Asian food blogs and Asian food recipe books

[Walter Sobchak]

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[Katy Lied]

If you want a behemouth book that covers every asian country, you can't go wrong with Charmaine Solomon. I have this book.

I would say that she's weakest at Japanese, Korean and Indian, (well the recipes she includes are great, there's just not a lot of recipes). This is ok with me, because a lot of these recipes are on the internet.

She is strongest at Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Burmese and Laotion and those minor countries where there aren't very many good internet sources.

Her book includes recipes from:
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore
Burma
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
Philippines
China
Korea
Japan

Besides being a good survey of regional foods, her book shows how the same ingredient is used in a variety of ways in different countries. That really helps get a flavor for the country when you learn that galangal is used say, for soups in Thailand but in desserts in Laos.

[Katy Lied]

Oh, this book reminds me of a disastrous experience I had making one of her recipes, Fried Crab in Black Bean sauce. First of all, I have no stomach for killing live animals I bring home from Ranch 99 Market. I couldn't bear the thought of plunging the crabs into boiling water, so I thought I would "lull" them to sleep by putting the bag of crabs in the freezer for an hour. Or two. (I was really young at the time) Then it would be just like the crabs were getting very sleepy and falling asleep, right?

Anyway, I found out that opening the freezer door every 5 minutes to see if they had gone to sleep yet really doesn't help if you want to freeze them to death. And when I finally dropped them into the boiling water they all woke up and started squirming madly. Which was really traumatic for me.

The second mistake I made was buying the wrong kind of crab. Instead of a soft-shell crab I bought black rock crabs which had a hard brittle shell. The instructions called for "with a heavy cleaver chop body of crab into 4 or 6 pieces, leaving legs attaced. Separate large claws from body and crack shell of claws so black bean sauce can penetrate." When I chopped up the crab, the shells splintered into a million peices, which I tried to fish out, but that night my friend kept spitting out crab shell pieces every time he took a bite. He still remembers it.

[Coach McGuirk]

My Asian Food Blog, entry number 1.

I ate chicken feet today. Not that great. In fact, if there was a "worst food you've eaten this week" thread, that would be in it.

[Surfah]

I do not have a single Asian food recipe book on my shelf. I need one. Any recommendations? Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean... it's all good.

I do follow one Asian food blog, Rasa Malaysia. Great recipes. Nice pictures. Need a few more to complement this one blog, so any Asian food blog suggestions are also welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

cheers.

Chef Jet Tila is my favorite. I really like his approach to Asian foods. I DVR his cooking show. He usually takes traditional dishes and makes them a bit healthier, but I like the way he explains the tastes and flavors.

Anyway, I have posted some stuff here I have made. I have been traveling like crazy the past month or so and will plan on adding more recipes here shortly.

Anyway, here's the show's website and a link to all of the recipes on the show:

http://www.veria.com/show/chasing-the-yum.html

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/showth...hlight=chasing

[MarkGrace]

My Asian Food Blog, entry number 1.

I ate chicken feet today. Not that great. In fact, if there was a "worst food you've eaten this week" thread, that would be in it.

Start it!

[SeattleUte]

Really good Chinese food isn't possible at home unless you have a restaurant sized and quality range. One of secrets is hot and fast cooking (or so I've heard). The one exception is steamed fish.