Lonely Planet World Food Vietnam

by Richard Sterling and Tinh My Hoang

Book Overview

The texts in this series offer recipes, cuisine highlights maps, and regional and city maps. As well as containing explorations of regional influences and traditional cooking they provide guides to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 186450028X
• ISBN13: 9781864500288
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.6" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Good Supplement

As one who uses the cuisine as a guide for their travelling, this is a must. Markets tend to be one of the more immersive activities tourists can experience, this book gives explanation of which markets in which cities, on which days can be found. Certainly worth buying in addition to the main Lonley Planet book. One could also find good advice of 'foodie' blogs in and around Hanoi / Saigon. This particular version (Vietnam) gives a full pardon to establishing dietary restrictions in terms of unwashed vegetables and overall quality of meat. Not sure if this is correct, but then again I've never been there. Would be skeptical that this is indeed the case, but a paranoid Westerner I might be.

Essential Culinary Roadmap to Vietnam Even for the Non-Traveler

Any traveler worth his or her salt knows the best and easiest way to get to the heart of a country is to experience firsthand the culinary delights that country has to offer. Lonely Planet has figured this out by publishing a series of fine, pocket-sized books under their "World Food" series, and the Vietnam tome is one of their best thanks to the zeal of the author, Berkeley-based food adventurer Richard Sterling. This book was an invaluable guide for me when I visited that epicurean paradise five years ago as he covers the vast landscape of food and drink there. Sterling moves fluidly from the culture and history of Vietnamese cuisine through the staples and specialties you would find in a Vietnamese kitchen to the nuances of regional fare, whether it's the heavy influence of Chinese cuisine in the North or the use of exotic tropical fruit in Southern dishes. I particularly like the sections that focus on celebrating with food, the delicacies you find in street kiosks and the chapter on the bold palate, which includes dishes that use toads, cobras, rodents and of course, dogs. Obviously not all the food is meant to be savored by everyone, but this provides a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to the variety of tastes and sensations to be experienced including a definitive culinary dictionary, a quick-reference glossary and useful phrases when you order food and drink there. Sterling includes recipes, city maps highlighting his favorite eateries, and the "Faces of Gastronomy", which highlights local chefs and food experts. In fact, when I visited Hoi An, I visited one of them based on the author's recommendation, Miss Vy, who owns the Mermaid Restaurant. I took one of her four-hour cooking classes and was able to discover for myself many of the epicurean joys found in the pages of this helpful book. If Sterling's knowledgeable prose is not enough, the wonderful photographs should convince you. Regardless of whatever guidebook you purchase for more general information, no trip to Vietnam should be without this one. Armchair travelers will rejoice as well.

Fine fun book

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!

A good companion piece - but not a cookbook on its own

The book is well put together but it is a more chatty version of a food guide. In its tone and topic it humanizes the Vietnamese via the vehicle of food removing stereotypes. It covers topics that other Vietnamese cookbooks do not cover very much such as, etiquette and placement of items in a greater meal context. Which for the traveler and non traveler is a very good thing.However it is NOT a cookbook though it has some recipes. It's main focus is to enable you, the traveler, to experience Vietnamese food on location. Which this book does very well.I found things somewhat factually wrong - the dog meat section. Though it tries to make you feel better about eating dog meat by saying that the dogs' lives are happy until their quick death -- certain instances of this are not true. Look up Temple's book on modern Vietnam _Shadows and Wind_ in describing how the dogs were beaten to death for tenderizing purposes to celebrate a New Year meal. This method may disturb some people but the ancient Romans practiced similiar methods (see Plutarch's essay on vegetarianism). Anyway, it is a flaw of fact.This book proves to be a wonderful companion to other books such as, Trang's _Authentic Vietnamese_. It provides, in its small pages,information on modern food, history, and background information on Vietnam in a compact way that is well written and succinct. The photographs and layout are very well done creating a very pretty book. In conjunction with _Lonely Planet Vietnam_ it is indispensable. For the cookbook enthusiast it is a good item for a collection emphasizing southeast Asian cuisine. It is a good source for background information and gives a more modern slant on things. It is a companion piece but not the main stay of a Vietnamese cookbook collection which it was never intended.A good book and MUCH better than the Food of _insert cuisine here_ Periplus series. 1) compact and succint; 2) highly informative; 3) maps and amusing anectdotes; 4) good layout and design; 5) few recipes but recipes are very sound;

Excellent information

Vietnam is an extremely food conscious culture. You should definately read this book before you go or just for all the information included. The etiquette pointers are great, but luckily the Vietnamese are a pretty laid back people and don't expect you to know all of their customs. I would trust the rest of the series based on this book.