A Wok Through Time

By Sam Leong

Given that Leong holds the spiffy title of director of kitchens for the Tung Lok Group, we won’t blame you if you are worm out even before getting to the end of the ingredients list! But there are some truly great gems here, like the baked cod marinated with superior soy sauce and honey and warm glutinous rice with sauteed minced beef, which I whipped up in less than half an hour. The steps for these were relatively easy to follow. I was tempted to try the crispy lychee stuffed with crab meat in mint curry sauce, but decided againts it after counting a total of 17 ingredients.

Asian Tapas

By Christopher Megel and Anton Kilayko

The recipes are for tapas, but I couldn’t imagine following five separate fiddly recipes just for a dinner party. The trick is to serve one as a starter, then follow up with all-in-one dishes like spaghetti or pot roast. My favourites were the no-fuss chicken and coriander corn fritters (just mix everything and fry), and focaccia buns with Thai basil and olives (just mix everything and bake).

The Complete Book Of Sushi

By Hideo Dekura, Brigid Treloar, Ryuichi Yoshii

The pictures were so beautiful, I wanted to try everything. The problem was that almost all the ingredients looked like they were only available at Japanese specialty supermarkets like Isetan or Meidi-ya. I tried only the supposedly-simple omelette sushi, but ended up throwing everything away. Lesson learnt: Chinese wine is no substitute for mirin. Sigh.