Philippines

Sweet and Spicy Banana-Ketchup Roasted Carrots

Sweet and Spicy Banana-Ketchup Roasted Carrots excerpted from In the Kusina: My Seasonal Filipino Cooking by Woldy Reyes is available. Photography by Fujio Emura.

In the Kusina: My Seasonal Filipino Cooking by Woldy Reyes

A brightly flavourful, artfully presented celebration of chef and tastemaker Woldy Reyes’ heritage, featuring more than 100 recipes for classic Filipino dishes updated to be lighter, fresher, and vegetable-forward.

Growing up in Southern California as a first-generation Filipino American, Woldy Reyes felt like an outsider, always straddling two worlds. At home, his family ate adobo with rice, gathered in the kitchen to roll lumpia, and roasted a whole goat in the backyard to make kalderetang kambing (celebratory goat stew). At school, all he wanted was Lunchables and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. It wasn’t until he discovered the power of food as a means of connection―to strangers and friends, to his heritage, and even to himself―that he began cooking in earnest and sharing his story through the dishes he made. His signature style, now beloved by his catering clients in New York City and beyond, highlights classic Filipino food but with a focus on local, seasonal produce and artful presentation.

In the Kusina is Woldy’s story told through a collection of vibrant, vegetable-forward recipes and his distinct lens as a queer Filipino American. These aren’t your lola’s traditional dishes; here, Filipino tastes and techniques are reimagined for a new generation of home cooks, resulting in a trove of elegant and boldly flavourful recipes organised by season, including:

Garlic Furikake Rice with Fried Egg
Purple Daikon, Coconut Labneh, and Peanut Salsa Toast
Oyster Mushroom Skewers with Mushroom BBQ Sauce
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Miso Tahini and Pomegranate Seeds
Decadent hot and cold drinks, luscious desserts, and much more

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Sugarcane Smoked Chicken

Sugarcane Smoked Chicken excerpted from Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking – 125 Recipes from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean Islands by Von Diaz. Photography by Lauren Vied Allen.

Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking - 125 Recipes from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean Islands by Von Diaz i

An intimate reflection on tropical island cooking’s bold flavours and big stories, with 125 recipes, from celebrated food writer Von Diaz.

The islands spanning the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans are remarkable places, sharing dozens of ingredients and cooking techniques, including marinating, pickling and fermentation, braising and stewing, frying, grilling and smoking, and steaming and in-ground roasting. Bold flavours drip from the edges of each dish with tastes that represent stories of resistance, persistence, and wisdom passed down from generation to generation.

This narrative cookbook by writer, documentary producer, and author Von Diaz travels across oceans and nations to uplift the shared ancestral cooking techniques of these islands in more than 125 recipes, including intimate profiles of the historical context of each technique, stories from islanders, and step-by-step guides for recreating them at home.

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Coffee & Coconut Flan

Coffee & Coconut Flan excerpted from Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok: Simple Family Feasts by Jeremy Pang. Photography by Kirk Kirkham.

Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok: Simple Family Feasts by Jeremy Pang

Make dinnertime easy with over 80 Asian recipes from Jeremy Pang and his award-winning cook institution, School of Wok.

Bringing together the best Asian flavors from across the continent, this book makes Asian cooking quick and accessible so you can spend less time fussing over dinner and more time together. Each dish can be enjoyed on its own for a simple supper or grouped together for larger feasts with something for everyone to enjoy. Learn how to group dishes together with rice and noodles and other accompaniments as per traditional Asian cuisine.

Most recipes in the book utilize the ‘wok clock’ technique, where the ingredients are laid out in a clock formation in the order they will be cooked for complete simplicity. You’ll also find handy feast planners with the order and cooking times of each dish to make life as easy as possible.

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Crisp-fried pork belly with sticky tomato shrimp paste sauce

Photography by Jana Liebenstein

In this collection of more than one hundred recipes, Yasmin Newman takes a culinary journey through the Philippines and uncovers an intriguing notion of 7,107 islands where the people’s love of eating is as big as their hearts.

Despite the Philippines’ location right in the middle of Southeast Asia, most people know very little about the country and even less about the cuisine. For Filipinos, food is more than a pleasurable pursuit; it is the cultural language. It can be seen through the prism of its unique and colourful history, with influences from Malaysia, Spain, China, Mexico, and the US adding to the cuisine’s rich texture. (more…)

Cookbook Review: The Complete Asian Cookbook

I love this book! It’s the 40th anniversary edition of Charmaine Solomon’s influential and iconic The Complete Asian Cookbook. Instantly heralded as a classic when it was first published in 1976, the book covers 800 classic and contemporary dishes from 15 countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, The Philippines, China, Korea and Japan). Written with the home cook in mind, Charmaine’s recipes are straightforward, simple to follow and work every time. Recipe and chapter introductions give valuable information about how local dishes are prepared and served, while the comprehensive glossary explains unfamiliar ingredients (which are steadily more commonplace in supermarkets today). The Complete Asian Cookbook is a book that belongs in the kitchens of every household. I highly recommend it! (more…)