The Asian Grocery Store Demystified: A Food Lover's Guide to All the Best Ingredients

This small paperback not only demystifies the Asian grocery, but also the Asian recipe and menu. I was able to quickly look up items that I couldn't spell but had long been curious about because the book is organized by the sections in the grocery. After quenching my initial curiosities, I had to sit down and read the interesting book cover to cover. Each ingredient is discussed as to appearance, taste, texture, uses, history and quality with references to preferred brands or possible substitutes. There are a few basic recipes included to try right away, but this book best serves as a supplement to other Asian and vegetarian cookbooks and in preparation for shopping or dining. My only disappointment was not finding the recipe for Sweet Thai Tea listed in the index but omitted from the content.

Asian food tastes good, that part is not so mysterious. As a lifelong lover of the gifts of the Oriental cornucopia, and as an occasional, bewildered visitor to Oriental markets, I have found a trustworthy guide to calm my fears and open my eyes to the logical patterns extent in Asian groceriesÉ. Sort of like seeing the tree in the structure of its leaf. BladholmÕs handy, compact guide is jam packed with a veritable taxonomy of Asian foodstuffs. After several trips, guidebook in tow, I now know my way around the numerous varieties of noodles, rice, veggies, spices, condiments, and sweets. My taste buds require fire and ice, and the yin yang organization of a typical Asian grocery that Bladholm so clearly and deftly describes, complete with charming, lovingly done, little word sketches drawn from her extensive Asian travels, as well as her uncannily accurate, line drawings helps to make a trip to the Asian grocery store as easy as apple pie and ice cream, just substitute the apples with pomegranates and the pie with soy bean paste confections that boggle the palette as well as the eye. Hers is a great book, it does what it title claims. It is a totally demystifying experience!

The author does a great job of shedding some light on some of the lesser known cuisines of Asia--such as Korea and Cambodia. That is not to say that the more familiar cuisines of China and Japan are not covered. She explains many of the more esoteric ingredients and herbs of those countries as well. A really useful book for both the beginner, interested in expanding their culinary horizons, and the more advanced who don't have the ability to read asian languages--I've cooked Asian foods for many years, and still find myself stumped with trying to figure out what the heck to do with an ingredient. I usually ask someone, but I now have a resource to turn to, to supplement my information. Also, a plus is the size of the book--it will neatly fit into one's back pocket or purse. Well done!

BOOK PROVIDES A COOK'S TOUR OF ASIAN MARKETS"The mysterious Orient" is just another cliché until you walk into an Asian grocery store for the first time. Red yeast rice, black Thai sticky rice; gyoza wrappers, lumpia wrappers; nam pla, nam prik-the array of unfamiliar products, some labeled in unfamiliar languages, can be downright intimidating. Happily, Linda Bladholm is here to explain it all to us. The Miami Beach writer is the author of The Asian Grocery Store Demystified, a pocketbook-size take-along guide. After giving us an overview of a typical Asian market, she takes up and down the aisles in 20 chapters arranged by food group, from that staff of Asian life, rice, to "Exotic Items for the Cultivated Palate" (fish lips, anyone?). Each chapter contains succinct descriptions of dozens of products, including cooking tips and brand recommendations, sometimes illustrated by Bladholm's pen-and-ink sketches. (Red yeast rice, by the way, is similar to brown rice and is considered poor man's fare in Asia; black Thai sticky rice is chewy and earthy-tasting; gyoza wrappers are crepe-like skins used for deep-fried Filipino banana rolls; nam pla is Thai fish sauce and nam prik is Thai chili paste.) The 234 page soft-cover book concludes with primers on Asian cooking utensils and techniques plus about 30 recipes Bladholm collected during 10 years of living in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan and traveling throughout Asia.

LOS ANGELES TIMES Cookbook Watch by Russ Parsons. It's happened to all of us: Inspired by a particularly good cookbook or restaurant meal, we head for an ethnic market, vowing that we will learn just what it is that makes this food so wonderful. Then when we get there, we can only stand there, transfixed by a bewildering variety of ingredients we've never seen. If it's Asian cooking you want to explore, you're in luck, though. "The Asian Grocery Store Demystified," by Linda Bladholm (Renaissance Books, $14.95), walks you through the market - both fresh ingredients and prepared- and explains what each item is, and then tells you what to look for or recommends the best brands. Bladholm, a well-traveled frequent contributor to Singapore and Asia Pacific magazines, covers a broad territory-everywhere from Japan and the Philippines to Southeast Asia. It's all packaged in a convenient paperback that will neatly fit in a hip pocket or purse. Just where you want it the next time good intentions strike.