Asian Noodles: Deliciously Simple Dishes To Twirl, Slurp, And Savor

I'm on my third copy of Nina Simond's Asian Noodles, because the first two have been used so much that they became dog-eared and covered in soy and chili sauce....yeah, I used this cookbook THAT much. It is truly a staple in our household.The layout is simple and easy to follow. Simonds starts out with a glossary of Asian noodles, by region (China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam), with cooking instructions for each. Substitutions are suggested, if you cannot find a certain variety of noodles. There are recipes for two broths that form the basis of many of the book's dishes: dashi (Japanese broth) and Chinese chicken broth, a delicious tonic laced with ginger and rice wine. Then follows the noodle recipes, ranging from soups to stir fries to hearty suppers. Many of the dishes contain meat, but there are a number of tasty vegetarian options too, and in most cases the meat can easily be subbed out for tofu or additional vegetables. Favorite recipes in our house include: seared chicken with black bean sauce, scallion chicken with soba, Thai clam pot with somen noodles, chicken satay, beef with shitake mushrooms and oyster sauce, and curried vegetarian noodles. Really everything in here is delicious! The appendix at the back of the book contains recipes for dipping sauces and chili pastes. We can never get enough of the red hot chili oil and Chinese sesame paste.None of the recipes should be too complicated for the weeknight home cook, and once you have the staple ingredients in your fridge and pantry, you can whip up these delicious noodle dishes in 45 mins or less. Chili paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, Chinese rice wine/shaoxing wine, mirin, ginger, garlic, cilantro, lime, sesame oil, and coconut milk are regular fixtures in the recipes. Occasionally, a harder-to-find ingredient like Chinese fermented black beans will make an appearance, but by and large, most of the ingredients are available in any major grocery store. A wok is probably a good thing to have, though by no means required; I get excellent results from my Dutch oven and large skillet.

I am a vegetarian and I have used this cookbook and substituted the meat with seitan. It is really delicious! The best thing is that the meals are easy to prepare and not overwhelming like most cookbooks of this nature! I recommend it highly for all - but also for vegetarians who may not think that this book has anything to offer. If you can get past the "carnivorous" descriptions of some of the preparation descriptions of some of the meals and simply replace the meat with a more gentle and compassionate substitute - you will be delighted. Vegetarians may think that substituting is too complicated and that it's better to just buy a vegetarian cookbook (and in most cases this is true). In this case, however, it is so very easy to just substitute seitan or tofu, as the rest of the ingredients are all vegetarian (except for fish sauce which is easily replaced with soy sauce or "faux fish sauce" that you can purchase in chinatown if you are lucky enough to live near one). Of course, it would be WONDERFUL if Nina Simonds created a Vegan or Vegetarain version of her noodle book!! :)

The book is a great source of simple, delicious noodle meals. I am happy to own it, have made 2 recipes so far. There are lots of suggestions and many recipes for noodle salads. Great summer suggestions.

It's not the exact thing you'd get in an Asian restaurant, but who cares? These are great, very simple recipes. You'll need some of the Asian cooking basics (fish sauce, chili sauce, rice vinegar) and occasionally a few more exotic things, but, if you're cooking Asian, you've probably got most of these things in your cupboard already.My wife and I absolutely love Asian cooking but we both work full-time, so it's sometime hard to find the time to cook good stuff. This cookbook is full of wonderful, flavorful recipes that don't take too long to make.The sauces section in the back of the book is more than worth having this. We make the sauces, keep them in the fridge, and just put them over rice for lunch or dinner. Great, great stuff.

The text itself is great. It's the condition of the book that was not as advertised. The book was advertised as new and is in good condition on the outside. Upon looking through the pages when I was ready to make some of the recipes, I saw that there were a number of them that had stains on them. So this book had clearly been used already. Very disappointed in the inaccurate advertising and once I realized this, it was too late to return.

I use Nina Simonds’ Asian cookbooks make Asian cooking easy and healthy even for experienced US cooks.

We got this cookbook years ago, but lost it during a move. I don't know why it took us 9 years to replace it, b/c it is awesome! There is lots of info about the different kinds of Asian noodles, and which ones traditionally serve which purposes. Then there are recipes, which are very good and, for the most part, simple and quick to prepare. Some recipes call for ingredients (like mirin or fish sauce) that may not be in everyone's pantry, but I haven't come across any that couldn't find at the grocery store. This is a great cookbook to have on the shelf.

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Love the recipes. My in-laws have a copy and we always enjoyed the food from it so we bought our own.