Five Favorite Cookbooks Meme

Tag I'm it! Reid from Ono Kine Grindz has "tagged" me for this meme, he originally got tagged by Stephanie fromda*xiang and so on..... Being really new at this I must say I'm truly humbled.....

So here goes:

1. Total number of (cook) books I’ve owned:

At last count +/- 50 or so.

2. Last cookbook(s) I bought:

I'm waiting for my latest Amazon delivery, so those don't count. So it's Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. A really super book.

3. Last food book(s) I read:

Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop, I've really developed an appreciation for Sichuan food, and this book is really a treasure trove of information.

Chinese Food Finder by Carl Chu, not just a listing of restaurants, but Carl also gives a listing of dishes representative of the specific type of cuisine.

4. Five (plus 2) cookbooks that mean a lot to me:

This is really tough, so I decided to list my favorite cookbooks that I use on a regular basis.

Chinese Cook Book Volume I by Fu Pei Mei. Known as the Julia Child of Chinese Cooking, Fu Pei Mei was a respected and almost deified Taiwanese cooking instructor who had her own cooking show in Taiwan. Her Chinese Cook Book Vol I is probably the most accessible. Fu Pei Mei passed away from cancer on Sept 16th, 2004, and had a great long career for someone who only learned to cook after she got married. Easy basic Chinese recipes!

50th Anniversary Best of our favorite Recipes 1946 - 1996 by The Maui Association for Family and Community Education. OK, no laughs, but since I can't up and call Mom when I have a question, I just reference this. This is a compilation from various community cookbooks over a 50 year period. I've never, ever been able to copy a recipe "ver batim" and have it come out right - probably explains why I can't bake! So I look for references and guidance in my cookbooks.

The Legacy of the Japanese in Hawaii: Cuisine by The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. Good source for "local style" Japanese recipes. For example, if you want to make Nishime, or other Japanese - Hawaiian type dishes it's really hard to find a good recipe source.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Alright, time to come clean, I don't actually own this cookbook, but have borrowed it from the local Public Library at least 8 times (not including renewals). Great comprehensive source of basic recipes, and now my guilt has resulted in my purchasing this from Amazon, so will actually have my own copy in a week or so.

The Way to Cook by Julia Child. I've been without my Joy of Cooking for over a decade so this fills the spot - my "Bible" of cooking.

Plus 2:

The Choy of Cooking by Sam Choy. Very easy down to Earth Pacific Rim. Made me understand what a great place Hawaii is with regards to food.

The Food of Paradise by Rachel Lauden. More of a well researched study in Food Anthropology than cookbook. Well researched and very informative, if you wonder why we eat what we eat in Hawaii, this really explains alot.

5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog?

I'm really too new at this for me to fill this out, but I'll try to give you a few:

Sarah at The Delicious Life

Jo (yes, Jo) at Truly Thankful

Elmo at Monster Munching

Pat at Eating LA

Whew, this has been more work than I thought it would be. But finally, my really most important "cookbook" is one where I've never tried any recipes:

After my Mom passed on in 1996 I found this "cookbook" with hand written recipes. There were many loose sheets, some of which were recipes written before I was born. Some were full of info from my Mother's life before "me", we never talked much about these "things" in our household, but I found this so interesting:

Mom worked as a Housekeeper on Kauai and had written and collected some of the families favorite recipes. Who knows, the meatloaf looks really good I might try that soon!

Comments

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

Great write up! There was no way that I could pick 5 books out of the many good ones that I have. It's great that you found your Mom's spiral -- it must really be a treasure. I'd be curious to see how the recipes that you try end up. =)

Thanks for participating!

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

BTW...if you want a good Singaporean/Nyonya cookbook, I can get you one when I go to Singapore next year. Otherwise, a good introduction to Singaporean food that can be found in the states is 'Shiok!' by Terry and Christopher Tan.

[Kirk]

Reid - Hey, that was alot harder than I thought! I'll go ahead and order Shiok when I have a chance - though than I'll have to fine somewhere to eat Singaporean Food around here!

[elmomonster]

Kirk,

Thanks for this report! How fascinating about your mom's handwritten cookbook. That sounds like a story for "This American Life."

Anyway, if you can believe it, I own no cookbooks. Not one! Nada.

I cull my recipes from FoodNetwork.com, sometimes from Chowhound's home cooking board, and my own mom.

Whenever I end up cooking though, I often have a list of ingredients that need a recipe, not the other way around. So I usually do a search on those ingredients and with the wonders of Google, I usually get a hit. Then, I find specifics on how to cook the meal with Chowhound, FoodNetwork, or my mom's help.

Pathetic eh?

One book I'll probably buy just as a coffee table book is Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook. I don't think I'll ever be brave enough to attempt to cook anything from the book though.

[Kirk]

Elmo - No cookbooks!!! You must be the best cook of all of us, a daredevil, cooking by the seat of your pants!!!! LOL! Thanks for responding - and yes, Sam Woo "Ba-Be-Que" is good stuff!

[Pam]

awwww man, you made me cry with that section about your mom's notebook...

[Kirk]

Pam - Thanks... but wipe those tears away, I'm waiting for your 5 cookbooks!!!!

[stef]

hello there :) i just wanted to say that i have Fu Pei Mei's book too. My mom in law lived in Taiwan for a while and she bought that book when she was there. She gave me the book when I visited her the last time - a treasured one.

[Kirk]

Stef - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. That's really a nice little story. I found the stories and reasoning behind the selection of the 5 cookbooks in this meme fascinating.

[Jo]

wow ::speechless::

::but not for long:: Ya know what Kirk? I have a spiral bound notebook that I started writing stuff in when I was about 13 years old. Recipes, poems, stuff. I hope it will be something special for my children one days.

P.S. Thanks for the Tag!

[Kirk]

Jo - Based on all those stream of consiousness recipe thoughts flowing through your mind I just knew you had one of those! I'm sure they'll be treasured. Mine's however are written on the back of grocery receipts and yellow legal pads & I can never find them when I need them....LOL!
Have fun with the meme!

[Jo]

hey man... ::sniff:: =o) You made me happy cry. Thank you for the kind words, they are a balm.

Most of mine are typed as well. One day I hope to publish the great American cookbook. Or at least have a special conpendium (sp?) that I can leave for my children and grandchildren.

[milgwimper]

Kirk,

I totally understand ya, I have several loose leaf papers, grocery reciepts, books old school newsprints etc with recipes. It is the most treasured cookbook I own. Thanks for the great write up I know this is late but hey I'm catching up!

Milgwimper

[Kirk]

Mills - LOL, thanks for the comments....it's amazing what these little "moments in time" mean to us, isn't it?

[milgwimper]

Kirk,

Yes, they do have a specialness about them. I think it gives a little more life to the recipes and well anyways I feel alittle more closer to my grandmother and great aunts. :D Im really enjoying you blog!

milgwimper

[Kirk]

Milgwimper - Thanks again, I enjoy your comments - please keep them coming!

[Jeff C]

Kirk,
Hey I stumbled upon Fuchsia Dunlop's wonderful books when I went in to browse the William Sonoma store. So now I've ordered the "Land of Plenty" and her latest Hunan one. Can't wait to read it. I also got Carl Chu's book and there is another book which I can't remember the title where the author traveled all over China and sampled all the regional cuisines and recommended all the most well known restaurants in each region.
That would have to be my dream job. Anyways, hope all is well with you and the Missus.

[Kirk]

Hi Jeffrey - I hope all is well, and you're keeping nice and cool! I preordered the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, but still have not really gotten into the meat and bones yet. I hope you enjoy reading and cooking from them.