. (And that is pretty esoteric knowledge.) So do I have any complaints? Plenty, especially in regards to the book's transliteration of Thai names. For example, palm sugar is commonly translated as naam taan peep (or pep), but in this book it is naam taan pikip.Massaman curry is here listed as matsaman -- not so different, but you might get the drift. More problematic, the book's English translation for common Thai basil, bai horapa (or "hohraphaa") is listed as "sweet basil" when in fact standard Western basil is known also as "sweet basil." Minor quibbles, but they irk. Be sure to pack this book on a trip to Thailand. It is small, compact, and indispensable.

Very highly recommended.