A guest food review from our friend & food writer, Faith Kramer (http://www.clickblogappetit.com/). 

Need a taste of the world while staying at home? Consider trying a new cuisine or recreating restaurant favorites with a new cookbook thanks to A Great Good Place for Books.

Like most of us, I’m cooking from my pantry and freezer and whatever is on my local supermarket shelves or can be delivered to my home. I definitely not going from store to store looking for specialty items. Fortunately, Andrea Nguyen has our backs. Her Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Fresh Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors (Ten Speed Press) (https://bit.ly/VFADggp) adapts classic and Vietnamese-inspired recipes for American kitchens and grocery store ingredients.

 Bo Kho (Beef Stew) prepared by Faith Kramer

The book features 80 vegetarian, meat, fish, and chicken-based recipes from basics to snacks, soups, salads, main courses, side dishes and dessert. Whether you make her shaking beef or tofu, smoked turkey pho, beef stew (bo kho), coconut-kissed chicken and chile in caramel sauce, sandwiches or salad rolls, the results are delicious, the recipes streamlined and the suggestions, advice and explanations timely and helpful even for a Vietnamese food novice.

 Coconut-Kissed Chicken & Chili prepared by Faith Kramer

Nguyen, the author of several other Vietnamese cookbooks, knows both the authentic versions of the classic dishes and the workarounds her refugee mother had to create from the supermarkets in her new country. She continues this evolution in her cookbooks where writing for a broader audience meant sourcing more ingredients in America’s supermarkets.  The recipes, which she calls “streamlined, not dumbed down” use ingredients found at most “mainstream market chains” and don’t use special pots or utensils.  (Some recipes do have a pressure cooker option.)

The book offers a section on ingredients and recommended brands and suggests substitutes and gives recipes for basics.  All throughout she gives comprehensive instruction on how to get flavor-packed results the first time with detailed explanations, photographs and hands-on advice.

About Faith Kramer:

Faith Kramer is an Oakland resident and a longtime GGPB customer. She writes a twice-a-month food and recipe column for www.jweekly.com. She also blogs her food at www.clickblogappetit.com.  Her first cookbook is due out in 2021. Send questions and comments to her at clickblogappetit@gmail.com.