Southern Flavours | Book Review

My first book review as part of the Blog Adda book review program, tough I’ve done some reviews earlier. When I volunteered to review books on Blog Adda, I was excited and eagerly waiting for it, in spite of the super busy times I’m having currently. May be I’ll work well, when under pressure! The last post I did was for an even hosted by a friend, that too on the last day, and so is this review as it has to be done within 7 days.

The author, Chandra Padmanabhan, has collated some every day South Indian dishes and given recipes in simple steps in this nice book named Southern Flavors.

• First impression of the book (very important to me!) is impressive with a hard cover, and a comfortable size, though I did not find the cover pic that attractive.
• As you flip through the pages, there is some introduction to South Indian food, South Indian cooking and paraphernalia required for some dishes.
• You see a variety of recipes categorized into different sections as per the course of a typical South Indian meal and ingredients and recipes neatly laid out in easy to follow manner.
• Rice being the staple in most South Indian cooking, can be made in various ways and the author has laid out clear instructions on making rice in 3 different ways, with detailed steps, making it ideal for even beginners.
• Along with detailed step by step method for preparation, every recipe also contains information about the time required to get the dish ready, and the yield of the final dish using the quantity of ingredients mentioned.
• The quantities of ingredients are clearly mentioned, along with the common names sometimes in Hindi / local language from where the dish originates.
• The original local names of each dish is preserved, while giving a translation in English for anyone new to roughly get a picture of what each dish is about.
• On the flip side, I personally did not find the pictures very attractive mostly because of my expectations of food photography for books has risen after seeing fellow bloggers’ food pictures. Though there are not pictures of each and every dish, the ones that are present are named appropriately unlike some books with no names on pictures.
• The little illustrations of ingredients/vegetables below every recipe makes the book interesting.
• The author gives credit to whomever she learnt each recipe from, be it her Mother-in-law, or a friend, or a cook or a friend or a chef or some Shiela aunty she met at a health camp.
• I personally felt the book contains more of recipes from Tamil Nadu when compared to the other states (has some recipes mostly from specific regions of the other states). May be a few more from other regions would have balanced it better.
• Also ideal for gifting for to new brides married into south Indian families.
• However, I found the book slightly overpriced at Rs.599/-

Overall, it is a good keeper of a book, with everyday cooking recipes from South India, ideal for beginners with basics and for experienced cooks with the array of dishes. A good work by the author Chandra Padmanabhan, who is a graduate from Calcutta University, did her post graduation in education at Delhi University and has long been associated with the publishing industry, with cooking that has been her forte for nearly four decades.
Thank you, BlogAdda for this opportunity to review a cook book.
Pic Courtesy - The Hindu epaper.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!