The Nourishing Asian Kitchen
Sophia Nguyen Eng
Chelsea Green Publishing
The Nourishing Asian Kitchen is absolutely beautiful and spot on. It educates and encompasses a broad scope of popular Asian dishes and sauces, all in keeping with Wise Traditions principles. These clearly were a source of inspiration for the author, as they had transformed her family’s eating habits and consequently their health.
With her Vietnamese background and her husband’s Chinese and Taiwanese heritage, they were both exposed to nourishing nose-to-tail eating from a young age. Living in California as a young married couple, they learned about (and enjoyed) Korean, Japanese and Thai cuisine, as well. When health concerns led them to embark on an overhaul of their diet, they knew they still wanted to enjoy these foods, but they wanted to prepare them in the most nourishing way possible, avoiding seed oils and MSG, for example.
In the book’s introduction, Sophia says “I knew that adopting [Joel] Salatin’s approach to agriculture and Wise Traditions approach to nutrition would serve our family well, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to do it in the context of a modern first-and second-generation immigrant family. I was beginning to suspect that we were going to have to make it up as we went along…. Focusing on a few key staples was the first step in a years-long journey we took to recreate the Asian dishes our family loved so they would be more nourishing and nutrient-dense.” This book is proof positive that she has hit the mark.
Sophia sets out to educate the reader about nutrition and points them to resources that can help them on their journey. In the “Getting Started” chapter, she explains in detail the dietary guidelines set forth by WAPF. She describes the GAPS diet, promoted by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.
Sophia also takes the time to go over the most essential ingredients for a nutrient-dense diet. She describes the wonders of raw milk, the importance of animal fats and meat from regenerative farms and why we should avoid rancid seed oils. She reviews the fat-soluble activators and the benefits of arachidonic acid, found in pastured meats, for example. This makes the book an excellent resource for those new to this way of eating and a great way for the rest of us to brush up on the basics.
Sophia prefaces the recipe section with a chapter on “Mastering the Basics,” where she goes over how to make a variety of bone broths, including fish broth, gelatinous chicken bone broth and pork bone broth. She notes that for the latter—the pork bone broth—there is traditionally an additional step for ridding the impurities from the broth. It includes placing the bones in a stockpot of boiling water, returning it to a boil for an additional five minutes to release impurities that then float to the top as scum. Rather than just skimming that off, as some might do, she recommends dumping the bones and water into a clean sink and rinsing the bones under running water to remove any clinging residue. Then the pot can be refilled, and the bones returned to it, along with the onion, ginger and peppercorns, where the broth-making process continues.
I can’t begin to tell you how thorough the book is! There’s a section on varieties of rices and what you can do with them. There’s a complete chapter on sauces and seasonings, including recipes for tamarind dipping sauce, fermented anchovy sauce and black garlic butter. There’s a chapter dedicated to recipes for vegetables and sides, poultry and eggs, beef, lamb and even offal.
I gained understanding about what it takes to make decent (and healthy) phö, accompanying sauces and even pickled daikon. I was inspired. But I couldn’t very well recommend this book without at least trying a recipe or two. (Isn’t that the gold standard for any cookbook? Are the recipes replicable and as tantalizing as they appear?)
I’m happy to report that the answer is a resounding “yes” (at least for the Vietnamese “Rotisserie” Chicken Thighs and the “Mango Sticky Rice”). You may need to try some of the other recipes for yourself and see what you think!
Just don’t get discouraged (as I did at first) by the layout of the recipes. I did find myself wishing that the recipe steps were presented differently, with bullet points or numbers, rather than in paragraph form. I also had to overcome my own hesitance at trying some recipes-within-recipes, when sauces or broths had to be made first, before diving into the main recipe.
Be that as it may, I believe Sophia achieved the goal she relayed near the start of the book. “Guided by the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation, this cookbook aims to rekindle your appreciation for the wisdom of our ancestors and inspire you to embark on a culinary journey that blends cultural heritage with modern health-consciousness. Join us as we rediscover the nourishing traditions of Asian cuisine, one recipe at a time.” This is why this book, in my estimation, merits a happy, healthy thumbs up.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Winter 2023
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