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Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
Luminous at dawn and dusk, the Mekong is a river road, a vibrant artery that defines a vast and fascinating region. Here, along the world's tenth largest river, which rises in Tibet and joins the sea in Vietnam, traditions mingle and exquisite food prevails. Award-winning authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid followed the river south, as it flows through the mountain gorges of southern China, to Burma and into Laos and Thailand. For a while the right bank of the river is in Thailand, but then it becomes solely Lao on its way to Cambodia. Only after three thousand miles does it finally enter Vietnam and then the South China Sea.
It was during their travels that Alford and Duguid—who ate traditional foods in villages and small towns and learned techniques and ingredients from cooks and market vendors—came to realize that the local cuisines, like those of the Mediterranean, share a distinctive culinary approach: Each cuisine balances, with grace and style, the regional flavor quartet of hot, sour, salty, and sweet. This book, aptly titled, is the result of their journeys.
Like Alford and Duguid's two previous works, Flatbreads and Flavors ("a certifiable publishing event" —Vogue) and Seductions of Rice ("simply stunning"—The New York Times), this book is a glorious combination of travel and taste, presenting enticing recipes in "an odyssey rich in travel anecdote" (National Geographic Traveler).
The book's more than 175 recipes for spicy salsas, welcoming soups, grilled meat salads, and exotic desserts are accompanied by evocative stories about places and people. The recipes and stories are gorgeously illustrated throughout with more than 150 full-color food and travel photographs.
In each chapter, from Salsas to Street Foods, Noodles to Desserts, dishes from different cuisines within the region appear side by side: A hearty Lao chicken soup is next to a Vietnamese ginger-chicken soup; a Thai vegetable stir-fry comes after spicy stir-fried potatoes from southwest China.
The book invites a flexible approach to cooking and eating, for dishes from different places can be happily served and eaten together: Thai Grilled Chicken with Hot and Sweet Dipping Sauce pairs beautifully with Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad and Lao sticky rice.
North Americans have come to love Southeast Asian food for its bright, fresh flavors. But beyond the dishes themselves, one of the most attractive aspects of Southeast Asian food is the life that surrounds it. In Southeast Asia, people eat for joy. The palate is wildly eclectic, proudly unrestrained. In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, at last this great culinary region is celebrated with all the passion, color, and life that it deserves.
It was during their travels that Alford and Duguid—who ate traditional foods in villages and small towns and learned techniques and ingredients from cooks and market vendors—came to realize that the local cuisines, like those of the Mediterranean, share a distinctive culinary approach: Each cuisine balances, with grace and style, the regional flavor quartet of hot, sour, salty, and sweet. This book, aptly titled, is the result of their journeys.
Like Alford and Duguid's two previous works, Flatbreads and Flavors ("a certifiable publishing event" —Vogue) and Seductions of Rice ("simply stunning"—The New York Times), this book is a glorious combination of travel and taste, presenting enticing recipes in "an odyssey rich in travel anecdote" (National Geographic Traveler).
The book's more than 175 recipes for spicy salsas, welcoming soups, grilled meat salads, and exotic desserts are accompanied by evocative stories about places and people. The recipes and stories are gorgeously illustrated throughout with more than 150 full-color food and travel photographs.
In each chapter, from Salsas to Street Foods, Noodles to Desserts, dishes from different cuisines within the region appear side by side: A hearty Lao chicken soup is next to a Vietnamese ginger-chicken soup; a Thai vegetable stir-fry comes after spicy stir-fried potatoes from southwest China.
The book invites a flexible approach to cooking and eating, for dishes from different places can be happily served and eaten together: Thai Grilled Chicken with Hot and Sweet Dipping Sauce pairs beautifully with Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad and Lao sticky rice.
North Americans have come to love Southeast Asian food for its bright, fresh flavors. But beyond the dishes themselves, one of the most attractive aspects of Southeast Asian food is the life that surrounds it. In Southeast Asia, people eat for joy. The palate is wildly eclectic, proudly unrestrained. In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, at last this great culinary region is celebrated with all the passion, color, and life that it deserves.
346 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2000
63 people are currently reading
2262 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 22, 2012
Any book I've ever read by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid I've loved. And I cook from. The authors have the ability to create the most wonderful food travel guide type cookbooks I've ever seen. They research thoroughly, travelling to the locations they are showcasing recipes. Then they sample, learn to prepare the dish from the cultural source, continue experimenting with, photograph, and eventually pull absolutely stunning recipes together into a book that is a visual feast.
