Wild, Wild East

by Bobby Chinn

Vietnamese food is one of the hippest foods of our time. It is light and healthy, with clean flavours. It is simple to prepare but technically diverse and Bobby Chinn is the master. This book contains recipes and stories from Vietnam.

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Cooking

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2007

Reviews

[Foxthyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up as a bargain book and, honestly, if you can get it at the price grab it, knowing it is worth full price. The book is filled with numerous pictures of the dishes, of street vendors of people enjoying food. I am visual and so adore great pics in a recipe book.

Wild, Wild East encompasses varied and very unique recipes to me, but perhaps not to someone who is Vietnamese or Asian. There are items here I've never seen or heard of but which are part of wildly edible-looking recipes, such as Blackened Barramundi on Braised Banana Blossoms with Turmeric Balsamic Vinaigrette. This is a dish that has undergone six years of development to become one of Bobby Chin's favourite recipes. It may just become one of mine...hmm, banana blossoms, I wonder if they have that at the Chinese grocery store?

And don't get my going on the Vietnamese Pho soup. I am a complete and total addict that has thrown over my regular soup-making to go more the Pho way. That means ultra fresh bean sprouts, Asian basil and cilantro, HOT small Thai chilies, and lovely lime juice added to the broth and noodle, meat and veg ingredients. And always the condiment additions, which are most often the Sriracha chilli sauce or Sriracha chilli and garlic sauce, never forgetting the hoisin sauce.

The book does miss out on the Bánh mì, my other Vietnamese addiction, lovely rice flour baguettes filled with your choice of meat, pickled daikon and carrots, sauces, fresh coriander leaf, and chilies to taste. Heaven! However, the street food and dishes included may just give you some of your own Vietnamese food addictions. So much great food to try. Where to begin?

[Sps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly a cookbook: though it has recipes, the book also has extended stories of the author's cooking and eating history and weirdly macho anecdotes from his Hanoi restaurant. (Apparently his top line cook's name is Fucker.) Kind of Henry Rollins, if he were bicultural and in a William Gibson novel.

[Catherine Woodman]

This is as much a travelogue as it is a cookbook, and both aspects of the book are very enjoyable. HTe author talks alot about what was hard to get used to when he got to Vietnam--the pervasive use of dogs as food being one of the more diffiult ones--both for me to read, and for the author to get used to. The recipes are geared toward a western palate and kitchen, and I would recommend it for increasing knowledge about Vietnam as a country and a culture.

[Oana · Rating 5 out of 5]

this Book is the Nirvana from my library...