An average book with good recipes but poor reference info.
Rating:
3 / 5
`Asian Greens' by Anita Loh-Yien Lau is a poor book with a few good points that make it a real disappointment that the author and her editors could not put together a more useful volume.
The few good points of the book are that the presentation is relatively straightforward and simple and the photographs of the produce is better than several other books on the same or similar topics. The most similar book I have reviewed on the same subject is Sara Deseran's `Asian Vegetables'. And, aside from the somewhat odd way this book has with the color photographs of vegetables, it is in almost every way a more rewarding book. It is certainly free of the many errors of fact and oddities of layout, which infest Ms. Lau's book.
While Ms. Deseran's `Asian Vegetables' is better than the title under consideration in this review, it is still not a very weighty book. It is a typically colorful Chronicle Books issue that gives a pleasantly light treatment of its subject. If you want the straight poop with lots of details, get neither of these books and spend your money on `Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients', which covers the full range of Asian groceries, albeit with no pretty color photographs.
Getting back to Ms. Lau's effort published by St. Martins Griffin, I am really surprised that such a respected publishing house as St. Martins would let this get out under their imprimatur. The three most annoying problems with the book are errors in fact, the loosely assigned names given for products, and the odd arrangements of topics. The most glaring error is the statement that the Thai Bird pepper is stronger than the Habanero. I know the Thai Bird chile is hot, but last time I checked out the Scolville scale, the Habanero was still king of the roost. This entry is also an example of my second gripe in that the chile is labeled as Bird's Eye chile. While this is a confirmed name for this little red devil as checked in Jacki Passmore's `The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking', it is not the name most commonly known to western readers. Most other books refer to it as the Thai chile or the Thai Bird chile. Similar examples of weak naming are in names for `Basil' and `Eggplant'. Both are very common products in Mediterranean cuisine, yet the author does not avoid confusion by giving us a name appropriate to the Oriental product, since she makes the point that the oriental product is different from the western product. Giving aubergine as an alternate name for eggplant compounds the confusion. A linguistic conservative would argue that `aubergine', being a French / Italian name, should only be applied to eggplants grown in France and Italy, not to the distinctively different Japanese eggplants.
Possibly the greatest annoyance in this book is the sloppy arrangement of topics. It is probably entirely too picky to complain about the fact that close to half of the vegetables discussed in the book are not greens. It is not too picky to point out that under the `Greens Guide' to green, purple, orange, brown, and red vegetables, one section is labeled `Fruit Vegetables' and it lists four melons, a gourd, and eggplant. The sense of the title is that these are fruits that are commonly counted among the vegetables, but the book gives no hint that this is the intent of the section.
A similar annoyance is the fact that the book contains a chapter of recipes for fish, yet two major recipes in the `Side Dishes, Soups, and Salads' chapter are primarily seafood recipes. This chapter also has a `Meat and Poultry' chapter of recipes, yet the `Side Dishes...' chapter contains recipes with chicken. I have seen this before in other books, but not in books which are about such a very specific subject.
A final annoyance in the produce naming is the fact that the author gives several synonyms for each lead English name, with no indication of the language from which these names come. This is not trivial, as when you are looking for a bottle gourd in a Vietnamese grocery store, you would want to know which of its seven (7) names is used in Vietnam. Another fact which makes this an important observation is that there are several excellent books on this subject which do go to the trouble of giving us the Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tagalog names for these veggies, not to mention the Latin scientific name.
This book is a weak title in a field for which there are a surprisingly large number of better books available. Like all the other reviewers who rate the book so highly, I agree the recipes are decent, but this is simply just an average cookbook with general information on the ingredients which is below the average level of quality for books on this subject.
Versatile, practical, every-day recipes
Rating:
5 / 5
This is a cookbook used both by myself and my grown son. I bought it for the very simple but elegant recipes such as Wilted Amaranth in Pine Nut Dressing, Mixed Vegetables with Peanut Sauce, and Quick Asian Greens Soup. In all cases the recipes are flexible i.e. one can readily adapt the recipe to the vegetables at hand. My son, however, focuses on recipes such as Chicken with Thai Basil and Beef Brisket Stew with Daikon.In all cases, ingredients are readily available in an urban area. The instructions are clear. That is not to say that the recipes are perfect. Chicken with Thai Basil, for example, is too salty for our taste ... so we cut the fish sauce with sake. The Asian Vegetable Stew, a recipe that caught my eye when purusing the book, has an excellent flavor but I have yet to find a butternut squash that will cook sufficiently when instructions are religiously followed - so I keep experimenting with how long to cook the squash alone. However, these recipes are so simple and versatile it takes little effort to adapt to one's own taste. In short, I highly recommend this cookbook.
Greens are Good!
Rating:
5 / 5
How refreshing to read a cookbook which is both informative, easy to follow and is written simply and cleanly.Being located in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia to be exact) I find this book well suited to the modern Australian taste bud and palette. Australians are very familiar with and fond of Asian cooking, if not always the authentic version, at least some formulation of it. Ms Lau's book provides easy at home directions for the new home cook/chef starting out, which is the category I fit into. As with the UK's Jamie Oliver, "Asian Greens" is adventurous, and the layout is such that it invites the reader to try new things which at the same time are not difficult or daunting. I can see this book being a favourite in Noosa (Queensland) and Byron Bay (New South Wales) if people can get their hands on it. I discovered it by looking on amazon.com I particularly like the the glossary of vegetables, the so called "Greens Guide". For the non-Asian or the uninformed, this guide is most helpful for getting what you want and need into your shopping cart/trolley/basket. Many of the meals are great for the single person who is oft not inspired to cook (this does inspire!), while also being suitable for couples and families. I enjoyed the personl anecdotes and descriptors with each recipe. I particularly like the cover and the layout of the book and the information about the author. With chefs like the wonderful Jamie Oliver about, we want some character and fun in our writers and presenters and a little bit of who they are. The new approach to cooking - keeping it simple, clean and fun, it what we all needed and I am excited to add this book to my slowly growing pile of useful books (and tossing the huge, complicated ones out!) I just love love love the Asian pesto on page 47, the choy sum and tofu on page 77 and the unusual spiced tofu and long beans with turkey on page 94. I liked the low level use of pork, as being a non-pork eater it is great to find a book not bursting with this meat. I much prefer the emphasis on the greens, tofu, fish and other meats in the book.
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