Pacific Rim Books

Memories of Philippine Kitchens

Amy Besa, Romy Dorotan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"[Cendrillon is] daring, different and a sure remedy for the malady, too widespread these days, of dining déjà vu."-Frank Bruni, the New York Times

The essence of Filipino food has always remained somewhat secluded in the family kitchens of Filipino homes, passed down through the generations, melding native traditions with those of Chinese, Spanish, and American cuisines. With Memories of Philippine Kitchens Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, owners and chef at Soho's popular Cendrillon restaurant, present a fascinating look at Filipino cuisine and culture. They have spent years tracing the traditions of the food of the Philippines, and here they share the results of that research. From Lumpia, Pancit, and Kinilaw to Adobo and Lehon (the art of the well-roasted pig), the authors document dishes and culinary techniques that are rapidly disappearing and in some cases unknown to Filipinos whether in the Philippines or abroad.

In addition to offering more than 100 unique recipes culled from private Filipino kitchens and their own acclaimed menu, Besa and Dorotan vividly document the role of food in Filipino society, both old and new. Filled with hundreds of sumptuous photographs by the esteemed Filipino photographer Neal Oshima and colorful stories of food memories from the authors and other notable local cooks, the book is a joy to peruse both in and out of the kitchen.

Philippine Cookbook

Reynaldo Alejandro

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not what I was expecting 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

After buying this book and looking through the recipes, it seems to me that this book needs to be updated and revised. It could be a wonderful cookbook if the recipes were more detailed and the directions more clear. It's great in that it has many recipes.

OH YUM - MASARAP 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I don't pretend to be an expert cook, but I do have a lot of fun in the kitchen, especially with my teenage daughters. I do believe that they find me a source of entertainment with my recipes right from this cookbook. We turned out some great dishes, e.g., Lumpia Shanghai, Philippine Fred Rice, Rellenong Manok, Paksiw Na Bangus, Maruya, Pianono, etc. My son likes to kick back and watch the interaction, but then he is the first in line to grab the finished product. I liked this cookbook and found it to be helpful, easy to use, and covering a large range of Filipino food. Well done!

good eats 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book seems to be like the holy grail of Philippine menu items.

At Least It Doesn't Weigh Much 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am grateful that this book is not very heavy, as I found myself carrying it around in my backpack all day yesterday. Other than that, I'm not exactly thrilled with this book. The recipes are indeed oversimplified and generally vague, and leave my wife (who grew up in a Filipino household) and I muttering, "Wait, that can't be right...."

The Filipino-American Kitchen: Traditional Recipes, Contemporary Flavors

Jennifer M. Aranas, Brian Briggs, Michael Lande

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Asian but with a lot of foreign influence 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 21 people found this review helpful.

The dishes in this book fit the title: Filipino American. That is, they are based on the traditional foods of the Philippines but modified to allow the chef to take advantage of fresh local products, and of a minimum of specialty spices. The resulting foods are thus more suited to both the American taste and the American supermarket than highly traditional recipies.

Philippine food traditions are based on their particular variant on oriental cooking, but modified by years of invluence from incoming cultures. The Spanish took over the island in 1542 and left them with a deep impression of Spanish culinary heritage (paella for instance, but without saffron). The Spanish in turn brought with them some Mexican influence. And then there were the Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese.

Ms. Aranas has done an excellent job of fitting these into an American kitchen. You will be hard pressed to flip through this book without finding something that you want to try.

Editorial Review:

Containing over 100 traditional and modern adaptations of Filipino recipes, this cookbook is perfect for Americans with little to no experience with Filipino cuisine, and for Filipino-Americans interested in learning new adaptations of traditional dishes. A comprehensive guide, The Filipino-American Kitchen includes a brief culinary history of the Philippines, a list of Filipino ingredients used in the recipes, and a guide to navigating Asian grocery stores. There is also a resource section for ordering ingredients online or directly from stores, followed by 10 chapters of recipes organized by course, with main courses organized by food type. Anyone interested in Filipino cooking will find this book an invaluable resource.

Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia

James Oseland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first book to reveal the undiscovered jewels of Southeast Asian cuisine.

Just when you thought you knew everything about Asian food, along comes James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor. Oseland has spent two decades exploring the foods of the Spice Islands. Few can introduce us to the birthplace of spice as he does. He brings us the Nyonya dishes of Singapore and Malaysia, the fiery specialties of West Sumatra, and the spicy-aromatic stews of Java. Oseland culled his recipes from twenty years of intimate contact with home cooks and diverse markets. He presents them here in easily made, accessible recipes, perfect for today's home cook. Included is a helpful glossary (illustrated in color in one of the picture sections) of all the ingredients you need to make the dishes and where and how to buy them. With Cradle of Flavor, fans of Javanese Satay, Singaporean Stir-Fried Noodles, and Indonesian curries can finally make them in their own kitchen. 16 pages color photographs; 3 maps.

Roy's Fish & Seafood: Recipes From The Pacific Rim

Roy Yamaguchi, John Harrisson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fusion Cooking for the Intermediate level Cook 4 out of 5 stars.
30 of 30 people found this review helpful.

I enjoy dining at Roy's Restaurants. I ate there last week on the mainland, and have preferred eating the really fresh fish more "on site" at the Kauai restaurant. My favorite fish is the opa (moonfish), followed by the butterfish dishes. Roy's fresh fish are simply cooked, with tasty sauces and beautiful simple to elegantly more complex presentations.

Unfortunately, his beautiful presentations are far more easily enjoyed in his restaurants, than attempted at home via this complex, yet (presumably) accurate cook book.

There are problems/challenges in following these recipes for a beginning or average cook, that go beyond the hours spent collecting ingredients and preparing fish, sauces and stocks needed for these recipes.

These attractive, Hawaiian inspired fusion recipes require collecting the basic ingredients, which can take :

1. A trip to one Asian grocery store to get ingredients which may include dashi, kombu seaweed, dried shrimp, bonito flakes, tobiko caviar, panko crumbs, daikon, furikake, kaffir lime leaf, red Thai curry paste, pickled pink ginger, mochiko (rice flour) ground sandalwood, lemongrass, mirin, palm sugar, bok choy etc (some grocery stores in larger cities may stock some of these ingredients).

2. A second trip to one or two conventional grocery stores in a larger city to collect the white truffle oil, fresh chervil , thyme and other herbs and spices, mango, clam juice, blue cheese, fresh cilantro, fresh shiitake mushrooms, etc.

3. A possible third trip to a top fish supplier to get truly fresh fish, if the local grocery's fish has that tell tale "fishiness" smell, indicating it has been improperly iced, or dead on ice for 5 days or more...

The 237 pages of text has less than 90 actual recipes of fish, a somewhat disappointing number, however as most cooks do not cook even 10 recipes out of a book. That's not a drawback for me. (There are other recipes in the back for various stocks, oils, and sauces). Obtaining the fish Roy uses , such as butterfish species, pacific threadfin, sickle pomfret, wahoo, gray snapper, jackfish, or the wonderful opah will be difficult if not impossible for mainlanders not living in say San Francisco or Vancouver, with access to such fresh delights, so Roy has kindly supplied substitutions, which are still not easy to get.. Still there are 5 salmon recipes, 5 dolphin fish/mahi-mahi, and fifteen tuna recipes, so you won't be disappointed-there really are ample recipes to try!

What is a disappointment and a drawback is that most of the recipes do not have the accompanying pictures of Roy's plating or presentation of that dish that one might hope for, especially after enjoying the beautiful pictures in Roy's 10 year old book, " Roy's Feasts from Hawaii ". Presentation to me is so important to serving an appetizing meal, and people buy Roy's books to hopefully duplicate or at least approach both the taste AND appearance of his dishes.