Here's a compressed version of a tasty and easy recipe:
Pomelo Salad
Serves 2-4 depending on sides
3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon palm, or brown sugar
1 pomelo, or 2 medium grapefruit
2 tablespoons dry-roasted grated coconut
2 tablespoons dry-roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
2-3 bird, or Thai or serrano, chilies finely chopped, or to taste
Bibb, or butter lettuce, cleaned for garnish
In a small bowl mix together fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Blend until sugar has completely dissolved. Set aside.
Peel the pomelo or grapefruit, then cut out segments of fruit, leaving behind the bitter pith. Place the fruit in a bowl, reserving the juice from the fruit in another bowl.
In a dry skillet, over medium heat, roast both the coconut, and the peanuts until toasty, and light brown in color. Chop the peanuts after roasting if necessary.
Salad should be fully assembled just before serving. Add the roasted peanuts and coconut, the shallots, chiles, mint, and pomelos to a large bowl and toss. Pour the lime dressing over, and continue to toss. Taste and adjust seasoning, if the dressing is too pungent, add a bit of the reserved grapefruit juice.
Serve immediately on a bed of lettuce.
I'd link a pic to go with, but I can't find one on the internet that looks as fabulous as the one in the book.
Highly recommended for all you foodies out there.
Here's a compressed version of a tasty and easy recipe:
Pomelo Salad
Serves 2-4 depending on sides
3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon palm, or brown sugar
1 pomelo, or 2 medium grapefruit
2 tablespoons dry-roasted grated coconut
2 tablespoons dry-roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
2-3 bird, or Thai or serrano, chilies finely chopped, or to taste
Bibb, or butter lettuce, cleaned for garnish
In a small bowl mix together fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Blend until sugar has completely dissolved. Set aside.
Peel the pomelo or grapefruit, then cut out segments of fruit, leaving behind the bitter pith. Place the fruit in a bowl, reserving the juice from the fruit in another bowl.
In a dry skillet, over medium heat, roast both the coconut, and the peanuts until toasty, and light brown in color. Chop the peanuts after roasting if necessary.
Salad should be fully assembled just before serving. Add the roasted peanuts and coconut, the shallots, chiles, mint, and pomelos to a large bowl and toss. Pour the lime dressing over, and continue to toss. Taste and adjust seasoning, if the dressing is too pungent, add a bit of the reserved grapefruit juice.
Serve immediately on a bed of lettuce.
I'd link a pic to go with, but I can't find one on the internet that looks as fabulous as the one in the book.
Highly recommended for all you foodies out there.
June 1, 2021
I wanted to like this cookbook more than I did. The illustrations were lovely, and the authors present a variety of recipes for those wanting to make dishes from countries such as Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, and Laos in Southeast Asia. I just did not connect that much with the travel narrative section, and I did not find many recipes I would want to try in my own home. I'll probably stick to occasionally enjoying these cuisines in specialty restaurants.
April 30, 2012
This is a beast of a book. A very hefty coffee table book that is a mix between a travelogue and a recipe/cookery book, billed as a culinary journey through Southeast Asia.
By rights it should be laminated as it might protect the lovely full-colour photographs from being drooled upon as one develops pangs of hunger whilst reading, such is the realistic, lifelike and wonderful images that pepper this book.
Anyway.. the Mekong river is used as a thread within this book as it travails through south-east Asia, explaining and exploring the different yet related cultures and communities and helping to identify what makes their respective culinary cultures tick.
This is not a recipe book with a bit of background thrown in for good measure but a real cultural immersion into south-east Asian countries and their respective tables. You do not, or more precisely should not, use this book as a quick "in and out" reference but instead immerse yourself in its wonder and gain inspiration through educational osmosis. Recipes are not so much picked after searching for something familiar. They seem to be suggested through inspiration and intuition.
The recipes are not split into specific countries but presented by categories and uses, allowing a regional fusion to occur through sections such as Everyday Dependables, Indispensable Condiments, Kids Like It, Breakfast Specials, Vegetarian Options, In the MIddle of Winter and Feast Foods.
Each recipe is presented clearly with both an English language and local language name, a great introduction or overview and very detailed preparation instructions (albeit with only imperial measurements). One gets the impression that the book is designed for leisurely cookery, experimentation and enjoyment. The book does not stress the reader about the nutritional levels of a dish (why does it seem that the most tasty dishes always have big warnings about calories, salt, etc.?) or the preparation and cooking times. Instead, you just get the information, hopefully some inspiration and left to get on with it. Why rush a good thing? Of course, if you really need this information you can probably estimate it but that might be spoiling things.
