Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes: The First Cookbook from the Cult Food Magazine

I've had this book for about 2 years now and several of these recipes are in heavy, craveworthy, rotation. I have found most of the ingredients I need at Whole Foods and here on Amazon (specifically curry paste... don't waste your time with Thai Kitchen curry paste for dishes like Massaman Curry, get the Mae Ploy curry paste at a well stocked Asian market, or online, and be reborn). I do live in Chicago and near several specialty Asian markets, so it is without a doubt that my access to harder to find ingredients is better than most. Though, most of what I have needed to get started exploring Asian food through this book is shelf stable and available online, or found at better stocked "Anglo" grocers.I loved Lucky Peach and was a reader from issue one, and when I learned the overall concept of this book: Nothing fried, no side recipes, I was even further sold. This book makes it so easy to toss together something flavorful and satisfying on a weeknight.Our favorites are:Spicy Cold Celery (The perfect way to clear out extra celery languishing in the crisper, or just buy some celery and make this, ok?)Chineasy Cucumber Salad (perfect summertime side)Dollar Dumplings (I prep a double batch of these at a time, they are always in the freezer for an easy meal, over rice with kimchi, and/or with some steamed veg and one of the super sauces, or boiled into a soup/stew.)Vegetable Dumplings (also always in our freezer for an easy meal to be eaten like the dollar dumplings)Doenjang Jigae (simple, delicious, and nuanced. Incredible comfort food for a cool night)Chicken Noodle Soup (I neglected this recipe for a while because it looked too basic. My boyfriend was sick recently and I decided to make it to help nurse him back to health. We both LOVED it. The seeping of the chicken created a delicately spiced, plainly chickeny, broth that lent itself well to any number of applications. I doctored it up like ramen some days, and ate it plain on others. The cooked chicken is also DIVINE. Not dry or overcooked. I loved tossing the chicken with Spicy Chili Crisp and eating it like that over rice or noodles and a little sesame oil. Don't overlook this one if you're looking for something simple and heartwarming, or you're willing to use it as a jumping off point to explore other flavors. I also regret not freezing some of the broth, but I will do that next time.)Massaman Curry (We keep lemongrass and keffir lime leaves in the freezer to make this even more accessible on nights when a trip to Whole Foods or a specialty store is a bridge too far. It's a toss up between this and the Thai style lettuce cups and Miso Claypot Chicken for recipe most made and loved. I have no problem whipping this up on a weeknight and it's quite impressive for company)Stir Fried Asparagus (having eaten at Pok Pok i was dying to try this. This delivers flavor and texture. I dream of this when I'm eating boring steakhouse vegetables on work trips.)Korean grilled Chicken (perfect with rice and kimchi for an easy dinner)Chicken Adobo (Set it and forget it. So much flavor! I will usually make a spice sachet out of cheesecloth rather than trying to strain out the whole spices and aromatics. Awesome with lots of white rice and the asparagus i mentioned before)Miso Claypot Chicken (I add a layer of frozen green beans sprinkled with salt before adding the chicken to make this a one pot meal. the green beans overcook just a bit and the whole thing is comfort food in a bowl... if I don't just eat it right out of the pot.)Thai Style Lettuce Cups (So good. We eat this over rice with chopped raw cabbage. It has also impressed company several times as well as a starter before Massaman Curry. We usually make it with pork, but it is quite delicious with ground chicken thighs for those who are pork adverse.)Ms. Vo Thi Huong's Garlic Shrimp (Decadent and rich, and so easy that even my boyfriend can make it)We also love the Super Sauces and I have been keeping them on hand to add flavor to veggies, or a simple piece of tofu or seared meat/fish when we have odds and ends to use up. The best part about it is that once you have a stocked pantry these come together without too much effort. We love and usually stock:Dave Chang's Ginger Scallion Sauce (get ambitious, invite some people over, and make David Chang's Bo Saam recipe with this as one of the side sauces. You won't regret it)Octo Vinaigrette (Is there anything this doesn't taste great on? I've yet to find it. Mix this into steamed greens and serve with rice and meat/tofu and you've got an impressive meal. It's also plain delicious on rice or as a salad dressing)Odd Flavor Sauce (Wow. We love this on fish in particular. Nutty and unexpected)Having these recipes as a jumping off point to explore Asian cuisine has made me more adventurous in general as a home cook, but I could see being perfectly content to spend more time trying each and every recipe in this book and never tiring of it.I hope you enjoy it as we have!

This is my favorite new cookbook, and maybe my favorite overall based on how much utility I've gotten from it. It presents an incredible range of recipes, and despite cooking my way through it for nearly two months, I have yet to find a weak spot. Don't let the cheeky, retro approach fool you - this is a carefully curated collection of well-tested recipes.*Some overall strengths*- The pantry guides: I own Fuchia Dunlop's excellent "Every Grain of Rice," so I had already been working on assembling a lot of the ingredients needed, but I wish I had these pantry guides when I was doing so.- The approach to ingredients: To cook most of these recipes, you only need a handful of "unusual" ingredients, most of which are shelf-stable and come in large, efficient quantities (e.g. mirin, soy sauce, black vinegar, Shaoxing rice wine) - I like this about EGoR too, but 101 seems to cover more ground and obviously a greater variety of regional cuisine.- The self-imposed limitations: no frying, light on sub-recipes. If I want an all-day project kind of cookbook, I can pull out my copy of Pok Pok. This book is for all the times I want to eat without making 6 different pastes before starting to cook.- The adaptations: My copy of Pok Pok hardly gets used, so I was thrilled to see a recipe in 101 that adapts Andy Ricker's fiddlehead fern treatment for asparagus (with incredible results). I noted some Fuchsia Dunlop adaptations as well, and Danny Bowien, and obviously lots of David Chang. It gives the collection a nice anthology feel.*What I've Cooked*Cold Dishes: Soy Sauce Eggs, Dashimaki TamagoNoodles: Economy NoodlesRice: Onigiri, OmuriceWarm Vegetables: Bok Choy w/Oyster Sauce, Miso-Glazed Eggplant, Stir-fried AsparagusChicken: Oyakodon, Mall Chicken, Miso Claypot ChickenMeats: Cumin Lamb, Lamburgers, Red Roast Pork, Pan-Roasted Rib Eye w/Mrs. Kwok's Black Pepper SauceSauces: Carrot-Ginger Dressing, Nuoc Cham, Odd Flavor SauceAll of these have been varying degrees of excellent. The Lamburgers in particular were incredible and I've made them twice in one week. Likewise, the Odd-Flavor Sauce was phenomenally complex and I want to put it on everything. Even the Mall Chicken really exceeded expectations - I'd spike it with sriracha next time, but it's great to have something I could make from this book to serve to those friends who wouldn't touch a Szechuan peppercorn with a 10-foot pole (and let's be honest - I've eaten a lot of chicken in malls and it makes me nostalgic).In short - this is a charming, tongue-in-cheek approach to a broad swath of cuisines, and it doesn't sacrifice flavor in the name of convenience. As other reviewers have noted, yes, it would be appropriate for a new cook or recent graduate - but don't pass it up on the basis that you, like me, are neither of those things. If you still want to "try before you buy," check the Lucky Peach site, where they've posted some of the book's recipes in full. Then come back here and tell me what you thought so I'm not the only one raving about the Odd-Flavor Sauce.