Full name: Balance and Harmony: Asian Food

Author: Neil Perry Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Amazon Goodreads ISBNs: 9781740459082 1740459083

I cooked a lot of Asian food before I had this book, using other cookbooks or finding information online, but this book was a total I eye opener. I generally steer clear of books written by chefs because they're often illadapted for home cooking and I don't have a sous-chef standing by for those evenings when I just want to whip up a quick dish from Heston's latest book. Although I was initially suspicious (I admittedly bought the book because it's beautiful, not on Neil's reputation), this book is refreshingly non-cheffy. While authentic ingredients are required, they're readily available at Asian grocers. (Must admit that I do live in Sydney and work near Chinatown - the proximity certainly helps) This book really helped in nailing some techniques and achieving more authentic flavour. It also totally invigorated my interest in Chinese food and re-opened my eyes to its diversity and amazing textures. It may seem a bit inane, but the dish that won me over was the recipe for fried rice (a dish I never order) which is just perfect and delicious. I love the steamed dishes and the ma po tofu is great. The only thing I found puzzling were frequent uses of "Thai yellow bean soy sauce" which I couldn't find under that description., but a query posted to NP's website revealed that light Thai soy sauce was meant. A good indicator of whether a cookbook was worth buying are the number of pages splattered during cooking, and this book has quite a few pages stuk together. I really love it!