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| Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid
Publisher: Artisan
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy New: $24.90
You Save: $20.10 (45%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $24.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  (31 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1045
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 346
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.1
Dimensions (in): 11.3 x 10 x 1.2
ISBN: 1579651143
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.50959
EAN: 9781579651145
ASIN: 1579651143
Publication Date: October 2, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Rich Tapestry of SE Asian Foods May 30, 2005
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you have curiosity and interest in Asian foods, (and have gotten this far with your curiosity and interests!) you will be very pleased by your reading of "Hot Sour Salty Sweet". It starts out with geography...the flow of the Mekong River from China, as it touches on Burma and Thailand, and goes right through Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam.
As the river meanders, then builds up force, the authors' tale grows stronger and richer as well. As you learn about the complex network of varied peoples, (yet quite different in culture and tastes) who are spread across this riverbed, be it the Han, Hmong, Bai, Karen, or Khmer and Cham, you are introduced by the nuances of geography, recipes and tribal descriptions to the people, and to the unique foods and diets enjoyed with each region's local spices and traditions. One group may never use pork, another uses fish sauce instead of salt, water buffalo is the preferred meat in some regions, coconuts do not grow in the North and stronger spices tend ot be used there, with coconut milk and seafood more commonly used as the river heads south towards the Mekong delta.
Ever wonder why some Chinese or Thai restaurants taste "different" from each other, even in the USA or whatever country you may be sampling such cuisine? Well, this book may at times educate you (just a little bit) to the ethnic origin of the person as they cook the food with their own special touches added. Ask the cook at your restaurant about their culinary background, to learn more!
The recipes can be transformed from printed page into tasty food with a visit to a local Asian grocery store, if available, visiting "Whole Foods" or "Fresh Market" type specialty grocery stores in larger cities, or via internet shopping to find a mail order source. The ingredients are not really expensive, and a regular person can make some common sense substitutions, to have a quite tasty meal.
I freeze the white bases of lemongrass stalks cut to size, and separately freeze some herbs in thier individual ice cube trays, and they are quite tasty when melted down. Do not use dried lemongrass, as it lacks the right taste! So, having uncommon ingredients handy isn't such a problem, especially when you may not cook more than one or two Asian meals within a few month period.
The recipe instructions are simple and thorough; these are not complex and delicate French sauces to be carefully created over hours... however, the complexity of tastes and textures of some Asian dishes can be no less complex than French, Indian or other cuisines.
Having a wok and gas stove/range is helpful for some recipes, however I've done quite well with a skillet on an electric/ceramic top stove. If you really want to "cook with gas", get the "Big Kahuna Burner"...it's exactly the firepower used throughout Asia, and the price is right on Amazon! (I've reviewed it on Amazon, and have no bias or connection to it other than it's "the real thing"!)
The special bonus in the book is the inclusion of beautiful colorful photos of the varied peoples in the area served by the Mekong, as they harvest food, prepare and eat it, or go about their business.
This makes me want to go back and see, taste and savor more of Asia!
a pleasure to read and cook from December 21, 2004
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Asian food has been a mainstay in our family for decades and as a group, we've consumed tens of asian cookbooks. This book is among the most pleasurable to use and the results are always a delight.
Beautiful photography and the essence of cultures are captured and waiting for you here.
One Beautiful Cookbook November 16, 2004
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is without a doubt the best cookbook I have read. Few cookbooks out there are as readable and interesting as this one and even fewer can come close in terms of the photography. This is as much a look into the food anthropology of the region as it is a cookbook. I lived in Chicago when I got this book and then moved to Hawaii, so for the most part I have had minimal challenges in rounding up authentic asian ingredients. Unless you live in a large city this could be a challenge, but the results from the easy-to-follow recipes speak for themselves. This cookbook is a confidence builder - because these are for the most part home-style recipes, they are somewhat forgiving and the exotic smells that fill your kitchen will impress your guests long before the flavorful, aromatic and colorful dishes are brought to table. Anyone who enjoys the aromas of Asian Food in general and foods of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam (among others) in specific will love this cookbook for it's clarity, simplicity, and authenticity. Anyone who has visited or spent time in this region will love it for it's photography and storytelling. This book is a winner as a cookbook and as a love letter to the people and places it describes.
 Another beautiful coffee table cookbook August 18, 2004
6 out of 28 found this review helpful
If only the producers of this book put as much effort into coming up with recipes that I might consider making as taking beautiful photographs and doing a beautiful layout I would award 10 stars. As it is, I haven't made anything from this book and I love southeast asian food.
Glowing Ember July 20, 2004
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I too have stacks of cookbooks and this is definitely one of the best. A few points:
Unless you live in one of the 3 or 4 biggest cities, this food is going to look like it is from Mars (nay, even most the people in Los Angeles, arguably the best city in the world for sheer depth and breadth of ethnic food, would probably find that this book is completely outside their realm of experience). And amazingly, it doesn't really fit into one neat little bucket; following the Mekong River, this book hits on 5 distinct cuisines:
1. Vietnamese
2. Laotian
3. Cambodian
4. Northern Thai (Esaan)
5. Islamic Chinese
Even in Los Angeles, it is almost impossible to find Esaan food, which is quite different from the Royal Thai cuisine that the country has fallen in love with. Vietnamese is an amazing cuisine that seems to be spreading significantly (if with more emphasis on rice noodle bowls than tendon soup).
If you are interested in the history of food, this is also a fascinating tract. In the West, the history has two phases: before and after ready access to salt, the prior phase being dominated by what are called 'masking spices' (some of which came from the east) and then the whole history of integral sauce making afterward. One of the big points made in this book is that in the East, the focus is on the balance of flavors (see title), and, most importantly, the final targeting is done by the consumer (whereas in the West, spicing a dish from a gourmet restaurant is an act of sedition). Not to indict either one: take a lesson from the book: celebrate the differences.
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