It features many ingredients which have made these cuisines popular world-wide and it claims to cater for people of all ages who have chosen to stop eating animal products yet still want some spice in their diet.

The 192 pages hold over 200 recipes. Soups, salads, side dishes and snacks, main dishes plus noodle and rice dishes and even deserts and drinks are covered.

Some are unexpected like tapioca with mung beans, ginger salad, green tea ice cream, to name but three. Curry with split pea fritters, a popular snack in Burma, tempted the taste buds as did pumpkin in coconut cream. Braised onions and potatoes was also noted.

And the work includes highlights from Japan (scattered sushi), to China (spicy tofu), to Vietnam (spring rolls) and Thailand (tom yum soup). Over 50 additional basic recipes for curries, sauces, pastes and dips are covered and the book boasts 32 colour pages. A glossary of spices is a great idea and the author has chosen recipes that have been enjoyed for generations.

This is a book where the instructions were easy to follow and the flavours flood out, but a drawback is that some of the ingredients were a little hard to get in a normal store.

Nigel Duncan