Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia Hardcover – October 2, 2000

If you have curiosity and interest in Asian foods, (and have gotten this far with your curiosity and interests!) you will be very pleased by your reading of "Hot Sour Salty Sweet". It starts out with geography...the flow of the Mekong River from China, as it touches on Burma and Thailand, and goes right through Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam.As the river meanders, then builds up force, the authors' tale grows stronger and richer as well. As you learn about the complex network of varied peoples, (yet quite different in culture and tastes) who are spread across this riverbed, be it the Han, Hmong, Bai, Karen, or Khmer and Cham, you are introduced by the nuances of geography, recipes and tribal descriptions to the people, and to the unique foods and diets enjoyed with each region's local spices and traditions. One group may never use pork, another uses fish sauce instead of salt, water buffalo is the preferred meat in some regions, coconuts do not grow in the North and stronger spices tend ot be used there, with coconut milk and seafood more commonly used as the river heads south towards the Mekong delta.Ever wonder why some Chinese or Thai restaurants taste "different" from each other, even in the USA or whatever country you may be sampling such cuisine? Well, this book may at times educate you (just a little bit) to the ethnic origin of the person as they cook the food with their own special touches added. Ask the cook at your restaurant about their culinary background, to learn more!The recipes can be transformed from printed page into tasty food with a visit to a local Asian grocery store, if available, visiting "Whole Foods" or "Fresh Market" type specialty grocery stores in larger cities, or via internet shopping to find a mail order source. The ingredients are not really expensive, and a regular person can make some common sense substitutions, to have a quite tasty meal.I freeze the white bases of lemongrass stalks cut to size, and separately freeze some herbs in thier individual ice cube trays, and they are quite tasty when melted down. Do not use dried lemongrass, as it lacks the right taste! So, having uncommon ingredients handy isn't such a problem, especially when you may not cook more than one or two Asian meals within a few month period.The recipe instructions are simple and thorough; these are not complex and delicate French sauces to be carefully created over hours... however, the complexity of tastes and textures of some Asian dishes can be no less complex than French, Indian or other cuisines.Having a wok and gas stove/range is helpful for some recipes, however I've done quite well with a skillet on an electric/ceramic top stove. If you really want to "cook with gas", get the "Big Kahuna Burner"...it's exactly the firepower used throughout Asia, and the price is right on Amazon! (I've reviewed it on Amazon, and have no bias or connection to it other than it's "the real thing"!)The special bonus in the book is the inclusion of beautiful colorful photos of the varied peoples in the area served by the Mekong, as they harvest food, prepare and eat it, or go about their business.This makes me want to go back and see, taste and savor more of Asia!

I too have stacks of cookbooks and this is definitely one of the best. A few points:Unless you live in one of the 3 or 4 biggest cities, this food is going to look like it is from Mars (nay, even most the people in Los Angeles, arguably the best city in the world for sheer depth and breadth of ethnic food, would probably find that this book is completely outside their realm of experience). And amazingly, it doesn't really fit into one neat little bucket; following the Mekong River, this book hits on 5 distinct cuisines:1. Vietnamese2. Laotian3. Cambodian4. Northern Thai (Esaan)5. Islamic ChineseEven in Los Angeles, it is almost impossible to find Esaan food, which is quite different from the Royal Thai cuisine that the country has fallen in love with. Vietnamese is an amazing cuisine that seems to be spreading significantly (if with more emphasis on rice noodle bowls than tendon soup).If you are interested in the history of food, this is also a fascinating tract. In the West, the history has two phases: before and after ready access to salt, the prior phase being dominated by what are called 'masking spices' (some of which came from the east) and then the whole history of integral sauce making afterward. One of the big points made in this book is that in the East, the focus is on the balance of flavors (see title), and, most importantly, the final targeting is done by the consumer (whereas in the West, spicing a dish from a gourmet restaurant is an act of sedition). Not to indict either one: take a lesson from the book: celebrate the differences.

I usually pick my cookbooks by number of recipes and quality of instruction. It is seldom I buy a cookbook that has lots of pictures and non-recipe discourse. However, this is probably one of the best cookbooks I have purchased in the last 2 years. It has clear, concise recipes from my favorite region for food - practically fool-proof (my husband even made the bok choi successfully!).And adding to the food quality is the need to curl up with this cookbook as if it were a novel - wonderful descriptions of a facinating part of the world, and expressive and intriguing pictures to fire the imagination. I only regret that I have to get it dirty - I'll have to buy a 2nd copy for my coffee table!A must have for anyone who loves to have fun with food!

I recently started going to an Asian grocery store almost exclusively. The recipes in this book require a lot of hard to find items but locating and learning to use them will pay dividends in no time. I don't recommend it if you don't have access to a good Asian grocery store but heartily endorse it if you do.

This is my favorite cookbook! I own hundreds of cookbooks because I am a food blogger and researcher. I look for pleasing photographs of the finished recipe, easy to find ingredients, and clear instructions to put all of this together. This has an authentic look in the Vietnamese culinary landscape and I never allow myself to run out of the Vietnam table sauce!!! For a Pennsylvania girl who doesn't live near any Vietnamese cuisine.....this was the right choice for me!!!!

This is not just a beautiful book but it inspires beautiful food. The recipes are very good, but by reading the recipes you can make your own dishes with the ingredients you have available. This is a great concept book. If you have some experience in the kitchen, you can apply the concepts in the book to your own style. Reading this book is a journey deep into the experience of Southeast Asia. It is as much a travel log and a book of amazing little photographs as it is a cook book. Highly recommend it.