Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59098 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

About the Author
Through newspapers, magazines, television, cooking schools, and over 25 books, Charmaine Solomon is one of the world's best known and respected cookery writers. Since The Complete Asian Cookbook was published in 1976, over a million copies have been sold, and it has been translated into German, French, and Dutch.

Customer Reviews

The perfect Asian cookbook
I have personally made many of the recipes included in this wide ranging Asian cookbook, from India, Burma, China, Indonesia, and Malay foods and found each to be as wonderful or better than the last. I have also given this book as a gift to a number of my friends who appreciate excellent food and are adventuresome as well. I intend to order two more of these as gifts in the near future. I highly recommend Ms. Solomon's book to anyone wishing to expand their cooking repetoire.

Everyone who wants to cook Asian should have this on the shelf
I was given this book in 1985 as a new American bride living in Australia and it has become my bible for Asian cooking. Other reviewers have spoken more thoroughly about Solomon's book so I don't need to here, but I will say this: I learned to cook good Asian food by thoroughly reading the chapter I was interested in, then getting out and trying the recipe. When I started using this book I was not an accomplished cook but was competent. The recipes here are authentic and not trendy. Since receiving this book I've traveled a bit in Asia and was happily surprised that the food I ate in restaurants tasted just like the recipes I'd been making at home out of this book. These recipes are thankfully not "adjusted for the western cook," (that is bland and boring) but every bit as spicy and flavorful as what one would eat in Thailand, China, India and elsewhere. The criticism that some recipes are too involved or too hard can be justified in some cases, but really, if you're going to cook Asian, don't settle for lesser bottled sauces and pastes when by using Solomon's book you can eat the tastier real deal. For over 30 years now I've been serving delighted consumers Asian food made from this book. I recommend it to everyone who wants to cook real, varied Asian cuisine and not just the few popular dishes one finds in a restaurant. My last word on the subject: I have hosted nine foreign exchange students and countless international visitors to my home over the years. The one thing they all miss is food from their countries. Whenever Asians visit I try to cook something that will remind them of home. Virtually all of them have commented on how wonderful it is to taste "real" food and they are pleasantly surprised that an American can actually cook it. Many things I learned about Asian food and cooking I learned from this cookbook.

First and still the best
This was the first Asian cookbook that we purchased more than twenty years ago and I have yet to find one with the extraordinary variety of this one. I was only slightly above a novice level cook and had few problems with any but the most complex recipes. Differences in ingredient names were sometimes problematic in the days before internet search engines but now it is a matter of moments to look up any ingredient listed.

I saw some mention of novice cooks staying away from this book and I must respectfully disagree; this is a must have for anyone remotely interested in learning Asian cooking.

Our 1985 copy is held together by packing tape and the residue of a thousand splattered sauces but it is still the single most frequently referred to cookbook in our library.