The back of the book features an extensive glossary of flavourings and ingredients as well as a bibliography to direct the curious reader to even more sources of enlightenment. A very detailed index rounds the book off to perfection, to play on a culinary theme. This really is not book for the kitchen table - it would be a crime to cover it with ingredients by accident - yet one can sit in a favoured chair and consider it in more relaxed surroundings.
Despite this being a comparatively old book, it remains popular today and is still in print. One can see why and one would confidently expect this to remain in print for some time to come. A modern-day reprint might be beneficial just to "freshen it up" but no real changes need to be made to what will be an established reference classic of its age.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
By rights it should be laminated as it might protect the lovely full-colour photographs from being drooled upon as one develops pangs of hunger whilst reading, such is the realistic, lifelike and wonderful images that pepper this book.
Anyway.. the Mekong river is used as a thread within this book as it travails through south-east Asia, explaining and exploring the different yet related cultures and communities and helping to identify what makes their respective culinary cultures tick.
This is not a recipe book with a bit of background thrown in for good measure but a real cultural immersion into south-east Asian countries and their respective tables. You do not, or more precisely should not, use this book as a quick "in and out" reference but instead immerse yourself in its wonder and gain inspiration through educational osmosis. Recipes are not so much picked after searching for something familiar. They seem to be suggested through inspiration and intuition.
The recipes are not split into specific countries but presented by categories and uses, allowing a regional fusion to occur through sections such as Everyday Dependables, Indispensable Condiments, Kids Like It, Breakfast Specials, Vegetarian Options, In the MIddle of Winter and Feast Foods.
Each recipe is presented clearly with both an English language and local language name, a great introduction or overview and very detailed preparation instructions (albeit with only imperial measurements). One gets the impression that the book is designed for leisurely cookery, experimentation and enjoyment. The book does not stress the reader about the nutritional levels of a dish (why does it seem that the most tasty dishes always have big warnings about calories, salt, etc.?) or the preparation and cooking times. Instead, you just get the information, hopefully some inspiration and left to get on with it. Why rush a good thing? Of course, if you really need this information you can probably estimate it but that might be spoiling things.
The back of the book features an extensive glossary of flavourings and ingredients as well as a bibliography to direct the curious reader to even more sources of enlightenment. A very detailed index rounds the book off to perfection, to play on a culinary theme. This really is not book for the kitchen table - it would be a crime to cover it with ingredients by accident - yet one can sit in a favoured chair and consider it in more relaxed surroundings.
Despite this being a comparatively old book, it remains popular today and is still in print. One can see why and one would confidently expect this to remain in print for some time to come. A modern-day reprint might be beneficial just to "freshen it up" but no real changes need to be made to what will be an established reference classic of its age.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
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March 14, 2021one of my fave reviewers on chinese and indian food
Nice pix ... little substance.
2/5
I have also reviewed Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China and Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent by the same authors with the same enthusiasm as reflected in the title of this review. All three books are bulky with pictures of people and places and pages of travelogue type information but there is little to excite the 'foodie' with far better collections of south-east Asian cookbooks. I have over 300 food-related books in my library and space requirements necessitate cutting out the 'deadwood' every few years. I doubt this book will make the next cut.
C. J. Thompson
Nice pix ... little substance.
2/5
I have also reviewed Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China and Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent by the same authors with the same enthusiasm as reflected in the title of this review. All three books are bulky with pictures of people and places and pages of travelogue type information but there is little to excite the 'foodie' with far better collections of south-east Asian cookbooks. I have over 300 food-related books in my library and space requirements necessitate cutting out the 'deadwood' every few years. I doubt this book will make the next cut.
C. J. Thompson
November 25, 2016
First off, the book is huge! Quite a hefty thing, it could easily double as a coffee table book, or if you needed a weapon to club someone over the head with. Large food photographs (in color! huzzah!), and the travel journal excerpts throughout are quite a nice.
I've tried two recipes in the book so far: Vietnamese Must-Have Table Sauce (pg 28) and Vietnamese Grilled Pork Balls (pg 252) served with an oriental salad and vermicelli noodles... It was fantastic!
I've tried two recipes in the book so far: Vietnamese Must-Have Table Sauce (pg 28) and Vietnamese Grilled Pork Balls (pg 252) served with an oriental salad and vermicelli noodles... It was fantastic!
June 18, 2009
I checked this out of the library and let's just say it's on my wish list to own a copy. Amazing pictures, lots of vegetarian options, and great recipes. Whenever I think of SE Asian cooking I think fresh and multitudes of flavor and this cookbook really does a great job capturing the essence of that. I also love reading about their travels throughout the region which is incorporated with the recipes and the fact that they try to incorporate as many different variations of each ethnic/regional group respective flavors. Definitely worth having if you love SE Asian food--highly recommended!
