Recipe Books

Are you a recipe book junkie? Well, I am. Guilty as charged. I go to the bookstore and head straight to the cookbook section. Never mind that I already own close to 90 cookbooks and still counting. I breeze past the romance, fiction, non-fiction and even my old favorites -  murder, horror and the occult. Those were the days before I was domesticated. Now I don't have time for murder and mayhem, I'm so into baking (okay, so I murder a few cakes like this one).

A series of Kak Liza's cookbooks.

And have you ever flipped through a cookbook at the store and found only one recipe that you want? It is such a waste to buy the whole book just for that one recipe. So what do you do? My Aunt would memorize the recipe. That's right, upload all the data into her brain and quickly download with pen and paper when she gets home.

Once we went shopping. My Aunt found 2 recipes and she memorized one and I the other. By the time we got home after our heavy lunch, all the uploaded data was duly erased from our "hard disk".

Our friend and fellow blogger Shahriah has published a cookbook.

Lately, my Aunt's memory isn't so good (mine isn't improving either). One lazy Sunday afternoon my phone beeped. I got an sms from her. It went something like this :

5tc, 1m, 1fl, don't cover

A cryptic message from my Aunt. What could it be? Was she in trouble? Knowing my Aunt, I need not worry as she is quiet a feisty lady. The potential kidnapper or robber would be begging her to leave them alone. The next day she called and I asked her what her mysterious message was about. She burst out laughing and told me it was a recipe she keyed in to her phone.

She was keen on a recipe when her phone beeped at the bookstore. It was from the bank, you know one of those messages that you could do without. That gave her an idea to key in the recipe on pretense of replying to the sms. So with shifty eyes, my Aunt did an abbreviated take on the recipe and messaged it to me. The things we do to save money. Then I read a post by Lena where she mentioned snapping a photo of a recipe at the bookstore. I couldn't help smiling.

With such a vast collection of cookbooks, you probably think that I have cooked many wonderful dishes for my family. Actually, no. Most of the time, I flip through the books and admire the pictures. Like this one :

Beef Salad Nicoise from Reader's Digest Vegetables for Vitality.

Or this one :

Chicken Stew with Winter Squash & White Beans from Reader's Digest Vegetables for Vitality.

And I go "Hmmm....this dish looks nice. Maybe I'll cook this". Then I flip some more. And then I go and cook what I cooked last week. 

If you have been following me, you would notice that I hardly bake. Phong Hong Bakes indeed! What a misnomer. I recently purchased this :

If you are interested, you can get this from MPH Online.

I do the same thing. I flip and ogle at the photos. And look at this, isn't it a beauty?

Upside-Down Orange and Pomegranate Cheesecake from Favorite Cupcakes and cheesecakes.

Never mind what Kashta cheese is, I just love the photo. 

Kashta Cheesecake from Favorite Cupcakes and Cheesecakes.

I love Indian food. I am always in awe of the spice mix, the exciting flavors and aroma. So I bought this :

As I thumbed through the content, I was very excited as I now possess in my hands the formula to concoct my favorite mutton curry. But alas, Indian food is complex :

All those flavors that tantalize the palate do not come easy. The list of ingredients is long and the preparation arduous. And I do what I always do, I flip the pages some more and get my curry fix from the Indian restaurant the next day. 

And I even bought this :

I have only read 1/4 of the book and did not make much progress since. It was too technical for me. If I want any wine related information, I'll just conveniently hop over to Chef and Sommelier.

Being more familiar with Nyonya and Malay cooking, I wanted to get acquainted with my roots so to speak. Perhaps, I could learn a thing or two on Chinese cuisine from these :

From Chinese Cuisine by Huang Su-Huei

The Crispy Chicken recipe had me all geared up until I learnt that you had to hang the chicken in a well ventilated area for 8 hours. Plan cancelled.

I also bought this, for God's sake :

Very informative, I learned quite a bit on various cuisines from the many Chinese provinces.

Will I continue to buy more cookbooks? I've sworn not to so many times already, so you can be sure if a good recipe book catches my eye, I'll go for it.

I used to read this stuff.