Authentic Japanese Cuisine for Beginners
Authentic Japanese Cuisine for Beginners Review: First, I love Japanese food and probably have around ten Japanese cookbooks. There are two major problems with this particular cookbook. First, the pages started falling out the first time I used it. The publisher did not do a good job with the binding. Second, the recipes just aren’t very good and use a lot of ingredients that are hard to find even if you live near a Japanese grocery store, which I do.
Ingredients such as nuka (rice bran), udo (a kind of vegetable), taro root, konnyaku (devil’s tongue jelly), gobo (burdock root), and mitsuba leaves are often difficult to find. As for the recipes themselves, they just aren’t very tasty. I do love her thick omelet recipe, but you can find similar recipes in other cookbooks. The photos and directions are the one strength this book has: they are clear and well-done.
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Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Sunday Suppers at Lucques Review: I’ve enjoyed my book. It came in a timely manner and it was in great condition. I look forward to using it much more. To truly appreciate this book you MUST love to cook. I used to work in the Library and would see many cookbooks out there. I checked this one out several times and finally bought it last month. Yes the recipes take long and call for specific ingredients that you might have to search sometimes 2 or 3 stores for.
But in the end, it’s all worth it. Someone made a comment in their review that the book isn’t specific enough on the measurements and temperatures. I think that’s what makes it great! You have a blueprint for your entree, and you make it your own. When the seasons changed I become so excited to make items from here. My favorite is the “Pumpkin” Bread made from Kabocha Squash. I like to double up on the pecan toppings and it comes out perfect every time.
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Country Cooking of France
Country Cooking of France Review: As usual with Willan’s work, this is superbly written and conceived. Everything is spelled out with the correct detail. My one objection is that, although beautiful, coffee table books are difficult to use in the kitchen. Compared to other large books, say Barbara Kafka’s “Vegetable Love” or “The Silver Spoon”, or Paula Wolfert’s “Cooking of Southwest Fance” which are also large, this one is heavier, shinier paper, clumsier to push around.
Country Cooking of France Review: Anne Willan has gifted us all with a truly wonderful tome of french country cuisine. It is of the same quality as her other: La Varenne Pratique. The entries reflect the true approach to the informal cooking of the country beautiful creations using elements which naturally occur in each area. The recipes are interesting, truly “do-able” and completely delicious. The photos are beautiful and the narrative is accurate and inspiring. This book will be a worthy tool always as well as a lovely goft for any recipient.
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Chinese Rice and Noodles
Chinese Rice and Noodles Review: The recipes are writt
en very clearly, the pictures look so great you want to take a bite out of the page. I have tried many different Chinese cookbooks in the past, this one beats them all. Just for the Kung Pao Chicken and the Beef and Pepper Sauce alone makes this book worth having.
The author also tells you how some recipes originated, e.g., Kung Pao means “Royal Teacher to the Prince,” this recipe was named after Ding Bao Zhen after being promoted to that position in the Qing Dynasty. Little tidbits like this I find fun and fascinating! You don’t need a wok to prepare the recipes, I use a nonstick 12-inch skillet and the recipes come out great. Very easy to prepare. The trick is to have all the ingredients measured and handy when you are about to cook, because everything cooks so fast.
The Basque Table
The Basque Table Review: “The Basque Table” author Teresa Barrenechea asserts that the Basques are even more enamored of food and cooking than the French. There is a strong seafood tradition here, as well as a hearty embrace of meat. A recipe for roast suckling pig is given, not to mention recipes for oxtails, braised rabbit, venison, and sundry organ meats. I didn’t happen to have a suckling pig handy, but the pinchos I made from these recipes were yummy.
Co-author Mary Goodbody is, as I understand it, adept at putting non-American cookbooks into American terms for ease of use. If that was her job here, she did it superbly. There’s nothing the average American cook can’t try in “The Basque Table.” As for complaints that the book shows too much Spanish influence, all I can say is get out your globe and take a look. The Basques live wedged between Spain and France so it’s entirely natural that their cuisine would be heavily influenced by those two countries. The beauty of the Basque cuisine is that it plucks what it likes from Spanish and French cooking and makes it wholly Basque.