The recipes are of moderate to advanced complexity for most nonprofessional caliber cooks, and that's an intimidating problem for nearly all beginning or basic cooks, and some intermediate level cooks as well. I showed my copy of the book to three decent cooks, and each said variations of , "It's way too much work for a meal". A pepper sauce has 13 ingredients, a miso broth has over 10 ingredients, braised salmon has 25 ingredients, and even the crab cakes and sauce has 30 ingredients...not for the faint hearted! Even the "simple" recipes have 8-15 ingredients.

In fairness to Roy, if you want to cook like the big boys, you have to use their ingredients and techniques, which is far easier to do in a restaurant, with several assistants collecting ingredients and preparing sauces for you, than at home!

A good cook will know where to cut back on some ingredients, apply substitution, and make their own less complex version of some of these recipes, adjusting the taste as needed as they go along. Problem is, a beginner will not have such ability to "pull it off" with such simplification or substitutions, and will not like the resulting "unbalanced" variation.

I take off one point, in part, for the book having far less pictures of Roy's inspiring preparations than he could have provided; even one picture per 2 dishes would have been a better compromise, to keep down the cost of publication. With few pictures to begin with, having so many pictures of non-food scenes of fishing boats, sunsets, limpets, flags, buoys, fishermen, etc., alone are just not as helpful, as we are not here to admire limpets, boats, or look at pretty sunsets, we are here more likely to duplicate tasty and beautifully plated food as presented in Roy's restaurants, and these other "scenic" pictures have not been useful replacements for the food pictures at all!

The point is also taken off in part for complexity, as this is a serious drawback to most cooks wanting the challenge of trying to cook Roy's food at home.

If you are an advanced home cook, if you have hours for preparation, and if you are very creative in your "food styling" presentation; only then would this would be a 4 star cook book to consider adding to your collection!

Other books with similar beautiful and tasty Hawaiian fusion recipes, that are easier to prepare, include Sam Choy's tasty and much simpler "The Choy of Seafood", Jean-Marie Josselin's "A Taste of Hawaii", and Alan Wong's more complex "New Wave Luau".

Editorial Review:

Chef Gamaguchi explains the uses, flavours, cooking qualities, and specific varieties of 25 key types of seafood, including tuna, mahi-mahi, ehu, opah, sea bass, lobster, squid, and scallops as well as their potential substitutions. He has created incredible recipes for each variety of seafood. This collection of delicious recipes and indispensable information will inform and inspire any lover of seafood.

Philippine Recipes Made Easy

Violeta A. Noriega

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very Good Easy Filipino Food - coming from a Filipino 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I am always hesitant to believe reviews on filipino cookbooks and recipes because you never know if the person writing the review is filipino which I think alters the comments especially versus a native who grew up with the culture and the food.
I grew up with this stuff and am filipino and I just absolutely love this book! Mine is worn from being used so often. Sadly, I am 2nd generation Filipino American and like many in my generation, many traditions have fallen to the wayside. It was nice to have a book to refer to when my mom and lolas aren't available to tell me their recipe. Very very very easy to use and the recipes are delicious. I wish they had photos of each item though!

Masarap 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Since my parents moved out of state, I had to fend for myself when it comes to Filipino food. This is like Filipino Cooking for Dummies!

They really are Philippine Recipes Made Easy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The title really speaks for the book itself. This is a great cookbook with classic, homestyle Philippine recipes that you find to be tested, tried and true. Nothing fancy, no pictures or lengthy dish descriptions, just the basics and sometimes that's all you are looking for.

Sam Choy's Island Flavors

Sam Choy, U`i Goldsberry, Steven Goldsberry

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hawaiian chef Sam Choy is sassy and sweet. So are the flavors of his food. Choy's cooking is hapu, a hybrid of Polynesian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and European influences, combined in what he calls local-style cooking. In Wok-Seared Shrimp with Pepper-Papaya-Pineapple Chutney, a typical example, Choy marinates the main ingredient, then stir-fries it, and serves it with a colorful accompaniment.

Fish or seafood stars in many dishes. Choy's marinades are generally a blend of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sugar, with varying accents of scallion, sesame oil, and hot peppers. Both the preparation of ingredients and the cooking method are quick for most dishes. The accompaniment, often a salsa or chutney, is usually a toss-together of chopped fresh fruits and vegetables that can be made ahead of time.

Choy takes pride in his Hawaiian heritage. He talks about his family and local goings-on. His Catfish in Sweet and Sour Sauce supports local farming of this freshwater fish. Enticing, succulent Hibachi Pineapple Spears were invented one day at the beach to please the kids.

A fish-lovers delight, this book also offers appealing chicken recipes: Quick and Easy Shoyu Chicken, made with teriyaki sauce, will please just about everyone. Sixteen color pages help you present dishes as nicely as Choy does at his restaurants. If you can chop, stir-fry, and grill, Sam Choy's Island Cooking provides a fast, fun taste trip to the tropics. Don't miss the desserts and exotic drinks, like Lava Flow and Kona MacFreeze. --Dana Jacobi

Singaporean, Malaysian & Indonesian Cuisine

Christina Sjahir Hwang, Wei-Chuan Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Amazing Authentic Cookbook! 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Being a native Indonesian far away from home, I crave for the rich and savory flavor of the cuisine from these three countries. Unlike Thai cuisine, Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine is still not well known here in United States. Therefore there are limited restaurants that offer this cuisine. You can imagine my agony of having to suppress my craving until I make a trip to these restaurants in NYC or Toronto. It all changed after I bought this cookbook. This cookbook is amazing! It contains 68 recipes that are divided into Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian recipe sections. A one-page spread picture accompanies each recipe, which is very helpful for people who are not familiar with this cuisine. The author starts by introducing the countries and their cuisine followed by glossary of ingredients, seasonings, spices and herbs. It then continues with recipes for stocks, condiments, pickled salads, sambal chilli sauces (used like chutneys in Indian cuisine), and assorted spice pastes. These spice pastes are used in a lot of the recipes and they are what give this cuisine its fragrant, rich and savory flavors. This book offers specialties from Singapore (Hainan chicken rice, spiced sparerib soup, spring roll, laksa, spicy crabs, sweet coconut rice balls, etc), Malaysia (fried noodle, coconut rice, sate, beef curry,vegetable with grated coconut, etc) and Indonesia (beef rendang, eggs in spicy red sauce, java salad or gado gado, turmeric fried chicken, etc). I have tried more than a dozen of the recipes and they all taste fantastic! Most of all they taste authentic. They are a huge hit with my American boyfriend and roomate. There are some ingredients that are hard to find, even in Asian markets (especially in small towns). I had to shop online at an Indonesian grocery store to find most of the hard to find ingredients like candlenut, dried galangal, pandan leaves, palm sugar, kaffir leaves and shrimp paste. However, they are worth it. I use dried galangal because I don't have access to fresh ones. I substitute fresh red chilli with bottled ground chilli paste called Sambal Oelek. It works just as wonderful! I think this is the most authentic and remarkable cookbook I have. It is simple, clear, precise and a gem. I would recommend this cookbook if you want to bring authentic new flavors to your table. It helps ease my homesickness. Nowadays, I call my mom up to say "I made beef rendang today!"... something I had never said before this cookbook.

Editorial Review:

The dishes of Singapore combine spices and cuisine from all over Asia. Hainan Chicken and Rice (Nasi Ayam), Noodles in Spicy Coconut Milk Soup (Laksa Lemak), and Spiced Sparerib Soup (Bak Kut Teh) are Singapore s most popular dishes. Malaysian cuisine combines the delicacy of Chinese food with Indian spices and regional herbs; famous dishes include Penang Noodle Soup (Penang Laksa), Lacy Pancakes (Roti Jala) and Beef Sate (Sate Daging). Indonesian food is known for its unique and exceptional spicy aromas and flavoured dishes such as Sticky Yellow Rice (Nasi Kunjit) with Spicy Chicken Braised in Coconut Milk (Rendang Ayam), Batavia Beef Soup with Glass Noodles (Soto Betawi) and Balinese Fried Fish (Ikan Bumbu Bali). Rarely indeed, has a cookbook come along that combines within one cookbook cover, the tantalising cuisine from these three cultures so well.

Best of the Best from Hawaii: Selected Recipes from Hawaii's Favorite Cookbooks (Best of the Best State Cookbook)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A compilation of other cookbooks 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I have very mixed feelings about this cookbook.

I gather from the introduction that this is one of a series based on visiting different states and putting together a cookbook to "preserve their food heritage". How the authors plan on summarizing the entire culinary experience of a state with such an interesting history, mix of races, and emphasis on FOOD is answered by what you get: a compilation of other cookbooks. So on the plus side, many of their sources are really good. (The entire Honpa Hongwanji series are great and are in my mother's, grandmother's, aunt's, etc collection. They're sort of dated, but have a lot of classic everyday food.) On the negative side taking a few recipes from other recipe collections gives you very little coherence, understanding of where that recipe came from (time period or heritage), or understanding of the ingredients. Plus, the selection of these recipes are just sort of strange. Spicy Garlic Eggplant and Pork (pg 128) and Spicy Szechuan Eggplant (pg 100) are basically the same recipe with minor changes from 2 different cook books. Several recipes are for poke, but the authors don't seem to realize they're related, or, at least, don't explain what it is. I have to wonder if they actually cooked these recipes at all or just leafed through the other books.

Pictures are chosen to be more atmospheric with tourist photos of the authors, scenic places, and some line drawings (not of the food). The photos of people in "native garb" (at tourist sites) also contrast with the recipes, which are largely modern pot luck sort of food. (In particular, there's a cringe-worthy vintage photo near the front that must be just for nostalgia's sake because no one I know in Hawaii would be caught dead looking like that.)

Besides the food, there are also little tidbits of information peppered through the book that are supposed to give you an idea of island life. My question: Who exactly told the authors that curry is often served at parties? What a strange generalization. They also commit the faux-pas in the preface of calling their friend a second generation Hawaiian. Hawaiians are like American Indians; you can't call yourself one just because you've moved somewhere.

So, there are definitely some good recipes in here. It's just that you stumble upon things that are just plain wierd if you're from Hawaii.

Editorial Review:

Want to... prepare the popular Huli Huli Chicken... bake delicious Coconut Macadamia Nut Crisps... learn all about cooking Oven Kalua Pig an dall the other traditional lu'au recipes? Now you can! This cookbook will introduce you to all these wonderful native dishes, plus many more. Scattered among the recipes are fascinating facts and photos that capture Hawaii's unique history and culture.

Over 300 favorite recipes from sixty-three of Hawaii's leading cookbooks make up this extraordinary collection. These contributing cookbooks are listed in a special section along with ordering information - a treasure for anyone who collects cookbooks.

Roy's Feasts from Hawaii

Roy Yamaguchi, John Harrisson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautiful but Labor Intensive 3 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who has eaten at Roy's will undoubtedly get excited at the prospect of making something out of this book. The layout alone will be inspiring with all the beautiful pictures of Hawaii and the food itself. However, novices beware, this is not cooking 101. There is quite a bit of prep for most recipes - sauces that need to be made requiring a multitude of ingredients before you even get to the core of the recipe - resulting in hours of work. I could see this being ok in a restaurant environment where many of these things are made in advance and put together on order, but for the haole home cook it is a little much. Additionally, I have never been that happy with the results of my labor. My husband and I are fairly good cooks and always look at each other as we ponder why it is just not as good as we think it should be. Maybe it is missing the view of Molokini, I don't know.

Editorial Review:

The book features the world-famous fusion cooking of Pacific Rim pioneer Roy Yamaguchi, who blends European with Asian styles of cooking, while emphasizing seafood and fresh island ingredients.