The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam

My mother bought this book as a first edition and cooked from it when I was a child so I am somewhat biased towards it. page 110 is favourite.. stir fried beef with french fries was one of my favourite one dish meals as a kid, and brings back lots of memories. Compared to Nicole Routhiers book which is all flashy, this book is a lot more about home cooking (the food styling in the pictures is non existant.. which is cool and refreshing if a bit dated) it also has recipes for things like vietnamese pâtés, something rarely included nowdays because it is widely available in vietnamese stores ( not true when the book was written in the 70's). Some recipes need a bit of ajusting, but all in all this book is a real asset.. I still have my mum's original copy.. I had it rebound and recovered and I still cook from it.

This book contained some of the tastiest dishes I ever prepared. It has many good recipes with easy to found ingredients (such as chicken and ginger). Preparations are easy and fast (under 30 minutes).

I am Vietnamese and have grown up in a home with authentic Vietnamese cooking. Most all of the recipes in this book are great and easy to follow. My only recommendation would be to add pictures. But it is a great book nonetheless. I especially like how it contains the Vietnamese name of each dish so I can better identify it (since I only know what the dishes are called in Vietnamese).