Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table
by Pham Mai, Mai Pham

List Price: $27.50
Amazon Price: $19.25
Hardcover - 256 pages (August 2001)
HarperCollins; ISBN: 0060192585 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.85 x 9.46 x 7.61

From Publishers Weekly
ham (The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking) recently began making a yearly visit to her relatives in the Mekong Delta and found treasures in the culinary heritage of her homeland. She already had plenty of experience cooking Southeast Asian food (she co-owns and cooks at the successful Lemon Grass Caf  and Restaurant in Sacramento and has taught at the Culinary Institute of America), but this was a chance to reconnect with her family. Artfully arranged with beautiful photographs, this collection of recipes is a celebration of family traditions as well as the popular national dishes of Vietnam. A list of basic pantry elements describes important tools, such as the clay pots used for making Kho (braised meats), condiments and the intricacies of rice paper, including how to make your own with an improvised fresh-rice-wrapper cooker. She also offers recipes for salads, steamed rice cakes, delicacies such as Rice Rolls with Shrimp and Wood-Ear Mushrooms and a variety of noodle dishes with fresh herbs, grilled pork, shrimp and shaved beef. In addition, the book includes many steamed, poached, simmered and grilled seafood dishes and a whole chapter of vegetarian specialties inspired by Pham's grandmother, all enlivened with the keen flavors of shrimp paste, lemongrass, fish sauce and lots of ginger and garlic. An excellent introduction to Vietnamese food for all skill levels. B&w photos and illus. (Aug.)Forecast: Vietnamese cooking is increasingly popular, with restaurants opening nationwide, and Vietnam is a tourist destination for many Americans. Author appearances in five major cities will help this book find the commercial success it deserves. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Pham, who fled Vietnam with her family in 1975, is now co chef and owner of the Lemon Grass Restaurant in Sacramento, CA. She first returned to Vietnam six years ago and has been back every year since, visiting her feisty 101-year-old grandmother and traveling throughout the country. Pham's first cookbook was The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking (1996). Here she focuses on the wonderful food sold at markets and street corner stalls in Vietnam, starting with Pho, the famous rice noodle and...

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The Foods of Vietnam
by Nicole Routhier, Martin Jacobs (Photographer)

List Price: $27.50
Amazon Price: $19.25
Paperback - 256 pages (September 1999)
Stewart Tabori & Chang; ISBN: 1556709595 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.68 x 11.05 x 8.68

Book Description
STC is reviving Nicole Routhier's award-winning classic, The Foods of Vietnam, in a paperback format, to satisfy the appetites of the broad audience that is attracted to Vietnamese cuisine.

Opening with the fascinating history of Vietnam's cuisine, Routhier then offers 150 of her favorite traditional recipes. A comprehensive glossary of ingredients, equipment, and techniques provide the background necessary to prepare these dishes. Award-winning food photographer Martin Jacobs presents stunning close-ups of fresh spring rolls, warm beef salad, and more...

Ingram
The Foods of Vietnam, the only book of its kind on Vietnamese cuisine, will be a revelation both to those familiar with Vietnamese dishes and to people discovering these delicate, fresh foods for the first time. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Lonely Planet World Food Vietnam (World Food Guides)
by Richard Sterling

List Price: $11.95
Amazon Price: $9.56
Paperback - 240 pages (March 2000)
Lonely Planet; ISBN: 186450028X ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.62 x 6.58 x 4.62

Book Description
8 Maps

The publisher, Lonely Planet Publications , April 10, 2000
Get a real taste of Vietnam with Lonely Planet
For people who live to eat, drink & travel, this culinary companion includes: -the essential guide to the culture of food & drink in Vietnam -faces of gastonomy, profiles of the ordinary people and places that make Vietnamese cuisine unique -an exploration of the regional influences that make up Vietnamese cuisine -a special chapter on the bold palate of Vietnam -the definitive culinary dictionary, a quick-reference glossary and useful phrases for every food & drink occasion...

Fine fun book, June 2, 2000
Reviewer: Jennifer Brizzi from U.S.
As a food writer planning a trip to Vietnam (for personal, not food-related reasons), I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the culture and cuisine. I may never cook any of the recipes in it, but it's helped me know what to look for when I go, and to anticipate my trip even more. I thought it was very well-written. Sterling's sense of adventure and good living are apparent in the guide in an infectious, inviting way. He is judgemental about no one but the foreign young people who go to Vietnam to eat fake burgers and wiener schnitzel instead of the light, beautiful food. And the photographs are as compelling as the writing. Buy this book!

