The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

Starred review from September 15, 2009
Hair (www.SteamyKitchen.com) is a home cook-turned-food blogger-turned-cookbook author. She shares recipes drawn from her mother's kitchen, other food bloggers, and her own delightful archives. Her focus is mostly simple Asian dishes (from China, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand), with several more complicated ones thrown into the mix. She veers from the current trend of Asian fusion cuisine by trying to uphold the integrity of each country's unique flavors and ingredients. This focus is what makes her book distinctive. Hair also provides great kid-friendly dishes like eggrolls, Chinese broccoli and beef, and crispy chicken with citrus teriyaki sauce. Desserts are appealing and include the much loved bubble tea and an innovative grilled banana-and-chocolate treat. VERDICT For home cooks of all levels of experience seeking to expand their repertoire of Asian recipes, Hair has written an extremely accessible cookbook that blends great recipes with mouthwatering photographs she took. Highly recommended. [See "Publishers Weekly"'s online profile "The Cooking Star You Haven't Heard of Yet: Jaden Hair" at http: //bit.ly/6jsBA.Ed.]Claire Moitra, Providence, RI

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