Book Reviews
JAPANESE COOKING - CONTEMPORARY AND TRADITIONAL
By Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner
Miyoko is the owner of Now and Zen, a vegan food manufacturing company located in San Francisco, California. She was born in Japan and has been vegetarian since the age of 12. Fortunately, I have tasted many of her products and I'm certain that her new cookbook, Japanese Cooking - Contemporary and Traditional, is filled with delicious vegan recipes.
The book begins with an introduction to Japanese cooking and then continues with sample menu ideas and a glossary of ingredients, kitchen concepts, and tools. This information is followed by recipes broken down into the following sections: rice dishes, soups and stews, cooking with tofu, fried dishes, salads and cold vegetables, noodles, meals in a pot, stewed and braised dishes, meals in a bowl, everyday favorites, and nouvelle Japanese cuisine. Among the creative dishes, you'll find Chestnut Rice, Potato and Onion Miso Soup, Miso Dressing, Curry Udon, Sukiyaki, Japanese Potstickers, Soba Salad, Roasted Asparagus with Lime Ponzu Sauce, and much more. Unfortunately, this book does not include a nutritional analysis with each recipe.
Japanese Cooking - Contemporary and Traditional (ISBN 1-57067-072-2) is published by the Book Publishing Company.
Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
THE CONVENIENT VEGETARIAN
By Virginia Messina and Kate Schumann
Virginia Messina and Kate Schu-mann have written two other cookbooks together. Their latest book, The Convenient Vegetarian, is filled with quick-and-easy vegan recipes. You'll find creative dishes such as Tofu Corn Puffs, Thai Pasta with Broccoli and Coconut Milk, Spicy Pumpkin Soup, Lentil Rice Salad with Mustard Dressing, Lemony Roasted Potatoes, Indonesian Peanut Sauce, plus more.
The book also includes two innovative chapters. "Quick Mixes: Creating Your Own Convenience Foods" is certain to save you money and time. Sample recipes in this section include Lemon-Dill Rice Mix, Cream of Potato Soup Mix, Chili Mix, Tabouli Mix, and others. The chapter titled "Planovers: Making Yesterday's Leftovers Tonight's New Meal" shows you how to creatively use leftovers from a previous meal. For example, you might prepare Southwest Black Beans for dinner one night and the next day use the leftovers to produce either Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas or Black Bean and Corn Chili. The section includes recipes to show you how to do this.
Unfortunately, this book does not include nutritional analyses with the recipes. You will, however, find "A Quick Guide to Vegetarian Nutrition."
The Convenient Vegetarian (ISBN 0-02-862334-7) is published by MacMillan USA.
Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
VEGETARIAN FOOD FOR THOUGHT
By Gail Davis
Vegetarian Food for Thought is a book filled with quotations and inspirations. The words you'll read in this book reveal the varied thoughts vegetarians have.
For example, Fred "Mister" Rogers states, "I like the variety of a meatless diet. 'What variety?' meat eaters might ask. There are many more varieties of vegetables than there are of meats." Isaac Bashevis Singer once said, "When one be-comes a vegetarian it purifies the soul." And Dr. William Alcott is quoted as having said, "A vegetarian diet lies at the basis of all re-form, whether Civil, Social, Moral, or Religious."
This book should be left in every office waiting room or on a table in your living room. It will certainly make readers think!
Vegetarian Food for Thought (ISBN 0-939165-36-8) is published by NewSage Press.
Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
A FIELD GUIDE TO MEDICINAL PLANTS AND HERBS OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH
AMERICA
By Steven Foster and James A. Duke
I love hiking and often wonder if the plants I pass by are edible or whether they have a medicinal purpose. Fortunately, A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America is now available in its second edition.
This reference book contains more than three hundred new color photos to help you identify the various plants and herbs. You'll also find completely revised text containing comprehensive information on identifying over five hundred healing plants and herbs.
The descriptive text includes information on where the plants are found as well as their known medicinal uses. An index to medical topics is also helpful for quickly locating information on a specific ailment. Symbols are given to alert readers to plants that are poisonous or may cause allergic reactions.
A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America (ISBN 0-395-98814-4) is published by the Houghton Mifflin Company and contains over 400 pages.Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
THE HEMP COOKBOOK
By Todd Dalotto
When you shop in natural foods stores, you'll most likely see products made from hemp. Although hemp is seen by some as a controversial product, humans have used it for over ten thousand years. According to The Hemp Cookbook, across Eurasia ancient peoples used the fiber for textiles and pottery. Evidence of hemp cultivation in Egypt dates back to 4000 BC.
The first recorded use of hemp-seed as food was in the first-century AD writings of the Greek physician, botanist, and philosopher Dioscorides. The Polish and Lithuanian people make a hempseed soup. Hemp-seed has long been a staple in Russia, too, where it's ground into butter and eaten as gruel.
Until recently, the main consumers of hempseed in North America have been commercially raised pigeons and canaries. There-fore, most of the imported and cultivated hempseed has been grown, handled, and traded using the standards of the birdseed industry. Unfortunately for the birds, this standard falls far below any criterion that would apply to human food. Responsible hemp food-crafters have to take precautionary measures such as lab testing or importing their own seed to ensure quality.
The Hemp Cookbook offers a wide range of information on how to produce food with hemp, including many recipes. Most of the dishes are vegan or vegan-friendly. You'll find Hemp-Lentil Loaf, which contains hempseed flour and hempseed oil, and Wheat-Free Hemp Pancakes, which contain hempseed flour, as well as corn, oat, and brown rice flour.
In the back of this book you will find a Hemp Food Resource Directory. It is quite an extensive listing to get you started.
The Hemp Cookbook (ISBN 0-89281-787-9) retails for $14.95. It is published by Healing Arts Press in Rochester, Vermont. The book can be found in bookstores.
Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
THE GUIDE TO COOKING SCHOOLS
Published by Shaw Guides
The 2000 edition of Shaw Guides' The Guide to Cooking Schools is now available. This book is a comprehensive list of cooking schools, courses, vacations, apprenticeships, and wine instruction throughout the world.
Although this is not a vegetarian book, you will find listings for veggie-friendly programs. For example, Vegetarian Cooking in Tuscany is sponsored by a private school in Italy, which runs classes April-May and October-November. Four programs are held per year and they consist of a 7-night hands-on cooking vacation. Maximum class size is 8 people. The facilities are described as a farmhouse restaurant kitchen.
In Houston, Texas you'll find the Natural Foods Cooking School. This private school offers demonstration classes in natural foods, vegetarian, vegan, and macrobiotic cooking. Maximum class size is 30 individuals. Also featured are classes for children, market tours, and private classes.
Information on these classes and over 1,000 other culinary education programs are found in this book. The Internet edition of this book contains the unabridged content of the print edition and is updated weekly. Programs are searchable by state, country, region, month, and specialty.
The Guide to Cooking Schools (ISBN 0-945834-27-6) is available for $22.95 in book and cookware stores.
Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
