Seductions of Rice
by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeffrey Alford, Naomi DuguidEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-05
ISBN: 1579652344
Number of pages: 472
Publisher: Artisan
Book Reviews of Seductions of Rice
Book Review: Great Cookbook and More
Summary: 5 Stars
This was one of those cookbooks that I glanced through at the bookstore, liked it, put down and then went on my way yet it never left my mind. I've found when I do that I might as well buy the thing the next time around. So I did and I was not disappointed.
As others have said its part cookbook, part travelouge organized by geography. I found this to be an interesting combination. I bought the thing for the reciepies but find myself enjoying the travelouges while search through it for my next meal. I don't know, it just seems like you get more out of the dish that way.
At the beginning of the book it tells a good chunk about history, cultivation, physiology and processing of rice. This was quite informative. Things like the advantages and disadvantages of hulled vs unhulled rice and rinsing rice before cooking. No perfect solution, just valuable information based on your needs.
The receipies are of course the meat of the book. When I first opened it up I figured it would be 300 ways to prepare rice or something like that. Far from it. Many (say half or more) of the dishes are not rice dishes at all but meals or snacks that you would eat with rice. So while it does have some rice specific dishes its really more of a cookbook that samples dishes from around the world. A good chunk of them are winners, far higher hit rate than I see in most cookbooks.
The receipeis themselves tend to be easy to moderate in complexity. Having its international focus does call for some ingredients that you just wont find at your local chain grocery store. There are some good mail order sources in the back for some of the more shelf stable items. For items that need to be fresh they often suggest substitutes.
Its a great book, I really recommend it and its on my short list of go to books when I ask myself "What do I want to cook for dinner"
Summary of Seductions of Rice
From the James Beard Cookbook of the Year Award-winning authors of Flatbreads and Flavors and Hot Sour Salty Sweet comes the paperback edition of what Cookbook Digest calls the perfect book on rice. It is a beautiful, comprehensive, and altogether fascinating overview of this ancient grain.With a depth of passion and experience and an ability to embrace and convey richness of place and taste, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid embarked on an excursion to find the world's most essential and satisfying food. Along the way, they experienced firsthand dozens of varieties of rice that offer unimaginable subtleties of taste, as well as a staggering array of foods to accompany them, all providing simple ways to get flavor and variety on the table.
SEDUCTIONS OF RICE is the glorious result: two hundred easy-to-prepare dishes from the world's great rice cuisines, illuminated by stories, insights, and more than two hundred photographs of people, places, and wonderful food.
Chinese stir-frys, Spanish paellas, Japanese sushi, Indian thorans, Thai salads, Turkish pilafs, Italian risottos, Senegalese yassas, American gumbos: if rice isn't the heart and soul of all these diverse dishes, rice can be found piled right there at the side of the plate, or in a bowl. To say that Alford and Duguid, authors of the award-winning Flatbreads and Flavors, deliver the world of rice is much too simple an understatement. Your days of buying one rice to serve all purposes will end with even a cursory reading of this lovely book.
The authors are photographers as well as writers, but their greatest skill may be to travel the world at the level of the culture they visit. They seem able to drop away from Western culture and hunker right down with rice vendor or cook, no matter where.
Seductions of Rice opens with all the basics of rice, everything a reader would want to know and then some. Then on to the cultures of rice: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Central Asian, Mediterranean, Senegalese, and North American. Recipes either made from rice or to accompany rice range from Chinese Congee to Thai Green Papaya Salad to Japanese Quick Morning Miso Soup to South Indian Lentil Stew to Cuban Black Beans to Mexican Green Rice.
And in between? The authors fill in all the space between these diverse grains of rice with traveler's tales from the road. It is a luxurious book, a delicious book, a ripe combination of travel and taste. You leave off thinking that the world must be the shape of a rice ball. --Schuyler Ingle
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