Seafood of South-East Asia: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes [A Cookbook]

The only issue here was the delivery date, as it was not delivered on time or rather within the timetable as indicated per e-mail, but the seller communicated with me promptly and correctly, so no complaints after all, the book is in excellent condition and I purchased it for its contents...

Wahrscheinlich ist dies das beste Buch über Fisch und Meeresfruchte Süd Ost Asiens. Aber Trotzdem ein Stern Abzug, Dazu Später. Alan Davidson war eigentlich Diplomat, aber hat Hervoragende Bücher geschrieben über Fisch und Meeresfruchte, Die der Atlantik, Des Mittelmeers, und Dieses Buch über Süd Ost Asien.Jeder Fisch hat eine Seite, der wird Ausführlich beschrieben und die Namen in verschiedene Sprachen gegeben. Auch gibt es ein Rezeptenteil, wo hervorragende Rezepte gegeben werden. Also ein sehr gutes Kochbuch. Warum dann den Stern Abzug lieber Jan? Hierum: Die Original ausgaben hatten für jeden Fisch eine Zeichnung in Tinte und Wasserfarben gemalt. Sehr sehr schön. Ein Freund von mir hat alle in diese Ausgabe und diese sind sehr begehrten sammlerstucke. Leider hat der Verlag sich bei dieser Ausgabe das gespart und sind die Bilder nur in Grautone abgedruckt.Ich war richtig Stinkig wenn ich dies gesehen hab.

... to the Seafood of South-East Asia!In his introduction to the First Edition Sir Alan Davidson - Ex-Ambassador for Great Britain to Laos - wrote that this book is intended to help English-speaking readers to enjoy the seafood of the South-East Asian region.As there is no greater difficulty to identify meat and poultry - a pig is a pig, a chicken a chicken all over the world - with fish it is an entirely different matter!So these are the explanations to the catalogues which are intended to include the most common and the most interesting of the species of fish and other seafood in tiìhis region of S.E.-Asia which are likely to be found in the markets and restaurants...In the catalogues the name of each species is given first in Latin - this is the scientific name. Usually there are two words, first the genus, second the species in the family. After that enters the most usual name in English or in the region of its habitat.Then - in each catalogue entry the reader will find - under the heading Cuisine - a summary indication how the fish or other sea creature can best be prepared for the table.The first catalogue is about fish - 110 pages of information and nicely design, all about that family...The are following the crustaceans - 20 pages of the same: information, design, and use in the Cuisine - a thing to make Your mouth water!The next catalogue is about Molluscs and Other Edible Sea Creatures - 50 pages of informations about the last family of sea creatures.At page 200 we enter the Cookery Section...First an introduction about weights and measures used in the different countries.Then follws the chapter about the ingedients and extensive coverage of essential pantry equipment...This book is complemented by 150 traditional recipes from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia, among other countries. This delightfully written guide gives the interested readers all the information and recipes they need to appreciate the rich and varied cuisines of the area.The only identification and recipe guide devoted to the seafood of South-East Asia.Whoever is interested in Southeast Asian Cuisine will also be interested in this book. Not only interested - they will devour it - like the sea creatures depicted in it!Another hot tip for dedicated readers:Alan Davidson is also known to have written the guide and recipe book for  Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos  which together with the book  Traditional Recipes of Laos  by Phia Sing reprinted finally in 2000 and 2008 and the most original  Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures Of A Food Tourist In Laos  by Natacha Du Pont De Bie is the base of the knowledge about Laotian recipes. Fish and Fish Dishes of LaosTraditional Recipes of LaosAnt Egg Soup: The Adventures Of A Food Tourist In Laos

