101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die: Discover a New World of Flavors in Authentic Recipes Paperback – June 27, 2017

*I've updated my review since I originally published it. I first wrote the review 3 days after I received the book and had only made a few recipes. Now I've cooked my way 1/3 of the way through! My glowing 5-star review remains the same.*I’m a major Asian food snob (or at least I like to think I am) – I used to live in South Korea and spent a year travelling Asia. I also own so many cookbooks that I have to hide Amazon packages from my boyfriend so he won’t see I bought another cookbook. :) I pre-ordered this book because I just love Jet Tila! I watch him on Cutthroat Kitchen, I follow him on Instagram, and I watch his AWESOME Facebook Live cooking demos. This book basically covers most of Asia (Thai food, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, India, etc) – and Jet is one of the few chefs I trust to be able to pull off a whole continent. I did not need another cookbook (especially Asian food.. I own every Korean cookbook written in the last 15 years & about 25 other Asian cookbooks..), but this book is just stellar & we’ve had Jet’s recipes for dinner 3 nights in a row now!The typical cookbook has only a couple recipes that sound good & I may make 1 or 2 things out of the entire book. Looking through this book, EVERY SINGLE recipe sounds delicious! “Oh, I should make that! Oh, I bet we have the ingredients for that. Ohhh, maybe I’ll make that! Oh, that looks good!!” I’ve read the book cover-to-cover, and I just love Jet’s comments and pointers on each recipe & the abundance of pictures.So far, I’ve made Korean spicy grilled chicken, Pad Thai, and panang chicken curry. All 3 recipes turned out spectacularly! The Korean chicken was perfectly balanced sweet & spicy, just as I remember from Korea. I’ve made pad thai twice in the past, and it’s SUCH a hassle & mine always has turned out a little mushy and oddly thick. This recipe is written in a far more approachable way vs. the unnecessarily complicated recipes I’ve attempted to follow in the past. Jet’s tips on when you the noodles are done with their soak, when they’re done being stir-fried, and when you add the sauce to finish were all key for making the perfect dish. I was so impressed! Neat to read Jet’s family was one of the first to bring Pad Thai to America 40 years ago.I received this book in the mail on a work day, so I’m looking forward grocery shopping this weekend to stock my pantry, so I can make things other than just the chicken recipes. I love that there are no wacky, impossible-to-find ingredients in this book. No special trips to Asia required to find some sauce they only make it a little village in the middle of nowhere.. I live in the boonies of Northern California & every ingredient is wildly available in our grocery store or the little Asian market.I’m obsessed with Thai sticky rice, so I’m excited about the straight-forward instructions on how to make it! I’ve looked online in the past & it always seemed too complicated. Can’t wait to make the sticky rice & then to Jet’s mango sticky rice. YUM. The coconut chicken soup sounds delicious, Jet’s famous drunken noodles, as well as miso roasted cod – I always buy cod and never know what to do with it. I could go on & on about which recipes I'm excited to make, but then I will have listed everything in the book...This is a very non-intimidating, yet wonderfully authentic cookbook everyone should own. I’m going to see how many nights in a row I can make dinner out of this book, but I don’t think I’ll have a problem trying every recipe. 3 nights down, maybe 60 more to go! Go buy this book, it’s awesome!

Text is quiet understandable and straightforward in this age of illiteracy. Easy to flip to what you want and then lay flat unlike a paperback. We also appreciate how he weaves food and cultural history into his narrative. Try the sweet and sour pork!

My Asian Cusine partner (grandson) liked this surprise gift. He says it easier to follow than most and a good addition to his cookbook collection. He has adventurous taste buds.

I made a mistake of reviewing this book based trying its Pad Thai recipe that was published online at a site called Eater dot com, I gave the recipe a try before purchasing the book. I thought that the recipe caters to the taste of American palate and also contains confusing quantities. For example, the recipe calls for "3 cups (750 g) medium rice sticks, soaked. I can tell you that 750 g of soaked or fresh or dried noodles would never be measurable by cups. And this 3 cups of rice stick would not feed 4-6 people, as the recipe suggests. If you use fresh rice noodles (the same kind used for Pho) and measure 750 grams of it, and then soak it in water, then you'd have too much noodles and not enough shrimps, chicken and sauce to properly season it. Also, the shrimp and chicken are not seasoned in the recipe. As such, chicken and shrimp can taste pretty bland after being cooked.Update: After writing my initial review, I bought a copy of the book and read it. I am glad that I added this book to my collection of well over 100 cookbooks. I bought the book, even though I didn't think the Pad Thai recipe was great. I changed my mind because there are other dishes that make lots of sense and appeal to my interest. The book is very attractive with great photos, easy to read and is of high quality. Surprisingly, there is a recipe for naan bread! I am glad that Jet Tila reached out to me after reading my initial review.

I bought this book for my husband a few years ago. We really don't do cookbooks. Just usually print things off on-line and put them in a binder. We have this book and its companion (101 Thai dishes) out every week. They have great recipes that if not gluten free already, then we have found them easy to modify. Well written, great pictures, and well sized, this is a great addition to a cooking library.

Very happy so far after making 2 dishes. I can say these are definitely 'American' sized portions. I cook for 2 and 1/2'ed the recipes for 4 and there was a LOT of food. Very delicious, can't wait to make almost everything in here. Have to wait until I'm 95 or so to make all of them

A great way to learn to cook a lot of dishes I used to eat when going out, but can no longer find since I have moved. Instead of going without, I have decided to learn how to cook them instead. Mr Tila has created a well written book that lays out the instructions in a clear manner, and the ingredients are easy to find, or order. Last night I made the fresh spring rolls for a friend, and they tasted like the ones from the Vietnamese restaurant I used to go to. I was very happy to be able to have that treat again. I am a well seasoned cook, but Asian food is the genre I have the least experience with. I look forward to learning, with Mr Tila as the teacher through this cookbook.

Different recipes and easy to cook. I wish the book would have been hard cover.