This, along with Vegetarian Vietnamese cuisine and the Asian Vegan Kitchen are teaching me so much about Asian cuisine...to a cooking freak like me this is very exciting! There are millions of Asian-inspired dishes in cookbooks written by westerners (which are delicious) but these really have an authentic edge with well-written commentary by authors native to these countries. I feel like I've collected so much wisdom in my cooking experimentation (nay, obsession) to the point where I want people More...

I started learning to cook while I was vegetarian, which is when I got this book. Korean food is one of my favorites, with its assertive flavors of garlic and chile, its combination of sweet and savory, and its glorious pickles (collectively known as kimchi). While it does provide some useful, flavorful recipes (and a good explanation of basic Korean ingredients), a good portion of this book is excessively Westernized and, sadly, seems to shy away from just what I like most about the cuisine.

I checked it out from the library and quickly realized that I wanted to photocopy far too many recipes. So I bought it instead.