January 26, 2008
I love Asian food and have cooked quite a few recipes from this for my blog. Part travelogue part cookbook this is a great read. I revisit this one frequently. Asian food requires a lot of prep work but the payoff is worth it.
October 12, 2014
Amazing book. Beautiful photography, interesting cultural notes. But at its heart, this book pulls back the curtain on everyday cooking in SE Asia, ESP VietNam. Bought it while a Vietnamese friend was teaching me " how to cook like a Vietnamese grandmother". She loved the authentic recipes.
September 19, 2019
On a whim one day I used the search function in my Kindle Library to see if I had any books with the word 'salty' in the title. I needed a book for a reading challenge that had a certain word in the title, 'salty' being one of the options. I like reading books I already own but have not read for such challenges. One of the great features of Kindle search is that in addition to books already in your library (none in this case), it suggests books available to purchae that match. This book was one of those suggestions.
The cover and title immediately grabbed my attention, intriguing me...culinary journey sounded like so much more than another cookbook. I bought it in ebook, and OMG, did it enchant!
Alford and Duguid take you on a cultural journey through both some of the remotest and congested areas of Southeast Asia by following the Mekong from China to Vietnam, all beginning and ending with the food. It is enhanced with gorgeous photos of the land, people and food so that the descriptions of the meals ane markets experienced come to rich life. The recipes are amazing and seem to be well adapted to western product availability and cooking; I marked many to try.
But I also loved the rich descriptions of textiles, villages, homes. I feel like I took this trip and have a far deeper appreciation of what that region's cultures are.
As the authors say in the introduction:
[The book] is ... a cookbook, a photo essay, a journey down a river, and an introduction to one of the world’s great culinary regions. It is also, because so much of the research and travel and recipe work was done with our two sons, Dominic and Tashi, a family tale, a diary. Food and life, we rationalize to ourselves, reflect forever in each other.
I never just read a cookbook cover to cover. This one you absolutely can and should.
The cover and title immediately grabbed my attention, intriguing me...culinary journey sounded like so much more than another cookbook. I bought it in ebook, and OMG, did it enchant!
Alford and Duguid take you on a cultural journey through both some of the remotest and congested areas of Southeast Asia by following the Mekong from China to Vietnam, all beginning and ending with the food. It is enhanced with gorgeous photos of the land, people and food so that the descriptions of the meals ane markets experienced come to rich life. The recipes are amazing and seem to be well adapted to western product availability and cooking; I marked many to try.
But I also loved the rich descriptions of textiles, villages, homes. I feel like I took this trip and have a far deeper appreciation of what that region's cultures are.
As the authors say in the introduction:
[The book] is ... a cookbook, a photo essay, a journey down a river, and an introduction to one of the world’s great culinary regions. It is also, because so much of the research and travel and recipe work was done with our two sons, Dominic and Tashi, a family tale, a diary. Food and life, we rationalize to ourselves, reflect forever in each other.
I never just read a cookbook cover to cover. This one you absolutely can and should.
July 1, 2017
Absolutely beautiful book and filled with stories that make you want to eat, cook, and travel Southeast Asia. But there were a bunch of recipes that weren't really makeable.
My sister had this on her coffee table and I was so entranced that I had to buy it. I have loved flipping through it, but I haven't cooked too many of the recipes. It doesn't even appear to be set up for recipes. It appears to be a coffee table book. But a coffee table book that makes you grow wistful for Southeast Asia.
My sister had this on her coffee table and I was so entranced that I had to buy it. I have loved flipping through it, but I haven't cooked too many of the recipes. It doesn't even appear to be set up for recipes. It appears to be a coffee table book. But a coffee table book that makes you grow wistful for Southeast Asia.
July 16, 2021
Very informative !
January 6, 2023
The cookbook that made me fall in love with cookbooks with travel narratives.
April 4, 2018
This is a gorgeous book that is much more than just a cook book. It has a lot of information about the history and various regions of Southeast Asia. The recipes almost seem to take a back seat to the other content which was my only hesitation on giving it 3 or 4 stars. I felt like this was more of a history book than a culinary journey (although some of the vignettes prior to the recipes were very entertaining and/or informative). I also felt that while the photography was spectacular the layout seemed disjointed ie there would be a large photo of food (presumably a recipe from the book) with no label telling you what page the recipe was on (seems weird in this kind of book) and then on the following page there would be two very small photos that were more like travel photos of landscapes / people / boats etc. that did have descriptions. So overall it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, however, I learned a lot and will have to give some of the recipes a try - because even with no pictures they sounded delicious.
