Gift Ideas for Curious Cooks: Asian Cookbooks, Cooking Classes, Woks and Knives

This year, holiday gift giving is a bit more complicated. Many of us are likely to not gather to celebrate with folks outside of households. I usually come up with suggestions on my own but in 2020, folks asked me for ideas! People emailed and direct messaged me via social media. Of course, I’ve got lots of opinions on what to gift curious cooks interested in Asia, its history, culture and foodways. 

Admittedly, these suggestions skew toward gifts that I’ve gifted myself or would love to receive from others. Regardless, they ship well and most may be mail ordered. They are pandemic appropriate. 

I cannot cover everything here so if you have extra ideas or suggestions, weigh in via comments!

Trusty East Asian Cookbooks

A couple weeks ago, Massimo emailed asking for cookbook suggestions to add to his lifelong learning. Gifting yourself means you will never be disappointed. I like his style! When asked where he lived and what he was looking for, Massimo responded: 

I’m from Rome, I like cooking and I do that very well. I can get any kind of ingredients by shopping in Rome or by internet.

About the recipes I’m interesting in, a well-done book where is the also the story of the recipe (very similar to your book as the Pho Cookbook or Vietnamese Food Any Day); easy or complicated it’s not important.

Boy, so many choices from my shelves to consider. In an earlier email, he expressed specific interest in exploring Chinese and Japanese cooking. With culinary travel and good cooking instruction in mind (e.g., books written by good teachers), I look at my shelves for possibilities.

For Chinese cooking, Fuchsia Dunlop is excellent. Several of her works focus on Sichuan and Hunan. As a nice overview, Every Grain of Rice offers wonderful recipes for simple Chinese home cooking. 

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kiam Lam Kho is wonderful and technique driven. For something more expansive, All Under Heaven by Carolyn Philips is encyclopedic. If you want to master Chinese food through one tool, Grace Young's Breath of the Wok and/or Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge are essential.

Moving eastward to Japan, Sonoko Sakai's Japanese Home Cooking is solid. Japanese Soul Cooking by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat is fun and easy-going. I have all of Elizabeth Andoh’s excellent books. Nancy Singleton Hachisu writes rich and insightful books, too. 

If Massimo had also asked for Korean cookbooks, I’d suggest Maangchi’s books for a broad variety of recipes and The Kimchi Cookbook by Lauryn Chun for a focused deep dive.

Reliable South and Southeast Asian Cookbooks

For Indian cookbooks, Julie Sahni never disappoints and Priya Krishna's Indian-ish charms with fun-filled family recipes. Madhur Jaffrey's collection is a stunning testament to South Asian culinary prowess.

Jim Oseland's Cradle of Flavor covers classic Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean for a reliable survey of the region. Also see below for a new Indonesian book I'm keen on.

Andy Ricker and Austin Bush document Thai recipes with fervor and honesty. Neela Punyaratabandhu (see below) is fantastic for accessible recipes.

Recently Published Cookbooks

In 2020, I added about a dozen cookbooks to my collection. Dumplings are always of interest so I'm jazzed about the Nom Wah Cookbook which features dim sum recipes from the namesake restaurant, plus heartfelt stories about food people in New York Chinatown. A delightful combination between the covers.

I’m usually skeptical of chef cookbooks but Hooni Kim’s My Korea is good. His tteokbokki spicy rice cake recipe that I test drove offered lots of kitchen lessons. 

When the weather warms up, you’ll be ready with Flavors of the Southeast Asia Grill by Leela Punyaratabandhu, who also authored Simple Thai. Her crying tiger grilled beef salad was divine! While the weather is cool, you can cook that dish on a stovetop grill.

If you love Southeast Asian doughy delights, Chris Tan’s The Way of Kueh is a must-have. It published last year in Singapore and was a huge success in the region. Chris demystifies many tricky Asian pastries. I nudged American cookbook shops to stock it, and you can get a copy via Kitchen Arts and Letters (linked right above) in NY. As of this writing, it’s on backorder so make sure you reserve a copy.

Lara Lee's Coconut and Sambal offers modern and considerate Indonesian insights. She's careful to pay attention to tradition while also offering ideas for cooks to do things a bit easier.

Nik Sharma's Flavor Equation positions itself as a food science book, but what it does nicely is center South Asian traditions in the discussion on how excellent food gets crafted. Most food science books push Asian foodways to the side.

A bestseller in the U.K., Meera Sodha’s East is full of verve and inspiration for plant-based (vegan and vegetarian) cooking. I reviewed and endorsed the book early on. Her spirit and love of cooking shines bright in every recipe. 

For a quirky cookbook on South Asian foodways, get Usha’s Pickle Digest: The Perfect Pickle Recipe Book by Usha R. Prabakran. It’s charming and informative. I read about India’s “Pickle Queen” in a splendid New York Times story and had to purchase her book.

Where to Buy Books

I've linked to mostly Amazon for convenience, and as stated on this site, your purchase there may result in a small referral fee to support the operation of Viet World Kitchen.

That said, if you shop like me, also check in with local indie bookshops, as well as cookbook shops like Omnivore Books, Now Serving LA, Book Larder and Kitchen Arts and Letters. They're agile and may get you the books faster than you know who!

Cookbook Gift Kits

Two people asked me on Instagram about assembling gift kits around my books, Asian Tofu and Vietnamese Food Any Day. 

The Soyajoy tofu making kit that Jacob was considering looks good, so I gave it a thumb’s up. There are more expensive kits and less expensive kits (this one seems okay despite its poor English description), depending on your tofu making budget. I also suggested a supply of excellent Laura soybeans to keep Jacob busy for a spell. 

Luke in Denver was so thoughtful in his ideas for his mom:

For the sake of this post, I pulled ingredients from my fridge and cupboards to show you options. I suggested condiments like fish sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce.

Throw in some rice paper and some rice and you’ve got a great gift.  Note that Son fish sauce is excellent but harder to find than Red Boat. If you see it, grab a bottle or two (one for you and one for your giftee). 

Virtual Cooking Classes

Online cooking classes are trending all over the globe. This email from Europe recently landed in my inbox:

I am mailing you since I would like to give away for my father an online cooking course as a Christmas gift. Of course it is going to be a surprise! 

However, are you able to help me out in suggesting some of them if there are any? He is interested in Asian cooking (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese...)

I responded with these suggestions:

What a good idea for your father. I suggest a Craftsy class. 

They are good, and your father can watch over and over. I made two classes — Asian Dumplings and Vietnamese Classics.  Grace Young — also a well-known cookbook author and good teacher, taught a Chinese cooking class on stir-frying. Elizabeth Andoh — one of my favorite authors and friend, taught a Japanese basics class. You must search for Asian, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese. The site is not perfect for finding things easily. 

Here's another option but it flexibility because it's a onetime live streamed Vietnamese Home Cooking class that I just set up with Milk Street Kitchen for March 10, 2021.

Woks and Knifes

For tools, a good wok will pay off handsomely for years. Here’s a question from Instagram:

I pointed the person to my wok buying guide. One thing I want to add is this — on my new stove, the round-bottomed cast iron wok from the Wok Shop is marvelous atop the cast iron wok ring without having to use the terracotta feet mentioned in the linked post. Any round-bottomed wok will work atop the ring but that cast iron one is a joy.

And if you’d like to gift yourself or someone a good knife to keep them sharp(!), here’s my knife buying guide, which includes other favorite cooking tools too.

There you have it. Folks asked for guidance and I hope I delivered in time for the holidays. If it arrives late, it could be a New Year's gift, yes?

Again, if you have suggestions, please add them in comments here!