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Cafe Vietnam (Conran Octopus 'Cafe' Cookbook Series)
by Annabel Jackson, Jeremy Hopley (Photographer)

List Price: $19.95
Amazon Price: $13.96
Paperback - 128 pages (February 1999)
NTC Publ Group; ISBN: 0809226669 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.52 x 8.46 x 8.53

Amazon.com
"In Vietnam," writes author Annabel Jackson in Café Vietnam, one more title in the Conran Café series, "you can eat on the street, and eat extremely well.... For the food on the street is the real food of the country, the food that the Vietnamese have traditionally eaten since they were children and which they steadfastly eat today." It is just these daily delicacies, defining delicacies really, that Jackson brings into the home kitchen.

Crab and Asparagus Soup, found in the "Appetizer" section, demonstrates the strains that run through Vietnamese cooking. The structure is Chinese, the asparagus an introduction of the French, and the results decidedly Vietnamese. In the case of this soup, each ingredient is given room to speak its mind: the chicken stock, the Chinese mushrooms, the crabmeat, the hardboiled quail eggs. The only spice is black pepper, the only garnish a sprinkling of chopped cilantro.

This appetizer is followed by Hue Rice Rolls in Banana Leaf (tinfoil works, too), or Steamed Rice-Paper Rolls, which are stuffed with a ground pork forcemeat. Of course, there are Spring Rolls, but these are made with crab meat and shrimp as well as pork. The recipe for Sautéed Clams (you use shucked meats) with Toasted Sesame Rice Crackers looks particularly interesting.

You may want to turn right to the Hanoi-Style Fried Fish, "a legendary dish so loved that Cha Ca La Vong, the most famous restaurant in Hanoi serving it, even had a street named after it." Marinated fish is fried with turmeric and ginger, then just before the fish is done, you add dill, scallions, and peanuts. It's served on rice vermicelli with fresh basil and a dipping sauce. Yum. There are claypot recipes for chicken and beef, recipes for stuffed squid, and both beef and chicken pho, the fabulous brothy noodle soup of Vietnam. And curries, too. Again, while the ingredients and the cooking technique might point to other lands and other culinary cultures, the results are strictly Vietnamese.

Café Vietnam is a gentle, slim treasure trove of recipes that will take the reader to the heart of Vietnamese cooking. It's like getting to know another culture by discovering which flavors a culture finds most familiar and comforting. Let Annabel Jackson be your guide. But read these recipes carefully; they seem short and simple, but you really need to know where you are stepping ahead of time. --Schuyler Ingle

Ingram
This cookbook offers 75 recipes and teaches the techniques of Vietnamese cooking using the modern alternatives to traditional utensils. Color photos.

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Authentic Vietnamese Cooking : Food from a Family Table
by Corinne Trang, Christopher Hirsheimer (Photographer), Martin Yan

List Price: $30.00
Amazon Price: $21.00
Hardcover - 255 pages (December 1999)
Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0684864444 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.79 x 9.57 x 7.71

Amazon.com
Authentic Vietnamese Cooking offers remarkable insight into the history and details of this seemingly simple yet enchantingly sophisticated cuisine. Author Corinne Trang shares the story of her family, starting with her grandparents, who emigrated from Hunan, China, to Cambodia and then to Vietnam. Eventually, Trang herself made homes in Paris and New York, as well as Asia. The resulting blending of cultures and culinary traditions in her family is a common experience for Southeast Asians who, over the centuries, have had to flee from one place to the next to survive despotism, hunger, and war.

Trang clarifies the distinctions between dishes from the three regions of Vietnam. There is the Simple North, where stir-fries are common and the seven-course beef meal, Bo By Mon, originated. The Sophisticated Center features Chao Tom, shrimp paste grilled on lengths of sugar cane created to please the wealthy families of Hue. In the Spicy South, sea trade with India, plus Cambodian influences, led to the development of aromatic, golden curries. Today, the Vietnamese serve them with Banh Mi, the light, crusty Saigon baguette made with rice and wheat flour.

In addition to the four groups of condiments essential to Vietnamese cooking (sweet, pungent Nuoc Cham, vinegared vegetables, sate, and table salad), Trang gives recipes for rice-paper-wrapped Summer Rolls, filled with rice noodles, pork, and shrimp, and Mint Rice with Shredded Chicken. Requiring only rice, chicken stock, shallots, fresh mint, and cooked chicken, it has the clean and layered flavors typical of Vietnamese food. Western sensibilities may recoil at Trang's brief, honest discussion of the exotic meats served in Vietnam, including dog, snake, and monkey, served mostly to demonstrate machismo or status (no recipes are given). Christopher Hirsheimer's artistic black-and-white photos enhance the poetic simplicity of Trang's deeply involving text. --Dana Jacobi

From Booklist
Vietnamese cooking profits from many salutary influences. In addition to its native Southeast Asian heritage, it has borrowed from the world's two greatest culinary traditions, Chinese and French, whose armies have successively occupied its territory. Trang herself reflects Vietnam's multiple cultures: her maternal ancestry from France's Loire Valley and her father's from admixtures of Chinese and Cambodian. Trang locates three distinct regions in Vietnamese cuisine: simple, hearty cooking from...

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