The Noodle Shop Cookbook - Hardcover

Passmore, Jacki

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0025947052 ISBN 13: 9780025947054

Publisher: Wiley, 1994

Synopsis

When Americans think of noodles, it's not just about Italy anymore -- with Asian noodle shops more popular than ever,The Noodle Shop Cookbook makes it easy to enjoy the wide variety of Asian noodle dishes. Introductory chapters cover all the basics: tips for buying and cooking, the types of noodles available like soba, somen, or udon, recipes for numerous stocks and noodle broths, and instructions on how to prepare homemade noodles. There's even a chapter of recipes for vegetarian dishes and a special chapter featuring the author's own personal creations. Here cooks will find delicious Chiu Cou Noodles in Sesame Sauce, Spicy Singapore Noodles, Teriyaki Soba, and Chicken Noodles in Coconut Soup. The Noodle Shop Cookbook makes this dietary mainstay of Asia easy, delicious and fun to eat.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Passmore (Asia the Beautiful Cookbook, not reviewed) was inspired to put together this group of Asian noodle recipes when she left Hong Kong and experienced ``noodle withdrawal,'' and she has done a bang-up job of collecting and replicating dishes. In fact, this book's only major flaw is that the recipes are a little too authentic for Western taste buds. Perhaps that's why the final chapter, containing Passmore's own vigorous innovations, like cold sesame noodles with grilled eggplant and squash, is so pleasing. Descriptions of unfamiliar products like dried rice sticks and bean-thread vermicelli are helpful, and margin notes are innovative and fun, covering everything from creating scallion-curl garnishes to noodle-slurping and how to avoid it. Sometimes, however, cross- referencing is out of whack. A note on how to fry tofu is mentioned in one recipe where fried cubes are called for, but other recipes command the reader to fry without explaining how. Not all of these recipes are foolproof, either. Three of the ingredients in a recipe for spicy Chinese bean threads are listed separately as seasonings but must be added along with the other ingredients, a move that is sure to cause confusion in the middle of a stir-frying frenzy. And in a cookbook calling not only for exotic noodles but also for hard-to-find items like kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce) and lap cheong (Chinese pork sausages), it's thoughtless not to include a list of mail-order sources. Far above Spaghetti-Os but not quite up to Tampopo standards on the noodle achievement scale. (14 illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Passmore (Asia the Beautiful Cookbook) has got a good idea: to tap the popularity of Asian noodle shops and bring those bottomless meal-in-a-bowls into American kitchens. She explains how to make the noodles themselves (with a pasta machine, or by hand), then moves on to consider stocks and specialties country by country. A glossary smoothes the way for the uncertain, and Passmore also offers general preparation instructions (e.g., on how to store noodles). Sidebars adjacent to recipes give additional background, tell stories and pay homage to the quirks of exotic ingredients. Some of the noodle dishes are vegetarian, but not all; some are spicy, others mild; some served hot, and others chilled. In addition to suggesting regional and authentic mainstays, the writer offers her own experiments in a concluding chapter, "Noodles My Way," that mixes different ethnic ingredients in a multicultural celebration. So many cookbooks repeat each other that it's especially refreshing to find one like this that makes headway with a genre that is healthful, varied, toothsome and contemporary.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0025947052
• ISBN 13: 9780025947054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 246