That's my monthly budget, too! (and as a 200 lb guy I do not have a dainty appetite so you can get plenty of food with that much)

Basically, this limits you from nice steaks and fresh seafood. Everything else is fair game.

My wife and I keep a list of what we've made so if we have trouble thinking of what to cook we can look through a bunch of options. (Note: the $200 monthly budget covers only me, not both me and my wife.)

In a given month, we'll eat:

• Pasta dishes (puttanesca, sauce+meat, sauce+eggplant, aglio e olio, butter/garlic/sage, etc)
  
• Stir fries, either following a recipe or using whatever veggies I have around
  
• Other Asian dishes - bibimbap, mabo dofu, jjajangmyeon (Korean noodles with a thick black bean sauce), kimchi stew, "sushi bowls" (sushi ingredients but usually no fish, and in a bowl of rice instead of wrapped), pad thai, etc
  
• Rice and beans with lots of cumin and garlic, plus celery and carrots and maybe heavy greens to add veggies
  
• Ham and navy bean soup
  
• Pizza (working my way through a recipes from a few different sources, slowly getting closer to actually good pizza, not just "good for homemade" pizza)
  
• Roast chicken! A 4# roast chicken is like $6 at Aldi and seriouseats.com has tasty seasonings
  
• Eggs - mixed with rice and scrambled, fried, poached, in burritos... however. Super cheap, super quick, super easy
  
• Tacos or burritos
  
• Chicken tagine (Moroccan braised chicken that is super flavorful)
  
• Doro wat (Ethiopian onion stew)
  
• "Green soup" served over ravioli (cheese-filled freezer ravioli) - throw a bunch of chopped veggies into chicken stock and boil until cooked, add a bag of spinach to turn it green, and then blend it with an immersion blender when it's done. Top with a drizzle of EVOO and parmesan
  
  A couple caveats: I buy very few prepared foods, very rarely have sandwiches so no lunch meat (it's spendy), and I don't eat breakfast. I do most of my shopping at Aldi and only go elsewhere for things they don't carry like specialty Asian ingredients. We have a couple big Asian groceries nearby that are good for that - we count a few basic sauces as staples that we find it's not too expensive to keep on hand that really open up our options for Asian recipes (soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and fish sauce).
  
  Edit: because this has gotten a good bit of attention I'll mention that we do have a good selection of cookbooks to work from. Not a huge number, but a well curated set that is mostly based on recommendations from friends and the internet, were gifts, or ones we knew were good because former housemates had them.
  
  But if you don't have many and don't want to spend the cash don't worry! Your local library should have a bunch, and many resources (that are less hit-or-miss than e.g. allrecipes.com) are available online. Good and Cheap, budgetbytes, and seriouseats (The Food Lab) are in my top 3 (I do have a paper copy from all 3, because I want to support what they do). Other cookbooks that I like, also listed in the "Source" column of the linked google doc:
  
  
• Chinese Takeout Cookbook. Meant to reproduce good American-style Chinese takeout, but often less grease-laden.
  
• Cook's Illustrated Best International Recipes (I think it's this one but I'm not sure - it was a gift and I got rid of the hardcover's sheath). I'm a little ideologically against recipes that use 15+ ingredients of which I only have half on hand, but the moussaka, pad thai, and chicken tagine recipes alone nearly make this book worth it (especially with some judicious substitutions)
  
• Everyday Harumi - I've had great luck with several recipes in here, but I also know that I'm not taking the recipes to their full potential because when my old roommate would cook from his copy it always turned out better.
  
• Maangchi's Kitchen - plenty of tasty, authentic Korean recipes. Like budgetbytes, her cookbook started on the web so all her recipes are available for free via her youtube channel, which is great fun to watch. Korean cooking can be involved so I rarely go beyond the simpler recipes (Korea is the only Asian country I've visited so it's the only one in this list I can speak to the authenticity of)
  
• the bread bible has some very tasty flavored breads (mushroom bread made with duxelle, or a cheddar mustard bread) and decent pizza
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice has yielded some tasty baguettes and quite good pizza
  
• And I only recently got The Pizza Bible and have only managed to try one recipe from it but it turned out great

Aight girl-

Foreign Cuisine-
How to Eataly - Oscar Farinetti - We made the most AMAZING brisket meatballs and a super simple yet completely delicious red sauce out of this book
Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan - Where the Cornish hens and gougeres came from.
Real Korean Cooking - Maangchi - Korean Fried Chicken. We've made them twice now because they're so good and can't wait to do more.
Mexican Everyday - Rick Bayless - Learned how to make perfect guac from this book and so far we've made these v tasty chorizo/mushroom/potato tacos. The recipe is SO cheap and SO voluminous that we had it as a taco filling, a quesadilla filling, and we're making a hash with it for brunch this morning.
Every Grain of Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop - We haven't tried anything out of here yet but there are sooooo many good-looking recipes in here.
Entice with Spice - Shubhra Ramineni - Likewise, haven't made anything out of here yet but looking forward to trying it all out soon.
Jack's Wife Freda - Dean & Maya Jankelowitz - This is actually a book from a restaurant that my fiance and I LOVED when we last visited NYC. It's got a lot of fusion recipes. Mediterranean/Israeli/South African/etc. Really unique flavors and also v comfort-food based. We're making rosewater waffles out of this book tomorrow!


