wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (03/12/84)
This is an interesting book for those who want to try a wide range of vegetables: THE UNABRIDGED VEGETABLE COOKBOOK, by Nika Hazelton (1976, M. Evans & Co., price unknown). It is in an alphabetic arrangement, listing various common and rarely-encountered vegetables, with a number of recipes for each. (It is not specifically vegetarian, so there might be meat or meat products in the ingredients [broth, etc.].) (Nika Hazelton cookbooks are showing up on discount tables like mad, for some reason -- I must have bought 4 different ones last year!) I posted info on the following two cookbooks in another submission to net.cooks, but I include them here, as many vegetarians specialize in oriental-style cookery. They both have meat recipes, but they are worthwhile enough to look at or buy even if you ignore the meat portions, or creatively work around them with alternate ingredients: One of the best Chinese cookbooks I've found is CHINESE TECHNIQUE by Ken Hom with Harvey Steiman. This is more of a "how-to" guide than a simple cookbook. It's a large-format hardback with many B&W pictures of products, materials, and methods of preparation. It begins with an illustrated encyclopedia of oriental ingredients and utensils, with specific recommendations for those the author considers best, and how to use them in cooking. Then it takes several basic areas and runs through some recipes in each, with an illustrated guide to preparation. With this and a little imagination and/or another standard Oriental cookbook or two, you can master the techniques and expand on the given examples to create an infinite variety of dishes. Highly recommended not only by me, but by several friends of mine who are interested in the topic, to whom I have shown it or given copies. Simon & Schuster, 1981, cover price $16.95 -- the nice thing is that I found a number of copies in a local department store (St. Louis -- Famous-Barr) on the reduced-price table for $6.00 each. (That was a year ago, sorry...) My vegetarian friend said that this was "the best" oriental cookbook he had ever seen, so I thought it was worth mentioning here. Another find on the discount table (this one was $1.99!) but which may be hard to find, published by a small press (Strawberry Hill Press, 1980 -- original price unknown): A SURTI TOUCH -- ADVENTURES IN INDIAN COOKING by Malvi Doshi. I haven't used this much, but the same friend, who has spent some years involved with Indian cookery, looked through it and pronounced it to be definitely a good Indian cookbook. Hope this is of interest. Look at net.cooks for a long posting with more info on Mexican and Italian cookbooks and other general cookbook comments. Will Martin