Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table Review
Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table Overview
Refined, subtle, challenging, and accessible all at the same time, the food of Vietnam was the first true fusion cuisine, blending the techniques and ingredients of French and Chinese culinary traditions. In Authentic Vietnamese Cooking, culinary writer and consultant Corinne Trang introduces you to the pleasures of regional Vietnamese cooking. Born in France's Loire Valley to a French mother and Cambodian-born Chinese father, and raised in Phnom Penh, Paris, and New York, Trang shares more than 100 delicious, authentic Vietnamese recipes designed especially for the home cook.
In this beautiful volume, the complicated processes of assimilation, adaptation, and evolution have been distilled into magnificent dishes that represent the three distinct culinary regions of Vietnam: the Simple North, the Sophisticated Center, and the Spicy South. There are recipes for family meals and special occasions, sauces, marinades, flavored oils, soups, noodle dishes, and more.
Trang translates the complex flavors of Vietnamese cuisine into easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes, so even inexperienced cooks can create such classic dishes as Cha Gio (Spring Rolls), Sup Cua Mang Tay (Crab and Asparagus Soup), Pho Bo (Hanoi Beef and Rice Noodle Soup), Tom Nuong Xa (Grilled Lemongrass Prawns), Ga Nuong Toi (Garlic-Roasted Baby Chicken), and Banh Gan (Coconut Creme Caramel).
Enhanced by stunning photographs, Authentic Vietnamese Cooking also includes sections on essential ingredients, equipment, and techniques; sample seasonal menus: and a list of mail-order sources and Web sites for securing hard-to-find items.
Rich with historical, cultural, and personal anecdotes, Authentic Vietnamese Cooking brings the experience and pleasures of Corinne Trang's family table to yours.
Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table Specifications
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
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