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Stop Acting Like a Seller and Start Thinking Like a Buyer
Stop Acting Like a Seller and Star
t Thinking Like a Buyer Review: Many authors have written sales books from the seller’s point of view. Relatively few take the buyer’s perspective. Salesman turned consultant Jerry Acuff provides a refreshing look at sales through the eyes of the buyer. Most salespeople never achieve their goals because they forget to sell in a way that makes people want to buy.
Trying to buy from a salesperson with this attitude is almost always a negative experience. Working with the right intent, a demonstrated sales process, proper preparation and a zeal for relationship building, salespeople of all kinds can achieve their goals. Acuff’s perspective dusts off some insights you know intuitively and points to many others you may not know. getAbstract recommends this book to salespeople, sales managers, procurement officers, and anyone who wants to sell more goods, services, products or ideas.
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Japanese Foods That Heal
Japanese Foods That Heal Review: I tend to be highly skeptical about this kind of book, mainly because they usually present some sort of idealized fantasy of a health-conscious and simple Japan where everyone is deeply in tune with the rhythms of nature, whilst I know from many years of experience living in Japan that your average Japanese person is much more likely to sit down to a steaming pile of fried chicken, reconstituted ramen and a few cans of beer rather than ocean-harvested kombu and mountain vegetables gently simmered followed by a sweet cup of amazake. However I was pleasantly surprised when the authors stated up front that “Japanese people don’t eat this way”, and acknowledged that many of these foods will be more readily available in an American health food store than in a Japanese supermarket.
Regional Italian Cuisine
Regional Italian Cuisine Review: This cookbook is by far my favorite in my collection, from di medici to hazan and all in between. i love it.tho i love their recipies too. i am so pleased with this book. Now i am italian so i always add my “extra” stuff but you do not have to.when people say “i wish there were more picture’s in my cookbook” well there all here! and pics of italy as well of coarse.buy it ,try it,and enjoy it.
Regional Italian Cuisine Review: Regional Italian Cuisine Review: I adore this coobook because it appeals to so many levels of cook. Just when you think you have a handle on Italian cuisine, this book reveals little known facts about each region that will surprise even the most experienced cook. Consequently, it provide the “best of the region” recipes that are not as intimidating as you might think. It really opens up culinary doors by exposing the novice cook to Italian cuisine beyond pizza and spaghetti by giving the reader a hand-held walk through every region.
Casablanca Cuisine
Casablanca Cuisine Review: I’m giving this book 5 stars, and that’s still not enough. The recipies are simple to make yet delicious. The meals are healthy and well balanced. Trust me, it’s really very good. I definately recommend it to anyone who likes to eat good food.
Casablanca Cuisine Review: The secret of life is Aline Benayoun’s mint soup. Trust me, this book is fabulous and if the only recipe you do is the mint soup, you’re way ahead. But don’t stop there. The thing is, I’d marry someone who makes mint soup like this.
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine Review: I bought this book to fill in a gap in my cookbook collection I had none about Chinese cooking. It was a pleasant surprise to find that many of Susanna Foo’s recipes have become standby’s at home, for everyday cooking and for special dinners. As others have written, the recipes fuse chinese and french cooking techniques. Although there are occasionally difficult-to-find ingredients, more often than not the author provides substitutes. Favorites are the soy-braised cornish hens and the tea-smoked cornish hens. There are plenty of seafood dishes, most served with delectable sauces that could be easily transplanted to poultry or pork dishes.
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine Review: The thing I love about Susanna Foo’s writing is that she puts much more into it than just finely crafted recipes. I love how she shares her food memories of her Chinese childhood and gives anecdotes and details about ingredients that are unique to Chinese cooking and culture. I only wish that there were more pictures throughout the book there are some, but not for every recipe. There’s nothing that makes you more inspired to start cooking than a mouth-watering photograph.