Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors by Andrea Nguyen

Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors Reviews

• 
  Trish W.

  This is a great book for the interested and aspiring cook to begin investigating Viet cuisine. Nguyen does a very good job using simple language to explain the traditions, methods, and ingredients used in the vibrant food of this culture. She started this book by visiting chain supermarkets in various cities to see exactly what was available to the average home cook. She then devised very reasonable alternatives to traditional ingredients that would be difficult or impossible to find without access to a decent Asian grocer. One can buy spices and condiments on the internet, but sourcing fresh produce is a different story.
  
  I have decades of cooking under my belt (so to speak, ha!) and have always been very thankful to have been born and raised in the South, where food is a big part of who we are and has been influenced for 200 yrs by many cultures known for their cuisine. This includes the wonderful Viet people, many of whom settled in my city back in the 1970's. Because of this we're blessed with several Asian grocery stores so I can also indulge my own Chinese heritage. I'm what a lot of folks would call a cookbook nerd and actually read cookbooks from cover to cover like novels ;-) I'm looking forward to trying several of Andrea Nguyen's interesting recipes and expanding my culinary horizons - probably along with my aforementioned belt :-)
• 
  Miss Clark

  3.5 stars
  
  A good introduction and overview of Vietnamese cooking with lots of practical tips and recommendations for products to use to achieve authentic taste and flavors.
  
  The chief drawback was a lack of photographs. (Only one of every three or so has one.)
  
  My personal favorite:
  
  Beef Stew with Star Anise and Lemongras
  No-Churn Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream
  Perfect Rice
  
• 
  Gini

  Not much originality here. Guess I was expecting simple but authentic recipes. Or something. Not cobbled, Americanized stuff. Oh well.
• 
  Georgia

  i'm not one to review cookbooks on here, but i love this cookbook! really delicious recipes, beautiful job of framing why and how andrea nguyen found the best ingredient substitutes for things not easily found outside of asian markets, and some super helpful tips. this is such a pleasure for me to flip through, i have seriously been talking this book up a storm to my friends.
• 
  Reading Fool

  I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
  
  This cookbook was well thought-out, making it simple for the novice cook to explore Vietnamese cuisine. I appreciated the introductory pages in which Nguyen explains Asian ingredients - noodles, spices, vegetables, etc. Trying something new (and shopping for it) can sometimes be overwhelming!
  I have tried a few recipes: Shrimp in Coconut Caramel Sauce, Shaking Beef, and Versatile Vegetable Soup. All were delicious and my family really enjoyed it. The instructions were easy to understand and I felt really comfortable and confident while cooking. The photos in the book are lovely and I wish there were more.
  The next thing I'm going to make is Vietnamese coffee. Can't wait.
  I need to check out earlier cookbooks by Andrea Nguyen.
• 
  Emily Joyce

  I really loved this cookbook. You won’t find restaurant food like pho and banh mi - the author has other books for these! More home recipes focusing on Vietnamese flavors and techniques, which were seamless to add into my kitchen.
• 
  Rebecca

  Pictures of recipes? Most have pictures.
  Commentary on recipes? Yes.
  Nutrition facts? No
  Recipe Style? Vietnamese cooking.
  Any keepers? A couple.
  
  I'm not sold on the simplicity of some of these recipes, but many looked really good. Not a good choice for those shy of long ingredient lists.
• 
  Catherine Woodman

  The pandemic has been a cooking bonanza for us. We had joined a Food 52 cookbook group last fall, and never really got deeply into it, but once we were on lock down at home, it unleashed us to try tons of new things. In April it was hard to get anything, but now we are able to get quite a few things and it seems more important than ever to support our local Asian grocery, which we have shopped at for over 20 years, and has really had a good supply of things even when the grocery store has run low. This month is Vietnamese food,cooking from this magnifiscent new cookbook from Andrea Nguyen.
  
  We have two of her other three or so cookbooks, and have made a few things out of the Bahn Mi cookbook, including the rolls, but not much. This book is packed with recipes that have two goals. One is that you find the ingredients in a regular grocery store (we are skipping that step) and two is that they are pared down so that they can be made easily on a weeknight. So far we have made about 20 dishes from this, and have another 15 to 20 that we plan to make--even putting unusual ingredients on our shopping list in order to make them. Everything has been out of this world delicious and flavor packed, and best of all we have gotten well into the habit of making things that were long forgotten, like just how easy it is to make rice paper spring rolls and how delicious the flavor combination of lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar are. This is a book to buy, you will not be sorry. Read the introduction if you are new to Asian cooking, and you will be well equipped to make spectacular meals.
• 
  Shay

  This book is a very good introduction to Vietnamese cooking, and I feel that I really do have to praise it for its accessibility to those of us new to the genre.
  
  Growing up in rural Texas I didn't get a whole lot of opportunity to try Vietnamese food, much less anyone to teach me how to make it. I've bought other cookbooks for various Asian cuisines that I found really weren't friendly to beginners. This cookbook, however, has a ton of fast and easy recipes that even people who are new to the flavor profiles being used can feel confident. I also really appreciate all of the advice about ingredients.
  
  I've been on a ketogenic diet for years, and I've been trying to branch out my toolkit of flavor profiles. This cookbook is not a low carb cookbook, but with simple sweetener swaps (and omitting rice, obviously) a lot of these recipes can very easily become low carb.
  
  My one piece of criticism, and what dropped this book from 5 stars down to 4, is that I really wanted pictures of each dish. I found myself googling the dish names to see if I could see what it was supposed to look like.
• 
  Fen Koeswanto (GigglesAndJoyRead)

  I picked up this cookbook because of the title: VIETNAMESE FOOD ANY DAY. I figure the dishes would be easy enough to create. And I was not wrong. There are some recipes that easy enough to make for beginners, and some are challenging enough to advance home-cooks. Instructions are well-written and ingredients are easy to find in your local grocery's Asian isle. For those who are not a big fan of meat, there are many vegetarian options that you can try.
  
  Recipes that I tried and enjoyed: Spicy Sweet Pomegranate Tofu, Beef with star anise and lemongrass, Crispy Caramelized Pork Crumbles, Rice Noodle Salad, Eggplant with Smoky Green Onion Oil, Roasted Cauliflower Wing.
  
• 
  Connie

  This isn’t a how to make authentic Vietnamese cookbook. However, it is a really good book if you want Vietnamese flavors with what you can actually get at a local grocery store. My family has enjoyed a lot of the recipes and I haven’t come across recipes where I have to special order ingredients or am unable to acquire them. So a win. I have attended cooking classes in Vietnam and know without their local ingredients making it authentically is near impossible in the US.
• 
  Beka

  Nice recipes and, for the most part, more accessible ingredient lists.
• 
  Juli Anna

  Another fantastically modern look at something we often think of as a "traditional" cuisine. I am seriously excited to try these recipes; the soup chapter in particular shines.
• 
  Sandy

  Yummy! Simple recipes and beautiful pictures.
• 
  Kelly

  Good mix of vietnamese recipes. Not enough photos.
• 
  LemontreeLime

  I love this cookbook.
• 
  Mairzi

  Well written recipes, beautiful illustrations and an nice introduction to Vietnamese cooking. I enjoyed the stories behind the recipes including with most of the entries.
• 
  Liz

  This cookbook was fine for basic recipes, but nothing really excited me and, ultimately, I don't see myself craving anything I tried.