In The Vietnamese Market Cookbook, London restaurateurs Van Tran and Anh Vu introduce the pleasures of this Southeast Asian country's cooking with inspired recipes, beautiful photographs and personal food memories. The cookbook is organized around the five basic flavors of Vietnamese cuisine--sweet, sour, spicy, bitter and salty--and three different types of eating; this structure helps readers understand the principles of Vietnamese cooking and the role food plays in Vietnamese culture.
In addition to typical home fare, the cookbook includes recipes for home-style versions of dishes commonly found on restaurant menus, like pho and banh mi, and recipes created using Vietnamese techniques and nontraditional ingredients, such as rhubarb-and-okra sweet-and-sour soup. Whether traditional or innovative, the recipes are clearly written, with useful explanations of unfamiliar techniques and occasional suggestions for substitutions. An excellent index makes it easy to find dishes based on ingredient or type of dish.
Adventurous home cooks will find much to enjoy in this easy-to-follow guide to a cuisine that might seem inaccessible to many. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins