Tran divides her book by rice, sauces, appetizers and salads, soups, main dishes, and desserts and beverages. She mixes lemon juice and lemon zest to create the Lemon Rice she serves with chicken and seafood. There's also a recipe for sticky rice with peanuts. Her sauces include such standards as Sweet and Sour Fish Sauce and Sweet and Sour Soy Sauce. Among the appetizers you will find spring rolls, both fried and fresh. Also, Shrimp Mung Bean Rice Cakes. There's a Papaya Shrimp Salad as well as a Lime Steak Salad. The wonderful Beef Noodle Soup (Pho Bo) is represented. Main dishes include Ginger Chicken, Honey Roasted Quail, Sesame Spareribs, Caramel Shrimp, Lemongrass Fish, and Vietnamese Crab Cakes. . --Schuyler Ingle   

Authentic Vietnamese Cooking offers remarkable insight into the history and details of this seemingly simple yet enchantingly sophisticated cuisine. In addition to the four groups of condiments essential to Vietnamese cooking (sweet, pungent Nuoc Cham, vinegared vegetables, sate, and table salad), Trang gives recipes for rice-paper-wrapped Summer Rolls, filled with rice noodles, pork, and shrimp, and Mint Rice with Shredded Chicken. Requiring only rice, chicken stock, shallots, fresh mint, and cooked chicken, it has the clean and layered flavors typical of Vietnamese food. Western sensibilities may recoil at Trang's brief, honest discussion of the exotic meats served in Vietnam, including dog, snake, and monkey, served mostly to demonstrate machismo or status (no recipes are given). Christopher Hirsheimer's artistic black-and-white photos enhance the poetic simplicity of Trang's deeply involving text. --Dana Jacobi  

STC is reviving Nicole Routhier's award-winning classic, The Foods of Vietnam, in a paperback format, to satisfy the appetites of the broad audience that is attracted to Vietnamese cuisine.

Opening with the fascinating history of Vietnam's cuisine, Routhier then offers 150 of her favorite traditional recipes. A comprehensive glossary of ingredients, equipment, and techniques provide the background necessary to prepare these dishes. Award-winning food photographer Martin Jacobs presents stunning close-ups of fresh spring rolls, warm beef salad, and more.

"Vietnamese cuisine is light, subtle, and packed with flavor," writes Mogens Tholstrup, owner of the London restaurant Bam-Bou, whose cooking Lemongrass and Lime celebrates. The work of chef Mark Read, Lemongrass and Lime features 70 recipes based on traditional Vietnamese cooking--a delightful blend of Chinese, Indian, and French culinary influences that dips into modernity with the use of unconventional ingredients like fresh dill and teriyaki sauce. The dishes, such as Barbecued Pork Ribs with Hoisin Sauce, Pan-Fried Duck Breast with Crispy Cabbage and Sesame Soy Dressing, Coconut Curried Vegetables, and Raw Marinated Salmon with Cucumber and Cilantro, are mouthwatering. Readers should be aware, however, that the book, published originally in the U.K., has been inadequately adapted for American cooks. . --Arthur Boehm 

The Book of Vietnamese Cooking provides a fine introduction to this elegant Southeast Asian cuisine. Author Dei-ta Hsiung gives enough information in this slim volume to explain the subtleties of Vietnamese food, how it evolved, and how it differs from that of its neighbors. In addition to a picture of the completed dish, for all 80 recipes you will find three to six color photos showing key steps in their preparation. The glossary of ingredients describes every item called for in the recipes and explains how to use them. Likewise, the section on equipment tells what you need.

Along with familiar Vietnamese dishes like Shrimp Paste on Sugar Cane, Green Papaya Salad, and Chicken with Lemongrasss, The Book of Vietnamese Cooking includes such regional choices as Hot Pot from the north. Vegetarians will be pleased to find a recipe for the classic dipping sauce made without the ubiquitous fish sauce, and for Vegetarian Fried Noodles. --Dana Jacobi