February 7, 2014
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I've enjoyed some of their others, "Flatbreads and Flavors" and "Burma: Rivers of Flavor." The anecdotes seemed somehow less magical, less relevant to the recipes. The recipes themselves didn't grab me the way the other two books did.
However, for someone not well-versed in Southeast Asian cuisine, this is probably a good introduction; though not necessarily at an introductory skill level. I'd recommend any of Alford and Duguid's books, but this one with less enthusiasm.
However, for someone not well-versed in Southeast Asian cuisine, this is probably a good introduction; though not necessarily at an introductory skill level. I'd recommend any of Alford and Duguid's books, but this one with less enthusiasm.
January 14, 2014
This book is 70% cookbook 30% travel memoir. I, personally, wasn't that into this book. The foods are organized into really western categories like salads and salsas. I didn't find that very useful and really wondered about that choice. I also think I would have preferred the book if it were organized into the various countries that they traveled to, one at a time. Instead, there were large photo spreads with accompanying text about one country and then the recipes on either side of the feature were for a different country. I had a hard time with jumping back and forth between cuisines.
November 18, 2008
I have this book it is a stunning book, the images are some of the most beautiful in any cookbook I have ever seen. Included are not only images of food but of the people, environment, accompanied by stories of history, culture etc. The only critism of the book and not really it's fault at all is that ingredients can be hard to find in a rural area.
June 20, 2015
One of my favorite cookbooks to 'read' ever. It gives you a complete picture of the people and foods of the Mekong delta, how they are related, how they differ, and what it is like to travel there. It is beautiful, inspiring-- and everything I tried was delicious! I read it from the library, but it is on my wish list to own, and I have both quoted it and recommended it to many others.
October 14, 2007
More of a journey through Thailand. A great coffee table book. Fantastic photos and very good recipes. Ingredients are a little exotic if you don't have a Thai grocery nearby. Yummmmm black rice pudding and ginger chicken noodle soup, and nothing beats tom yam goong and a good Thai curry!
January 21, 2008
This is a wonderful book about Asian food - the authors traveled extensively and write about each area and the photos are gorgeous. I read this book prior to going to Vietnam and cooked some of the recipes included. I would recommend this to anyone who loves travel and loves food.
October 7, 2012
I love cookbooks and I especially love this one. No, I haven't even made anything from it yet--but I will. I just enjoy curling up with it and reading the great narrative along with delicious-sounding recipes. I just wish it wasn't so heavy! Try it--you'll like it!
July 31, 2008
Part cookbook, part travelogue, part photography book. The recipes can provide a bit *too* much detail at times, making things seem more complicated than they really are. Nevertheless, this a joy to flip through for both travel and culinary inspiration.
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July 29, 2011THis is a beautiful book that combines excellent recipes with stories and photos from SE Asia--I love the Vietnamese Chicken Salad, the Tom Yum Soup, and the Chickpea Star Anise Beef Stew, to name a few
July 29, 2011
Like Alford and Duguid's other books, this is as much a travel book as it is a cookbook. For those of us who read cookbooks as entertainment as well as for cooking ideas, these books are great. I haven't cooked anything from this one yet, but the recipes look really tantalizing.
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October 24, 2012Marvelous. Gorgeous photos, excellent recipes and great travel stories. I do not own this book (have borrowed umpteen times from library) but I want to buy it. All their book are great, but "Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia" is especially good.
July 9, 2013
This is one of the most beautiful cookbooks I own.
i've read it.
But I must confess I've never actually cooked any of the recipes.
Living in LA I can get great Southeast Asian food anywhere.
But the book did help me understand the food at restaurants a lot better.
i've read it.
But I must confess I've never actually cooked any of the recipes.
Living in LA I can get great Southeast Asian food anywhere.
But the book did help me understand the food at restaurants a lot better.
September 22, 2013
Thoughtful recipes and stories together are excellent at bringing to life this food culture. Great read. But I do NOT recommend on a Kindle - format doesn't lend itself well and I felt like I missed out on the photograhy.
June 6, 2021
Lots of simple secret tips especially those sauces that made the dish what they are. Their courageous jou4ney also awe inspiring (imagine traveling with kids in tow). Images are beautiful and detailed too. Would love owning this book!
January 8, 2008
Foodies/photographers tour of Asia...
January 13, 2008
Are you ready to tackle Asian cuisine? These recipes are easy to understand and more importantly yield enjoyable meals. Don't stop at the recipes though, read the whole thing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews