Danny Bowien

This is an Asian food (I’d say primarily Korean food) cookbook and some of the recipes are based on the menus of the San Francisco and NYC restaurants. The author wrote another book I think specifically from the restaurant menus called The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook. The author is co-founder and chef at the Mission Chinese Food restaurants. The restaurants aren’t vegan but apparently many of the menu items are vegan. He calls them “secretly vegan” because apparently the diners didn’t notice that they were. This cookbook features a lot of recipes based on the cuisines of Korea, Vietnam, China, etc. and there is one from Israel. I am not sure how that one fits but it looks good, and one that seems Italian to me. The recipes seem mostly similar but have some diversity.

I love the personal stories in the Foreword and the Introduction and on most of the recipes pages. They make the book interesting and fun to read. There were few recipes that greatly appealed to me (but know that I am a picky eater and that I think most of these recipes will greatly appeal to most people.) I did get some ideas on what more to do with mushrooms, tofu, and kabocha which is my favorite squash. Funnily enough the only recipe I’d make exactly as written is the multigrain rice. My favorite recipe seemed Italian to me. I’ll used less salt and whole wheat or other whole grain pasta but I will try this book’s recipe for Pasta Pomodoro.

Chinese and most Asian foods are foods that I like but rarely make at home and if dining out I prefer 100% or at least 95% vegan places.

For these recipes it would be helpful to have access to an Asian or specialty food market but many of the recipes seem to call for a reasonable number of ingredients. They’re not overly complicated. Some have esoteric ingredients though that I don’t tend to see in cookbooks. Dried hibiscus flowers is just one example in one recipe. I don’t like vinegar so I know I wouldn’t enjoy many of the recipes as printed though to my surprise there were some dishes I would expect to always find vinegar but there was none. There were too many savory dishes with sweeteners which is something I usually don’t enjoy.

This book:

Contents:

Foreword
Introduction

Kimchi
Pickles
Other Sides
Vegetables
Stews and Soups
Noodles and Dumplings
Rice
Sweet Treats
Sauces and Seasonings

Ingredients

Acknowledgments
Index

The book is full of photos of the completed dishes and there are some process photos too. They’re vibrant and colorful and do justice to the food. There are also various photos of the author in different settings. The photos are wonderful.

5 stars for the personal stories and the photos. This is not really a cookbook for me personally though. Most of the recipes are only 1 or 2 stars for MY taste. For how good they are I have to assume most deserve a high star rating. Because of the personal stories and great presentation, I have to give the book 3 stars. Rounded up from 2-1/2 because the food just isn’t for me. When I saw the book’s title in the library my thought went to Mexican or California cuisine. I should have looked at it more carefully. It’s a beautiful book though and for many cooks, eaters and readers it will be their cup of tea. I do recommend it for those people.… (mehr)