`Seafood of South-East Asia' by noted culinary writer Alan Davidson, the author of `The Oxford Companion to Food' is a reference book which a serious cook must have in their library where time is spent deciding on what to eat rather than time spend actually cooking. This book belongs to a rare breed of books in English such as Elizabeth Schneider's `Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini' or `Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients' which thoroughly cover a broad single subject. This volume is cut from exactly the same cloth and sewn with an almost identical pattern to the author's two other classics, `Mediterranean Seafood' and `North Atlantic Seafood'.All three books are organized in the same way that gives primacy to information on the aquatic species and secondary coverage of recipes.Biological family, genus, and species organize the first part on the catalog of species in order that the biological similarity of the fishes is clearly shown. Each article gives the most common English name, the two part Latin scientific name, the scientist who assigned this name (most commonly the great inventor of biological Taxonomy, Linnaeus), the biological family name, and the common name of the fish in virtually every language of the major fishing nationality bordering the relevant body of water. This Southeast Asian volume includes names found in the languages of United Arab Emirates, Bengal, Tamil, Singhalese, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Japan. I have not seen any differentiation between the different languages of, for example, China and the Philippines. I would guess that Chinese names are in Cantonese and the Philippine names are in Tagalog. These names in themselves are entertaining to the linguistically inclined, as it is interesting to see the similarities and differences from country to country.The articles on every species also have a highly detailed black and white drawing of each animal. The great value to these is that it makes comparing the appearance of different fishes very easy, as every species is depicted in a similar style. It is too bad they could not be depicted to scale, but this would have had the sturgeon filling two pages while the anchovies would be the size of a period. Instead, the remarks on each fish give the average market length and a description of the typical color and markings.The catalog entry also gives a paragraph or two on cuisine, which is a discussion of the culinary desirability of the species and typical ways in which the animal is prepared. For most fish, this includes methods by which the fish is butchered. The catalog entries also include a list of recipes and page numbers for these recipes in the second major section of the book.The second major section divides recipes by country. This volume gives us eight chapters on recipes from Burma; Thailand; Cambodia; Vietnam; China and Hong Kong; The Philippines; Indonesia; and Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore.One is tempted to expect these recipes to be very generic and not as interesting as those you may find in books of `haute cuisine' from a fish specialist such as Eric Rippert. This is partially true. Davidson is less the great cook than he is a great fish and food scholar. This means that while his recipes may come from common sources, he gives us much more information on the background of the recipes than the chef may do. A good example of this is in his coverage of Filipino dishes. I compared his `Fish Sinigang' recipe to the `Sinigang Na Bangus' recipe in `Filipino Cuisine' by Gerry Gelle and found that Davidson's recipe was as good or better than the one given by the Filipino chef. True to Davidson's scholarly approach, he describes what type of fish works well in this recipe, even though both he and Gelle specify milkfish (bangos). One odd fact is that Gelle's name for the fish is one Davidson attributes to Malaysia. May be due to linguistic duality between northern and southern Philippines. As with all cuisines, Davidson gives expert advice on cookbooks of the Filipino cuisines, especially as he says cookbook writing is a well-developed discipline in the islands. Icing on the cake is Davidson's overview of Filipino fish cures. One method even looks suspiciously like the famous Caribbean technique that developed into barbecue.One great delight was the fact that the book includes information on Gasteropods (Snails, limpets, conches, etc), sea turtles, and seaweed. You may not be cooking turtle soup any time soon, but you will know your stuff the next time you watch `Babette's Feast'! My point here is that this book is simply great fun to read and to use as a source of ideas for unusual new recipes.Unlike the books on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the bibliography shows that the author has based most of his material on sources written in English or French. While Davidson was a diplomat with serious language skills, either these skills did not extend to oriental languages OR most of the good stuff is written in English and French anyway. One of the greatest things about all these volumes is that all of this great material is available in trade paperbacks, which list for no more than $25. For you devotees of second hand bookstores, please note the author's warning that the first edition of this volume apparently had more than a usual number of errors and all known errors were corrected in the second edition.These are must have books for devoted foodies! A quick look at the list of species in the table of contents shows that almost all of the common named fishes show up on the ice or in the tanks of your favorite local megamart or fishmonger. I am certain that your Maine lobster will not mind being dressed in a recipe tailored to an Asian spiny lobster, although Alton Brown has quipped that the Maine flesh is slightly sweeter.Highly recommended.

Excellent book.Exactly as discribed.