Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Wrong in so many ways - so called 'international' cookbook

Today, I was fed up with my dissertation work and in need of distraction. Food being one of my favorites which haven't made me board yet -thank God-, I went down to book store and looked into few cookbooks.

Few hours later, I am absolutely convinced that I will never ever trust the cookbooks bare name 'international' in terms of authenticity. Recipe may be good. But the explanation is often wrong. It may be better with other foods. But sadly, Korea being the least known country among Asian, it is often insufficient and incorrect.

One author said one radish from Korea can be substituted by daikan, the skinny long white radish widely used in Korea, China, and Japan. It is often true since the small white Korea radish is very hard to find in U.S. However, the recipe the author was describing becomes completely different dish if the kind of radish is substitute. It even has own name which I guess the author has never known or -even worse- couldn’t care less.

I am not expecting every body would have same enthusiasm about food like I do. However, at least you write a cookbook, it is fair to say the author should –or would be better to -pay attention what he or she is talking about.

1 comment:

Recipe Tom said...

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