Vegan Street Food: Foodie travels from India to Indonesia Kindle Edition

I really enjoy this cookbook, and look through it often for inspiration when I am craving eastern flavors. These recipes are a bit more complicated for the most part, so I consider this a weekend cookbook. The author is very authentic, and does not take any short cuts or substitutions with ingredients. Thankfully I have an Asian market down the street where I can acquire most of the ingredients! The Pad Ka Prao and Nasi Goreng have been my favorites so far.

Well written, with an obvious enthusiasm for the foods presented. I'm thinking: this is going to be one of those cookbooks I work my way through and try every single recipe. Many photos, which really helps, when exploring something so new to me that I don't know what it's supposed to look like.Many "thank you's" to the author for presenting us with vegan friendly versions of these timeless foods.

I would say 90% of the dishes are deep fried or shallow fried, so when I removed all the fried dishes there was little left. There is a lot of coconut cream (not milk, just cream) in majority of the recipes- if there were nutrition information provided, the dishes would be loaded with saturated fat. Coconut cream has more saturated fat than milk cream. Most of the dishes require 12 or more ingredients, half of them being rather exotic, so this is really a book for serious cooks that have a lot of time on their hand to prepare a single dish...I especially did not like the presentation: the pages were simply way too busy for my taste- print over the graphics of patterns etc...for me it was too hard to read.

This is a gorgeous cookbook. Some of the recipes seem a little tricky (I'd call myself an intermediate cook), but they all look delicious.

Great book great vender

Beautiful. Interesting. And delicious!

Amazing recipes!

As expected.

Think vegan food might be a little bit boring? This Asian inspired cookery book may well make you think again! It’s packed full of interesting and unusual recipes, lots of which I’m really looking forward to trying out. Some of the recipes do include harder to find ingredients, but so far I have managed to get everything needed from supermarkets rather than resorting to buying online. Each dish is beautifully presented, as you would expect from a Masterchef finalist. Vegan or not, I think it’s a book any adventurous cook would love.

The story:Being a vegan and having travelled to the likes of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore many years ago and recollecting that the street food was extraordinary, decided to give this book a try ÜThe book:Comprising of 207 pages in hardcover, with subtly coloured front and backboards depicting delicious looking foodstuffs, boasting a PeTA Vegan Foods Awards Winner label to front and measuring H25cmx W20.25cmx D3cm.Ms Kearney’s Introduction, A Journey into Food is a mere four pages long, thank goodness, it was boring. The Ingredients Basics section covers all the usual items you would expect in the pantry of a vegan but is a very short list covering two pages. There is a small section dedicated to Making Tofu Taste Good and a recipe for Vegan Fish Sauce using seaweed. The book is divided into regions i.e. India & Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos & Vietnam and Malaysia & Indonesia, followed by the Index and Acknowledgement pages. Both UK and USA measurements are used throughout. All ingredients are readily available in the UK, however;Reviewers have stated ‘... way too many ingredients that are not readily available when you live in rural area ... I don’t want to pay the ridiculous mark up on the cost buying the produce online’. ‘... most of the dishes require 12 or more ingredients, half of them being rather exotic’I have read through the ingredients list of each recipe and have the following observations:Yes, some recipes have a long list of ingredients; however most of them are spices. My pantry is well stocked and has the majority listed in the book; all were purchased in this country therefore, hardly exotic.I live in a rural village with no street lights or signs, local store or pub; just a post box, a small chapel and a graveyard. Despite this location I am able to obtain the ingredients be it in a store or online; and there is no need to spend ridiculous monies at either venue. Not every retailer is a money grabbing ass.Nasturtium leaves are not something I use regularly, so is not in my pantry and for a single recipe I would not buy them. They are, as well as the flowers heads, available online (I haven’t checked shops) but a small bag of seeds from a garden centre will be a lot cheaper if it is something you are going to use on a regular basis and they are easy to grow.Likewise Moringa or vegetable drumsticks, native to parts of Africa and Asia and not something I have call for, but the recipe in which they’re used states that it can be made without them.Kanom jin noodles origin Thailand. They are in fact rice noodles or rice vermicelli (learn something new every day) readily available from supermarkets et al.If you can’t get hold of Holy Basil leaves, which is available online, a mixture of mint and bog standard basil leaves will suffice.Betel leaf is the leaf of a climbing plant from Southeast Asia. If you can’t get hold of any, substitute with beetroot leaves.Mooli is a form of giant radish that is also known as daikon and is a popular East Asian root vegetable, which is readily available from Asian stores and larger supermarkets.In response to; ‘... I have yet to see a bottle/doodhi gourd available within a 25 mile radius’ The term ‘gourd’ is loosely used to describe several members of the squash and melon family that are all characterised by thick skins and a watery flesh. Really the main distinction between squashes and gourds is that squashes are grown and harvested to eat, while gourds tend to be cultivated for decoration purposes. So butternut squash or any other squash will suffice instead of the bottle/doodhi gourd asked for.The verdict:The India & Sri Lanka region opens with a two page write up about Delhi, which didn’t sing. The four recipes that follow are all deep fried; then there is a two page recipe list of very common chutneys. A one page foray into Northern India follows discussing the use of Yak butter and cheese; the description of which is enough to make you want to retch. Ms Kearney nearly did by all accounts, but that over sharing could have been spared, thank you very much. Another page follows containing two more chutneys and two recipes containing dumplings which have to be fried in oil. More writing on other lands explored in Northern India follows and so it goes on. Ms Kearney is not the most eloquent or inspiring of writers. Having stated that the book is beautifully presented in pared down muted colouring and photographs abound. The completed dishes look absolutely scrumptious and there is a lot of variety; the majority of which is fried, so it is not for me.My own personal niggle:The word ‘realise’ in this book is spelt with a ‘z’, which being a pedant when it comes to English grammar I find extremely irritating ÜThis book is not one that you can grab on a weeknight and decide to rustle up a recipe. However, if you have time and patience and enjoy cooking shallow/deep fried foods then this is the book for you.For me I’m going to persevere on improving my techniques with Indian fare and return the book.

Such a good cook book! Every recipe is delicious. I lived in some of the regions that it covers for a number of years and the recipes from there taste very authentic.

A good book for vegans and the recipes are very doable. Worth buying as the Asian recipes are easier to adapt to veganism as they don't contain cheese or butter.

Can’t recommend this book enough. Jackie’s recipes continually inspire me to try new things and experiment with different flavours. If you’re bored of the same boring vegan foods or concerned that going vegan means giving up on anything- buy this book! Great recipes and beautiful food photography as well as lots of helpful hints that make your own cooking better by explaining why you do certain things to build depth and flavour without animal products. It is an absolute must for those who love the flavours of India and SE Asia.