When
you're stumped, reach for a reference book nearby. Below are my
favorites for research food topics
and Vietnamese history. Pick one, some, or
all of them up at a bookstore. To shop online, the titles below
are linked their respective pages at Amazon.com.
Another source is ecookbooks.com.
For out-of-print or rare books, consider:
Seafood
of South-East Asia (1976, 2004)
Alan Davidson
Hard to obtain because it's out of print, and there weren't that many
printed to begin with, Davidson's book is definitely precious. To my knowledge,
this is the only book of its kind in English and it happens to be great.
The drawings are beautiful and there's a multi-language guide for each
type of seafood. Discussion on fermented fish products is included too.
Davidson, a Scotsman, lived in Southeast Asia; he was the British ambassador
to Laos from 1973 to 1975. A fabulous food writer and expert on seafood,
he contributed to Southeast Asian food knowledge through authoring this
book and the Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos. Pretty out there I know, but
if you're into this sort of thing, Davidson's book is worth getting.
Ten
Speed Press issued the second edition so now it's easier to find! (The
cover here is from the original.)
World
Food Vietnam
(2000)
Richard Sterling
Even if I'm not traveling, this book is an interesting one to have around
for the culinary dictionary in the back. Viet words have changed over
the years and sometimes things go by different names in Vietnam versus
abroad. There's a pronunciation guide too. (If you're curious about how
to say basic food ingredients in Vietnamese, I've provided some on this
feature page.)
Asian
Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand
and Vietnam (1988, 2000)
Bruce Cost
Updated and revised from its initial 1988 version, Cost offers a nice
guide to understanding Asian ingredients. He's strongest on China, Japan,
Korea and Japan. There is not enough information on Vietnamese ingredients,
as there's just not much written on it in English. Where was Cost going
to get his info? As a result, Vietnamese names for ingredients are often
left out, and when included, are unfortunately misspelled. For example,
the Viet term for water spinach (rau muong) is omitted; the Cantonese
and Malay terms are included. This vegetable is a staple in the Vietnamese
diet, and particularly delicious sautéed with garlic and fermented
shrimp sauce. Nonetheless, I use this book to get the proper English name
for things, cross reference the use of different ingredients in the other
four countries, and obtain shopping tips. It's got nice black and white
pictures too. Cost's book is one of the standard Asian food reference
works.
Encyclopedia
of Asian Food (1998)
Charmaine Solomon
This is a big and more comprehensive book than Cost's. Solomon, who's
authored other encyclopedic works on Asian cooking, has her international
equivalent terms down. Take the water spinach example above. She offers
the term in 10 languages, in addition to the Latin botanical name. Her
information is not 100% correct but it's darn close. Again, I normally
use this book to cross reference facts found in other sources. There are
recipes too but admittedly, I've never tried them. There's a lot of energy
to telling you how different countries treat an ingredient. When it comes
to the recipes, the country of origin and native language name for the
dish are rarely cited. Access the book's contents through this Asia Society's
site: asiafood.org
Oxford
Companion to Food (1999)
Alan Davidson, Editor
This is one of my favorite reference books, even though I wish there was
more on Asian ingredients. There's just not enough written to form the
basis for authoritative entries. Plus, there are a zillion ingredients
out there. What is contained in the Oxford, you can pretty much bet your
money on it! The late Alan Davidson was committed to excellent food writing
(the entries are never boring) and he did write several books on Southeast
Asian seafood and cookery.
Exotic
Herbs: A Compendium of Exceptional Culinary Herbs (1997)
Carole Saville
Worth finding if you want to grow herbs that are beyond the usual repertoire.
Saville has great tips on most of the common Viet herbs like tia to (red
perilla), kinh gioi (Vietnamese balm), and fish mint (diep ca).
Oriental
Vegetables: The Complete Guide for the Gardening Cook (1991)
Joy Larkcom
Though Larkcom lives across the pond, she's written an intensely detailed
book on Asian vegetables. Even if you don't garden, you'll benefit from
her descriptions of how the vegetables taste. This is a great book to
have along with Cost's Asian Ingredients (above).
Seafood:
A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook (1989)
Alan Davidson
A terrific book full of beautiful drawings, engaging but not too academically
dry descriptions, multi-language names of each type of seafood covered,
and interesting recipes to boot. The content is international in scope,
crisscrossing the globe to convey the relationship between species of
seafood and its cooking applications.
Unmentionable
Cuisine (1979)
Calvin Schwabe
Extreme eating is popular entertainment these days but it's nothing compared
to what Schwabe discusses in this book. There is wonderful commentary
and historic recipes to described how 'unusual' animals (rodents, cats,
insects, lampreys, etc.) are cooked all over the world. This is no joke
of a work. Considered the founder of veterinary epidimiology at UC Davis,
the late Schwabe (he died in June 24, 2006) was on a quest to promote
cultural relativism in an era when a sterile, modern, Western approach
to food prevailed.
Vietnamese
History and Foodways
Perfume
Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese diaspora (2005)
Andrew Lam
A wonderful collection of personal, poignant essays by accomplished Vietnamese-American
journalist Andrew Lam. If you want a good window into the Viet immigrant
experience (or perhaps a mirror to see yourself) this gracefully penned
work is for you.
Ao
Dai: My War, My Country, My Vietnam (2004)
Xuan Phuong and Danielle Marzingabe
This biography of Xuan Phuong tells the remarkable story of an upper class
girl who joins the Vietnamese communist movement. The details of her life,
from the underground resistance movement to oust the French to the post
re-unification period are described with great detail. The writing stumbles
at times but anyone interested in learning what life was like under communist
rule, and the unfortunate disillusionment that followed, should read this
book.
The
Birth of Vietnam (1991)
Keith Taylor Weller
If you're interested in early Vietnamese history, particularly the complex
period of eleven centuries of Chinese rule that shaped most of Viet culture
and society, peruse this book. Weller is a professor of Southeast Asian
studies at Cornell. This pioneering publication grew out of his doctoral
dissertation.
The
Food of China(1988)
E.N. Anderson
Anderson's scholarly work is extremely informative in that he offers a
cross-cultural perspective. Though China is always the focus, he makes
connections to how it influenced other culture. It's also a fun read.
Since this publication, Anderson (an anthropology professor at UC Riverside)
has gone on to conduct other research into areas such as Mayan culture.
This work, for me, is his best.
Food
in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives
(1977)
K.C. Chang, editor
A seminal work on Chinese food culture that lays the groundwork for understanding
any culture (for me, that of Vietnam) that was touch by the Middle Kingdom.
(Note that E.N. Anderson and his wife contributed to this book.) To this
day, this is a standard for anyone interested in East Asian foodways.
