Rating: 
Summary: Good, but needs more detail
Review: A good introduction to foods at the grocery store. What is missing is the actual characters used on the products and how to pronounce the words in their native language. I always find it helpful to have the name writen in Chinese so I can show my shopping list to a clerk when I can't find what I need.
Rating: 
Summary: A must-have for the Asian food aficionado!
Review: As an aficionado of Asian food, both at home and in restaurants, and also as a frequent traveler to the Far East, I was very happy to find this much needed book in my local bookshop. In it I found essential information necessary for purchasing and preparing many of my favorite dishes. The descriptions of many of the items gave me the impetus to try and recreate some restaurant favorites, right in my very own home. The drawings made it easy to find many of the sauces, condiments and vegetables that I needed to purchase but previously had been undecipherable to me. Reading the book, I felt as though I truly was walking through my local Asian grocery store! The recipe for Blood and Skin Tonic Soup was a real find, as I had been trying to recreate at home some of the holistic recipes I had found at a local restaurant. This book has given me a lot of new and unique information, as well as confidence, for preparing Asian food at home. The book even fits in my pocketbook! The Asian Grocery Store Demystified truly has demystified Oriental cooking for me, and is a must-have item in the kitchen of any Asian food aficionado!
Rating:
Summary: Like seeing the tree in its leaf
Review: Asian food tastes good, that part is not so mysterious. As a lifelong lover of the gifts of the Oriental cornucopia, and as an occasional, bewildered visitor to Oriental markets, I have found a trustworthy guide to calm my fears and open my eyes to the logical patterns extent in Asian groceriesÉ. Sort of like seeing the tree in the structure of its leaf. BladholmÕs handy, compact guide is jam packed with a veritable taxonomy of Asian foodstuffs. After several trips, guidebook in tow, I now know my way around the numerous varieties of noodles, rice, veggies, spices, condiments, and sweets. My taste buds require fire and ice, and the yin yang organization of a typical Asian grocery that Bladholm so clearly and deftly describes, complete with charming, lovingly done, little word sketches drawn from her extensive Asian travels, as well as her uncannily accurate, line drawings helps to make a trip to the Asian grocery store as easy as apple pie and ice cream, just substitute the apples with pomegranates and the pie with soy bean paste confections that boggle the palette as well as the eye. Hers is a great book, it does what it title claims. It is a totally demystifying experience!
Rating:
Summary: A great companion book, even for a Chinese!
Review: At first I was thinking of giving this book to an American freind who likes Asian foods. After reading this book, I decided to keep it for myself. You would be suprised how little an ordinary ethnic Chinese knows about other Asian foods, not to mention those indecipherable ingredients in asian grocery stores. This is a very useful book, not just to the westerners, but also to the asians.
Rating:
Summary: Kathy Martin, Miami Herald food editor
Review: BOOK PROVIDES A COOK'S TOUR OF ASIAN MARKETS"The mysterious Orient" is just another cliché until you walk into an Asian grocery store for the first time. Red yeast rice, black Thai sticky rice; gyoza wrappers, lumpia wrappers; nam pla, nam prik-the array of unfamiliar products, some labeled in unfamiliar languages, can be downright intimidating. Happily, Linda Bladholm is here to explain it all to us. The Miami Beach writer is the author of The Asian Grocery Store Demystified, a pocketbook-size take-along guide. After giving us an overview of a typical Asian market, she takes up and down the aisles in 20 chapters arranged by food group, from that staff of Asian life, rice, to "Exotic Items for the Cultivated Palate" (fish lips, anyone?). Each chapter contains succinct descriptions of dozens of products, including cooking tips and brand recommendations, sometimes illustrated by Bladholm's pen-and-ink sketches. (Red yeast rice, by the way, is similar to brown rice and is considered poor man's fare in Asia; black Thai sticky rice is chewy and earthy-tasting; gyoza wrappers are crepe-like skins used for deep-fried Filipino banana rolls; nam pla is Thai fish sauce and nam prik is Thai chili paste.) The 234 page soft-cover book concludes with primers on Asian cooking utensils and techniques plus about 30 recipes Bladholm collected during 10 years of living in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan and traveling throughout Asia.
