Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: I'm baffled by the review from the person from Belmont, MA. This book is quite complete, detailed and peppered with personal recollections, which makes it useful both gastronomically and culturally. It begins with a comprehensive section of Portuguese ingredients and their importance to the cuisine. The well laid out sections contain a good array of traditional recipes with both Portuguese and English names. Each recipe has a full headnote (information above the recipe) and plenty of sidebars highlighting special techniques and ingredients. Admittedly, there are a few gaps in the directions of some recipes, but nothing that would leave a cook helpless. One thing to remember for anyone unfamiliar with Portuguese food: Unlike fussy cuisines that require constant attention and allow for no margin of error, Portuguese cooking is relaxed and very forgiving -- just like its people. This is a solid book that's worth a cook.
Rating:
Summary: A Portuguese cookbook as gracious as its author
Review: I'm baffled by the review from the person from Belmont, MA. This book is quite complete, detailed and peppered with personal recollections, which makes it useful both gastronomically and culutrally. It begins with a comprehensive section of Portuguese ingredients and their importance to the cuisine. The well laid out sections contain a good array of traditional recipes with both Portuguese and English names. Each recipe has a full head note (information above the recipe) and plenty of sidebars highlighting special techniques and ingredients. Admittedly, there are a few gaps in the directions of some recipes, but nothing that would leave a cook helpless. And an e-mail to the generous and attentive author cleared up any confusion. One thing to remember for anyone unfamiliar with Portuguese food: Unlike fussy cuisines that require constant attention and allow no margin of error, Portuguese cooking is relaxed and very forgiving -- just like its people. This is a terrific book that's surely worth a cook.
Rating: 
Summary: Remembering Sundays
Review: Leafing through Portuguese Homestyle Cooking took me back to my childhood when I spent my Sundays marching in Portuguese parades all the while looking forward to the celebration feast of Sopas. The recipes are wonderfully familiar and easy to follow. It isn't just a cookbook but a story of a culture told through the food with photographs that help the reader better understand the Portuguese people from the mainland and the Azores. It was like a family album to me. I have long wanted a resource to re-create the food of my Azorean ancestry and now I have one.
Rating:
Summary: In Depth and Colorful
Review: Portugese cooking had been an unmeasured art for me. The detailed recipes and related family insights are interesting and enjoyable. I bought it replicate Sardines I had in Macau several years ago (Sardinhas no Forno) page 54. The book could double as a coffee table book, its substantial. I also enjoyed the variations, simple rice dishes up to complicated pies, choose your own level. There is also a nice chapter on wines, a fairly comprehensive treatise.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to follow
Review: There aren't very many Portuguese cookbooks to choose. By far this book has been the easiest to follow. The directions are clear, and the book is organized with great pictures of the end products. I have purchased two more books for friends because they are so impressed with my cooking.
Rating:
Summary: True reflection
Review: These recipes bring back so many memories. These are truly the tastes and dishes I remember my own father making for us. This book truly reflects the Azorean cooking from my family. I can't wait to try them out on my own family.
Rating:
Summary: Great cookbook for reading and cooking!
Review: This book is on my wish list. I borrowed it from the library and I love the recipes and other information found in this book. Whether you are Portuguese or not, the recipes are mostly comfort food and are very easy to make except maybe the bread and dessert recipes. They aren't difficult either for people who do bake. One word of caution, there are lots of salt cod recipes in this book and some people may not appreciate that as much as I do. That was the selling point for me. There are also many recipes that use linguica and other Portuguese sausages and that's a bit of a problem for me because I can't buy that where I live. However, I am looking into either making my own or ordering online.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious recipes with interesting and useful information
Review: This is a beautifully designed Portuguese cookbook. It is well written which makes the recipes easy to follow. The photographs are very nicely done and a pleasure to look at. I highly recommend buying this cookbook for yourself or as a gift. The book is a treasure of outstanding recipes. Every recipe I tried is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: All of the classics well represented...
Review: This is the first Portuguese (non-regional) cookbook I've found that was actually written by a Portuguese person! While most people use Jean Anderson's book as a benchmark, I found that the anecdotes and stories surrounding the recipes really hit home for me, a fellow Portuguese-American. What's great about this book is that it includes mostly the essentials, without a lot of unimportant recipes you don't need. If you are just starting to explore the uniqueness of Portuguese cooking, this is a great first step. Especially if you do not live in California or New England where many of these foods can be ordered in Portuguese restaurants or purchased from Portuguese bakeries. It might also be helpful to understand that Portuguese food is mainly "peasant" food (explains all the salt cod), and should not be confused with other trendy Southern European cuisines such as Spanish, French and Italian. It can definitely be an acquired taste!
Rating: 
Summary: Great for an expert, I suppose, but terrible for the novice
Review: This was a beautiful book that read almost like a novel, but I found it completely useless as a cookbook. I suppose if you're already an expert in Portuguese cooking, you might fall in love with this book. However, for the uninitiated, it falls far short. The dishes, which go well beyond the basic Portuguese fare all have Portuguese names, but no explanation in English of what this dish is or is like. There aren't even any photos to go along with most dishes. A dessert recipe, for instance, could be a pudding, cookie, or cake and you'd never know without studying the recipe -- and even then, who knows what the texture, taste, or appearance is supposed to resemble?? Even an intermediate cook would find this intimidating -- you don't know exatly what you're cooking, what it's supposed to turn out like or look like. There's no useful index and, while the author attempts to define some basic terms, it's not in a useful section, and doesn't help with the names of dishes. The book was beautiful, but I returned it because I knew there was no way I'd attempt any of the recipes, most of which appeared to be very involved and complicated.
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