Hilaire Walden

Presents Malaysian recipes for soups, snacks, meats, poultry, rice, vegetarian dishes, and desserts,
The delicate, subtle and varied flavors of Malaysian cooking are as exciting as the cultures that brought them together. The Indians contributed spices such as cumin, tumeric and chilies, and their art of blending spices is reflected in the many Malaysian curries. The Chinese presence--felt especially in Singapore--is evident in the use of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, spring rolls and stir-fried dishes. Indigenous Malay cooking relies on a predilection for spicy curry and chili dishes. And in The Book of Malaysian Cooking, Hilaire Walden brings all of these delicious tastes to your kitchen. Includes recipes for: spiced coconut milk soup penang noodle hot-sour soup curry puffs spring rolls with chicken and prawns tamarind and lemon grass chicken satay noodles with bean curd and vegetables spinach with hot garlic oil and sesame oil mung bean fritters coconut sambal coconut custard
Hilaire Walden is a cookbook editor and author of 37 books, including The Book of Thai Cooking and has written for many magazines and newspapers, including House and Gardens, Home and Garden, Elle, the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail. She has also had her own restaurant column, worked in radio and television, taught cooking and given demonstrations, and acted as a consultant to a number of food and drink companies.… (more)

While it does cover a nice variety of Korean recipes and includes many full-color photographs that make it an attractive cookbook, I never found myself very inspired by this cookbook. It's clearly addressed to Western cooks with little knowledge of Korean culture or cuisine, because the descriptions are very basic.

The recipes are arranged according to Western expectations, so there's no way to tell which dishes are most important or how they would normally be combined in menu or served at a meal. The illustrations are sometimes patronizing and unrelated - stock photography of people in traditional garb doing tasks only loosely related to the cookbook.

My first impression was that the recipes themselves had probably been oversimplified along with the cultural content. But after exploring other cookbooks and websites, I find that the recipes are actually more authentic than I originally guessed. The variety of dishes and simple descriptions could make this a good beginner cookbook, but I still think some broader understanding of the cuisine is essential to making the recipes make sense in meal planning.

I will probably try more of these recipes in the future as I look for simpler versions or alternatives to the traditional forms in Hoo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen, but this will never be my first choice for Korean cookbooks.… (more)