Food of Malaysia: Authentic Recipes from the Crossroads of Asia (Periplus World Food Series)

Rating:
Summary: Definitely authentic Malaysian recipes.
Review: As a Malaysian living in US, I can vouch for the authenticity of the recipes in this book. At this juncture, I would like to address some concerns raised in Arun J Gavali's review. First & foremost, Malaysia is a Muslim country where pork is not "kosher", hence the lack of pork recipes unless you're referring strictly to the foods of the Chinese ethnic group (2nd largest ethnic group in Malaysia). Beef & other meat recipes are limited owing to the fact that the landscape of Malaysia does not permit wide pasturage for raising cattle. Chicken & fish are much more widely consumed. Most of the fresh ingredients such as turmeric, galangal, pandan (screwpine) leaves, kaffir lime leaves, daun kesum & wild ginger bud, can be found in Thai or Vietnamese grocery stores. They may come fresh or frozen, depending on the store. As for keeping them fresh, freeze them by wrapping them first in parchment or in another plastic bag, before putting them into ziploc freezer bags, to prevent freezer burns. I've been successful at keeping them fresh for a couple of months this way. Better yet, seal them in vacuum packs (if you have one of those vacuum packing machines) before freezing. I always separate them into smaller portions before freezing so that I only have to defrost what I would need later for cooking. You can get a rough idea of how much you would need each time by going through the recipes in the book, especially where the curries are concerned. I only anticipate difficulty in locating ingredients for 1 recipe, Nasi Kerabu (rice with fresh herbs), since some of the herbs listed are truly indigenous to Malaysia only. Apart from this, there's nothing to prevent you from enjoying other recipes in this book, especially with the suggested substitutes. The book does present a very good cross-section of the most popular Malaysian foods and serve more than adequately to introduce the novice to the very wide variety of food found in Malaysia. To include more recipes would be overwhelming in my opinion, to most people who aren't familiar with or even unsure of the outcome of these recipes. If you truly want to try more, you should travel to Malaysia and plan on feasting everyday while you're there. Otherwise, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to try some great Malaysian food.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely authentic Malaysian recipes.
Review: I started with the Food of Asia, which I think is excellent. I decided to check into some specific cuisines, such as Malaysia, of the seven cuisines that are presented in the Food of Asia. I am a little torn.

The individual books in the "Food of" series by Periplus have extensive introductions. There are not as many recipes as I had hoped for. The ingredients list, along with the accompanying commentaries, are about the same, with an equivalent number of photos, as the Food of Asia. The Food of Asia contains many of the recipes, however, some do not have a photo.

I would have hoped for more recipes and more vegetables. The recipes that are worth the purchase: Spicy Rice with Chicken, Hot Sour Fish Curry, Spicy Shrimp In A Sarong, Butter Shrimp, Black Pepper Crab, Indian Fish Curry, Portuguese Baked Fish, Chicken Satay, Spicy Barbacued Chicken, Barbacued Chicken Wings, Dry Mutton Curry, Chicken Curry, Devil Chicken Curry, Chicken Rice, Srir-Fried Peas, Snake Gourd and Spicy Pumpkin. There are few if any beef, pork or other meats, and many of the vegetables will not be found in a grocery store.

The ingredients list is thourough, with substitutions for (or omission of) many hard-to-find ingredients, but is a little more stringent than other books I have read. For example, shallot or onion was offered as a substitute for asofoetida in a different book, whereas here no substitute is given. On the contrary, macadamia nuts are suggested as a substitute, or even almonds or cashews, for candlenuts. But again, the Food of Asia offered asparagus as a substitute for fern tips, and zuchini or green beans for snake gourd, both of which can be hard if not impossible to find. The books on separate cuisines do not have such substitutions.

A word of caution, many of the ingredients are difficult to find even online. There are also several "fresh" ingredients, such as kaffir lime leaves, salam leaves, duan kasum, etc, that have to be shipped fresh and stay for only a short while. Other cuisines, like Thai, have more availability of authentic ingredients as well as spice mixes that really help save time.

I think that the Food of Asia may be a better starting point and that searching for other cookbooks that have versions of the really good recipes plus many more recipes is advisable.

Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for some recipes... worth considering other books.
Review: I started with the Food of Asia, which I think is excellent. I decided to check into some specific cuisines, such as Malaysia, of the seven cuisines that are presented in the Food of Asia. I am a little torn.

The individual books in the "Food of" series by Periplus have extensive introductions. There are not as many recipes as I had hoped for. The ingredients list, along with the accompanying commentaries, are about the same, with an equivalent number of photos, as the Food of Asia. The Food of Asia contains many of the recipes, however, some do not have a photo.

I would have hoped for more recipes and more vegetables. The recipes that are worth the purchase: Spicy Rice with Chicken, Hot Sour Fish Curry, Spicy Shrimp In A Sarong, Butter Shrimp, Black Pepper Crab, Indian Fish Curry, Portuguese Baked Fish, Chicken Satay, Spicy Barbacued Chicken, Barbacued Chicken Wings, Dry Mutton Curry, Chicken Curry, Devil Chicken Curry, Chicken Rice, Srir-Fried Peas, Snake Gourd and Spicy Pumpkin. There are few if any beef, pork or other meats, and many of the vegetables will not be found in a grocery store.

The ingredients list is thourough, with substitutions for (or omission of) many hard-to-find ingredients, but is a little more stringent than other books I have read. For example, shallot or onion was offered as a substitute for asofoetida in a different book, whereas here no substitute is given. On the contrary, macadamia nuts are suggested as a substitute, or even almonds or cashews, for candlenuts. But again, the Food of Asia offered asparagus as a substitute for fern tips, and zuchini or green beans for snake gourd, both of which can be hard if not impossible to find. The books on separate cuisines do not have such substitutions.

A word of caution, many of the ingredients are difficult to find even online. There are also several "fresh" ingredients, such as kaffir lime leaves, salam leaves, duan kasum, etc, that have to be shipped fresh and stay for only a short while. Other cuisines, like Thai, have more availability of authentic ingredients as well as spice mixes that really help save time.

I think that the Food of Asia may be a better starting point and that searching for other cookbooks that have versions of the really good recipes plus many more recipes is advisable.

Hope this helps.