Complete Asian Cookbook, the Paperback – January 1, 1986

My dad was a chef and I found an older copy of this book in his possession after he passed away. I bought this newer republication to see if there were any extra recipes added, but it mostly looks the same.Charmaine Solomon has created a wonderful book here with great recipes and includes a little history behind the cultures from which they originate. It’s easily one of my favorites.So far I’ve only really tried Indian dishes, but they’ve all turned out really good!It’s been a while since I made anything, unfortunately, but from what I’ve made and remember:The Mughal Biryani is pretty labor intense, but I think it turned out far better than I’ve had from any restaurant.The chicken curry is pretty solid, at least as good as what you’ll find at most restaurants, if not actually better.Chicken Korma is very good, again easily on par with or better than a restaurant!Chicken Korma also allowed me to extrapolate and create Chicken Pasanda (basically the same thing just replace cashews with almonds) back before Youtube was really a thing and recipe sites were still more hit or miss than they are now.Lamb Korma also very good!The basic Indian seasoned rice (namkin chawal?) turned out to be a good starting point to reverse engineer a local Indian restaurant’s personal take on the same thing (they had cumin and a few other spices thrown in, but otherwise recipe was basically the same). Either way, it turned out nice and fluffy with the right amount of moisture and dryness to it.Raita was very good and tasted refreshing!I would love to try some of the Thai, Malay, or Philippine recipes, but fresh ingredients for those are a little hard to come by around here. Maybe some day!

I originally bought this book decades ago in the 1980s when I first discovered SE Asian food. I used it so much over the years that I wore it out and had to tape it back together. Finally, the cover was gone. I kept the pieces. I finally bought the Kindle version, but I prefer my cookbooks to be on paper for better note taking. I now have the updated hardcover version and still use it frequently. All my kids got a copy on leaving home. This is by far the definitive book on cooking all things Asian. You will not be disappointed.

I've had this book for about 3-1/2 months now, and have tried several recipes from it. So far, I've been impressed with the authenticity of the recipes as well as the thorough explanation of them. I'm pretty much a beginner cook, and this book walks you step by step through every recipe. There are some techniques or ingredients you'll need to Google, but I consider that normal. I think her Chinese recipes are the best so far. She likes Chinese 5 Spice a lot, so if you dont like black licorice, cut the amount called for in half. Cheers!

Overall, a really lovely cookbook with recipes from many Asian countries. If you are a cookbook collector or enjoy trying new cuisines, this is a great choice. Americans, be aware that there are some metric measures and British terminology. I tried a few of the Indian recipes exactly as written and they were quite good, although more salty and with less heat than I expected. The instructions are clear and the book is of excellent quality with stay-open binding. I recommend it for adventurous cooks with some experience in the kitchen.

Amazing book! It is full of many hard to find recipes and is organized very well, with an intro to each regional section including special utensils/tools needed and a complete ingredients list.The first order I got was very poorly packed with the book itself in a box with no packing at all. This caused the corners of the book to be very damaged by the time it reached me. However, I issued a request for a replacement and had no problem other than receiving the final item late.

I gave it as a gift

This is the third copy of this book we have purchased because it gets used so much it eventually falls apart. We retire that copy to the holiday house or the like. It covers almost all Asian cuisines and faithfully reproduces the flavours and aromas that we all love and experience on our travels.It lists all the ingredients that are required to make each dish at the beginning of each country/region that is covered. Follow the recipes faithfully and you will not be disappointed.It is a CLASSIC.

This is a big, thick volume of recipes covering India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, The Philippines, China, Korea, and Japan. Obviously the coverage can not be complete for so many regions in one book, no matter how large, but the essence of each is presented. For each region there is a list of utensils and ingredients required to replicate the cuisine. There are one or two full-page color photographs for each cuisine, displaying a typical dinner for the region, as well as descriptions of how the meals are served. The book fulfilled my expectations completely.

My father bought me one of the first editions of this wonderful cookbook over 40 years ago. My partner and I cooked out way through it and loved almost everything we made. It's a great tour of Asian food. I bought this as a Kindle for now, just to see what's been changed but I'll probably buy the hardcover version, too.

This cookbook is amazing. Fun to read and easy to understand with lots of amazing recipes, i cant wait to try them all. Would order again!

Fantastic recipe book. Can't wait to try some of the recipes out

to cook authentic asian food.My parents bought the first edition and it still is the Standard on which every cookbook is measured.And now I own the new and revised edition. I can cook and make my own stains and comments. It is my guide to my favourite childhood foods. The recipes are adjusted to modern kitchens 3o years after the first edition.The photographs already make my mouth water, the stories on the cuisine of regions and on certain recipes are entertaining. And the recipes include all the standards and more.

An incredible Asian cooking guide, now I know why they call Charmaine Solomon the Queen of Asian Cooking. It has a massive number of top recipes as well as a lot of information about Asian cooking. The only thing that would have made it better was a recipe index there are so many recipes to go through to find the one you want, however it is set out by country. .I rave to everyone about this book and do believe if you like Asian food I greatly doubt there is a more informative recipe book with so many enticing recipes.Thank you Charmaine for sharing your knowledge and recipes in such a generously priced book.