V Street: 100 Globe-Hopping Plates on the Cutting Edge of Vegetable Cooking by Rich Landau

V Street: 100 Globe-Hopping Plates on the Cutting Edge of Vegetable Cooking Reviews

• 
  Geoff

  Okay ya jerks, here I am again, telling you to go cook a goddamn meal for yourself once in awhile. Why wouldn't you? What the hell else are you doing with your time? Hate-watching the Bachelorette? Googling "Trump Even Have First Grade Reading Level?" Diddling yourself in the shower while your significant other makes shitty comments on YouTube unboxing videos? Doing one of those "adult coloring books"? For god's sake, and I'm talking to you specifically America in the Age of Trump - learn to cook a goddamn meal! And not spaghetti and fucking red sauce! The world is large and abundant and full of ridiculously amazing flavors, and how to cook them is now at your fingertips more readily than ever, what with the interwebs, and slightly less post-WWII "everything must be meat smothered in mushroom cream sauce, and preferably canned" nationalism dictating the parameters of our cuisine... so partake!
  
  Anyhoo lately my favorite flavors have been the kind of savory sour/sweet hot heat and funk that come with Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and sometimes more outre Indian food, as well as that similarly hot/sour savory thing happening in Northern African countries. (I'm kind of obsessed with Harissa as well as Sambal Oelek at the moment.) And the significant other is a vegetarian, so I'm almost always cooking stuff with tofu, seitan, tempeh, and beans, lentils, etc. So this book is another godsend for folks like me. Dishes inspired by street foods from Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Haven't even made a majority of the dishes in this book yet by far, but the ones I have made already convinced me that Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are totally badass, brilliant chefs. Already dug into the Potato Pakora with tamarind sauce, Scallion Pancakes with ponzu, Malaysian cauliflower salad, sundubu-jjigae, Dan-Dan noodles, and Szechuan soft pretzels. All killer, all entering the permanent rotation. Next up? Trumpet mushroom shawarma! (Also, a trip up to Philly to eat at Vedge in person...)
  
  Eat interesting food, you morons! It isn't even hard to do anymore!
  
  Merci, bonsoir.
  
  
• 
  Ietrio

  A cook book that might have been nice. But it is so trendy, it loses most of its charm. A Hungarian street dish made with "Montreal steak seasoning", "sherry vinegar" and the traditional Dijon mustard. Yea, right.
• 
  Ashley Chew

  So I’m redoing my review on this book. I loved Vstreet when it was open. It was one of my favorite restaurants. And this book is good IF you have a lot of time. There are a lot of recipes with in recipes which I don’t love. For example I am going to be making the Singapore noodles this week. For this you need to make the recipe for Singapore sauce, to make the Singapore sauce you need to make the pho broth, and to make the pho broth you need the shiitake dashi. AND you need to make the char siu tempeh. So you are having to go to 5 different recipes in the book to make one dish. It can be rather tiresome and annoying.
• 
  Gwen

  Food that I would 100% order at their restaurant and be happy to pay whatever they charge for the impressive amount of work that goes into each dish. But as a home cook, most of these dishes are beyond my desire to make myself. (And a fair amount of frying, which I tend not to do at home.)
  Delicious sounding with a variety of tasty ingredients, but more work than I would personally feel ready to take on, even for a special occasion.
  
  I bookmarked the "Trumpet Mushroom Shwarma," which looked to be a flavor-packed, fairly easy, weeknight dinner dish with a good balance of protein, veggies, fat, and carbs.
• 
  Katharine

  I would LOVE to try this restaurant if I am ever in Philly but sad to say the ingredient list for each recipe is enough to put me off making my own. 13+ ingredients and/or 3 different cooking methods to make a simple carrot or cauliflower dish is enough to make me open a vein can. If you don't live in a large enough centre or city the ingredient list will also be a challenge. Everything looks so tasty but I wilt at the idea of a day in the kitchen.
• 
  Maya

  I bought this one because I heard an interview with the authors on the radio and when I realized that they wrote Vedge, one of my favorite cookbooks (based on their sit down restaurant), I knew I needed to get this one too. This one is based on street food and more of a straight cookbook. I appreciated how the recipes were more accessible for everyday cooking, but I also found it not quite as interesting to read as a resource aside. Most people probably don't mind that, but I enjoy the new style of cookbooks that area also full of chef commentary and observations. Definitely a must for any vegan cook.
• 
  Sophia

  I read this as the hard copy, even though this says the eBook. So many awesome and delicious international recipes, I've tried a few, been to the restaurant, and can't wait to try more. The book also has a very helpful shopping list, is beautifully designed, and the instructions are easy to follow. Highly recommend!
• 
  Martina

  I may never travel to the far reaches of the earth, but this book is the next best thing. It opens new possibilities of culinary delights, spices and traditions the world has to offer. "Eat your vegetables" has never been such a thrill ride and adventure!
• 
  Ambur Taft

  Not a cookbook I would cook from but a great story on the couple that wrote it and the restaurants they run. More of a motivation to visit Vedge & V Street if I am ever in Philadelphia....or to try some of the amazing dishes if I am ever in India or Asia.