Rating:
Summary: Kathy Martin, Miami Herald food editor
Review: BOOK PROVIDES A COOK'S TOUR OF ASIAN MARKETS "The mysterious Orient" is just another cliché until you walk into an Asian grocery store for the first time. Red yeast rice, black Thai sticky rice; gyoza wrappers, lumpia wrappers; nam pla, nam prik-the array of unfamiliar products, some labeled in unfamiliar languages, can be downright intimidating. Happily, Linda Bladholm is here to explain it all to us. The Miami Beach writer is the author of The Asian Grocery Store Demystified, a pocketbook-size take-along guide. After giving us an overview of a typical Asian market, she takes up and down the aisles in 20 chapters arranged by food group, from that staff of Asian life, rice, to "Exotic Items for the Cultivated Palate" (fish lips, anyone?). Each chapter contains succinct descriptions of dozens of products, including cooking tips and brand recommendations, sometimes illustrated by Bladholm's pen-and-ink sketches. (Red yeast rice, by the way, is similar to brown rice and is considered poor man's fare in Asia; black Thai sticky rice is chewy and earthy-tasting; gyoza wrappers are crepe-like skins used for deep-fried Filipino banana rolls; nam pla is Thai fish sauce and nam prik is Thai chili paste.) The 234 page soft-cover book concludes with primers on Asian cooking utensils and techniques plus about 30 recipes Bladholm collected during 10 years of living in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan and traveling throughout Asia.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: do asian cooking only to have been daunted by the list of unfamiliar ingredients. The text is totally understandable, discriptions are clear and concise, and the names(if there are more than one for a particular item) and reccomended brands are a tremendous help. Truly, I have ALWAYS wanted a book like this one. After reading it I feel I have a new appreciation for asian cuisines as well as the ability to be more adventurous when dining out. This book is written with love and respect for the ingredients, the process of cooking them and the peoples of asian countries. It is a winner all around.
Rating:
Summary: This is an EXCELLENT book for all people who have wanted to
Review: do asian cooking only to have been daunted by the list of unfamiliar ingredients. The text is totally understandable, discriptions are clear and concise, and the names(if there are more than one for a particular item) and reccomended brands are a tremendous help. Truly, I have ALWAYS wanted a book like this one. After reading it I feel I have a new appreciation for asian cuisines as well as the ability to be more adventurous when dining out. This book is written with love and respect for the ingredients, the process of cooking them and the peoples of asian countries. It is a winner all around.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn about exotic Asian ingredients
Review: Do you want to prepare an Asian meal as delectable as those in your favorite restaurants? Are you too intimidated by the exotic ingredients to try? And what's inside those mysterious bottles, bags, and boxes in your local Asian grocery store anyway? This handy Take It With You™ guide provides the answers. Author Linda Bladholm, who has lived, worked, cooked, and dined in locales as diverse as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Laos, and Vietnam, takes you on a tour of a typical neighborhood Asian grocery store and expertly describes what you'll find.
Rating: 
Summary: Answers to many of your questions about Asian markets.
Review: I have been regularly venturing into various Asian markets for many years, and although in doing so I have gained some knowledge of the basics of Asian cooking, there is still a vast amount I didn't know until I bought this book. The Asian Grocery Store Demystified finally answers many of the questions I've had for years, but was hesitant to ask the store owner. The book is based on the author's frequent visits to a Chinese grocery store, therefore other Asian cultures get a light treatment. However, by itself Chinese cooking is vast and varied, and it would probably be impossible for any one book to cover the full range of food items to be found, so I give her credit for covering what she did, including various other Asian foods. There are no photos, and I feel that the more uninitiated cook of Asian cuisine will be at a bit of a loss without them, but the author does a good job of describing much of what you will often find, and the random drawings help. The book includes descriptions of the basic cooking utensils, cooking techniques, a brief glossary, and a smattering of recipes from different Asian cultures. I particularly appreciate the author's encouragement of the reader to try food items that the stranger to Asian cuisines might otherwise wrinkle his or her nose to.
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