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Book ReviewsFusion Food Cookbook |
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Book: Fusion Food Cookbook
Written by: Hugh Carpenter Terri Sandison |
Publisher: Artisan
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5
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YOU NEED THIS BOOK!!!
Rating:
5 / 5
If you are serious about cooking, and you want the fusion approach, this is THE book to guarantee delicious results. It is easy to follow, and even when you make a small mistake (as I did by using the marinade as the finishing sauce) the results are fabulous. Many say the ingredients are many, and if you don't live by an asian market, impossible to find, and costly: I say baloney (the best Chinese kind!) because I was just in a very small town in Southern Utah, and there was an asian market there! Sources are also available online, so no excuses. In addition, I made a 20 course dinner using these recipes and there was a large amount of prep work. But the actual cooking time was not bad. People were eating each course as I cooked it and the final cost was well below what we would have paid to feed everyone at a chain chinese restaurant. High leads you through step by step and points out the all important 'why' a certain recipe is prepared in a particular way. It's almost as good as having him right there or being in one of his classes. Unless you must cook from mixes, this is a definite plus in any serious cook's repetoire.
500 Stars for this one
Rating:
5 / 5
This book is absolutely fantastic! As other reviewers have noted all the recipes that I have tried are absolutely excellent. I am recently returning to gourmet cooking - as my creative muse has taken me in the direction of computers graphics and animation these last 3 years - and this is the first book I reached for. Last night I made Jade Sauce and Secret Asian BBQ Sauce, and they are assuredly the best things that I have tasted in 3 years!
One reviewer is right - I am lucky to live in an urban area with a large Vietnamese population. I therefore have easy access to Vietnamese grocery stores that carry all the "weird" ingredients. And they carry them for cheap - like a half to a quarter of what the same items would cost in a grocery store (if you found them there at all). Like a quart of sesame oil for $10, 5 pounds of Hoisin Sauce for $5, or a quart of Soy Sauce for $4. And some recipes do include a lot of ingredients - the bbq sauce has 18! If you do have access to an Asian market, the price of these recipes plummet into the everyday cooking budget area. Way cool.
Also seriously cool is the fact that a lot of the recipes revolve around a flavoring sauce that can be made ahead of time (some, like the bbq sauce keep forever in the refrigerator). This makes the actual dinner preparation very simple in some cases.
Overall, this is the best cook book I own - which is way too many! If you want to try something different: BUY THIS BOOK!
Good for Special Occasions
Rating:
3 / 5
This book is comprehensive. It covers so much that I still have not been able to get through a quarter of the recipes even though I've owned this book for about 3 years! The recipes found in this book are enticing because not only are the photographs beautiful but the quirky combination of ingredients is hard to imagine. The few recipes I've tried have been really good but I have one major problem with this book. The ingredients used are not items that you can find in any supermarket. One would have to go to a specialty gourmet store or asian market. So, in order to prepare a meal from this book, you have to go out and buy a whole bunch of ingredients (and believe me the ingredient lists are long!). This is a handy book if you want to prepare something different for guests or for your family on a special occasion but not worth all of the time, money, and effort you would have to put in for an everyday meal.
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