Baking-
Rose's Baking Basics - Rose Levy Barenbaum - This book is incredible. She has tons and tons of step-by-step photos which is SUPER helpful. We made the dark chocolate caramel tart out of this book, but pretty much everything in here looks amazing.
Modern Baking - Donna Hay - I mean... There is some INSANELY decadent looking stuff in here. We haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I can't wait to!


Misc-
Cook Like a Pro - Ina Garten - It was really hard to pick just one Ina book but I liked most of the recipes in this one. She has this ridic recipe for a dijon mustard chicken that is INCREDIBLE. Also, this bitch knows how to cook some veggies. Big fan of this one.
The Food Lab - /u/j_kenji_lopez-alt - I just love this guy, tbh. We've made a really fantastic beef tenderloin out of this book and an incredible red wine sauce to go with it and of course, his famous roasted potatoes which are now my holy grail recipe for roasted potatoes. This book is like a science textbook only instead of boring stuff it's FOOD science, which is my favorite kind.


Those were all the ones we purchased ourselves (though technically Eataly was a gift BUT we love it and plan to use it often.) We have other cookbooks in our stable that we've received as gifts, which is what resulted in my fiance and I deciding we wanted to embark on this journey. We kept being given cookbooks and never doing anything with them. But man, do people love it when you send them pics of stuff you cooked out of a book they gave you. If people give you cookbooks, use them!! It will make their day to see it's being used. Here's what else is on our cookbook shelf-


The Forest Feast Gatherings - Erin Gleeson - This is a vegetarian book my fiance's mom gave us a few years ago for Christmas. We have a bunch of veggie friends (and friends with a lot of different allergies) so we turn to this book to have a few things that are edible by all of them when we have them over, as we often do. This book has a really delicious salad that has pomegranate seeds, pear, and hazelnut that is out of this world good. I also got my HG salad dressing from this book.
The Salad Bowl - Nicola Graimes - Another gift from my fiance's mom. Is she trying to tell us something?? Honestly haven't looked much into this book yet but it sure is pretty.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz - This was a gift from the assistant in my office. Everyone in my office knows me as the Harry Potter girl because I have a lightning bolt tattoo, haha. We haven't made anything out of this yet, but we probably will have some sort of epic feast with recipes from this book when GoT starts back up later this year.
Talk About Good - Louisiana Lafayette Junior League - My boss gave this to my fiance and I as part of an engagement gift. My fiance went to school in New Orleans. It's primarily New Orleansian/Cajun food. Haven't made anything out of it yet, but we are looking forward to it.

And that's what's on our cookbook shelf for now.

edit also omg thanks for the gold!! <3

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:

• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. While I'm generally not big on Chinese cookbooks not specializing in one or two regional cuisines, this book gets a pass because it's so organized and pedantic. It builds itself up from simple to complex and includes recipes which build on each other. It also features a large section on ingredients. An additional pro is that it includes the Chinese characters which makes it easier to find the proper product at your Asian grocer. I love it so much that I lugged this book to Taiwan with me and used it as my cooking guide/reference.
  
• Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Of all the regional Chinese cuisines with which I have experience, I love the multi-layered flavors of Sichuan the most. It was through Dunlop's book that I first discovered this magnificent cuisine and it encouraged me to discover some of the Sichuanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Instructions are clear and she does a great job bringing Sichanese food to life. An absolute must own if you are at all interested in regional Chinese food. Her book on Hunanese food is also pretty killer.
  
  In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
  
  
• Thai Food by David Thompson. This is the bible of Thai food for English speakers. It's nearly 700 pages long and not a page is wasted on fluff. It's more than just a cookbook, it's a anthropological study on Thai people, their history and the way they eat. An immense book. If you are more into pictures, check out his book on Thai Street Food.
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. This was the book that really unlocked Vietnamese food for me. I adore how many fresh herbs/veggies are used and how it creates a complex, yet light, cuisine. And don't get me wrong when I say light...it's as full flavored as can be, but without heaviness. In the interim since this book came out, others have showed up on the market which are as good (see Charles Phan's recent book), but Nguyen's book will always have a special place in my heart.
  
• ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. Thomas Keller is arguably the most important American chef of the past 20 years, so when he turns his sights on homestyle food, you can be sure it's done with correct technique and style. While this book isn't as notable as TFL cookbook or his sorta primer on sous vide cooking, I'm including it because it has recipes which people will actually use. Unparallelled technique, good recipes and delicious food equal a winning cookbook. One note: it's not dumbed down and some of the recipes take time, but everything I've ever made from it has been great.
  
• Alinea by Grant Achatz. {Disclaimer: I worked for Grant Achatz for a couple of years.} Everyone should own at least one cookbook which is completely out of reach, but serves to inspire. When you flip through this book, your jaw will drop and you will wonder, multiple times, "WTF?!?!?!" It's an amazing testament to how open and possible American cuisine is at the moment and you'll do yourself well to flip through it. Additionally, the photographs and the book itself are phenomenal. The paper, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. It's sexy shit, yo.
  
  Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.

Basically gonna echo most of the answers already posted, but just to pile on:

• 8" chef's knife. 10" is longer than may be comfortable and 12" is longer than necessary, but 7" may start to feel a little short if she's ever slicing large melon or squash. I'm a casual knife nerd and I have knives by Wusthof, Victorinox, Shun and Mac. My favorite.
  
  
• This Dutch oven. Enameled and cast iron just like the Le Creuset that a few other comments have mentioned, but much, much cheaper. I own two and they're both great. I also have the non-enameled version for baking bread, but I don't recommend it for general use unless you're a Boy Scout. Here's an entertaingly-written blog post comparing the Lodge vs. Le Creuset in a short rib cookoff.
  
  
• This cutting board and this cutting board conditioner. The importance of an easy and pleasant to use prep surface can't be overstated. I'm listing this third on purpose; this is one of the most important things your kitchen can have. A recipe that calls for a lot of chopping is no fun when you're fighting for counter space to do the chopping, or doing it on a shitty plastic board.
  
  
• A cheap scale and a cheap thermometer. Seriously, these are as important as the cutting board.
  
  
• Just gonna crib this one right off /u/Pobe420 and say cheapo 8–10" (I recommend 10–12" but that's my preference) nonstick skillet. One note I'd add is that pans with oven-safe handles are a bit more dual-purpose than pans with plastic or rubberized handles. You can't finish a pork chop in the oven in a skillet with a rubberized handle. But one could say you shouldn't be cooking a pork chop on a nonstick pan to begin with. The important thing is to keep this one cheap: you're going to be replacing it every couple of years, there's no getting around that. For my money $30 or less, and $30 is pretty expensive for these things.
  
  
  

• Cookbooks
  

  Nothing inspires cooking like a good cookbook collection. The great news about cookbooks is that they're often bought as gifts or souvenirs and they make their way onto the used market cheap and in great condition. Here are my suggestions for a great starter shelf:
  
  

1. The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt. I kind of hate that this is my number one recommendation, but I don't know your wife and I do know J. Kenji López-Alt. This one is brand new so you're unlikely to find it used and cheap, but as a catch-all recommendation it has to take first place. Moving on to the cheap stuff:
   
   
2. Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. This is possibly the friendliest authoritative book on French food out there, and a hell of a lot easier to just dive into than Julia Child (Julia is the expert, and her book is an encyclopedia). Bocuse is the undisputed king of nouvelle cuisine and people like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain (so maybe a generation ahead of you and I) came from him. Paul Bocuse is French food as we know it, and yet this book—an approachable, coffee-table sized thing—still has a recipe for fucking mac and cheese. It's outstanding.
   
   
3. Theory & Practice / The New James Beard by James Beard. These will completely cover your entire library of American cooking. Nothing else needed until you get region-specific. When you do, go for something like this.
   
   
4. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. When she died, the NYT ran a second obituary that was just her recipe for bolognese.
   
   
5. Christ, top five. Who gets 5th? I'm going with From Curries To Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey. Don't get bamboozled into buying "Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible" which is the same book, repackaged and priced higher. You want the one with the hot pink dust jacket, it's unmistakeable. This is one of those end-all books that you could cook out of for the rest of your life. It covers almost every diet and almost every country that Beard and Bocuse don't.
   
   
6. Honorable mentions: Here come the downvotes. Pok Pok by Andy Ricker. If you're American and you want to cook Thai, this is the one. Ten Speed Press can go home now. The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Rosen (so close to making the list). I shouldn't need to say much about this; it's the book of diasporic Jewish food, which means it covers a lot of time and almost every possible country. It's a no-brainer. Thai Food by David Thompson (a perfect oral history of Thai food for English speakers, only it doesn't include Pok Pok's precise measurements, which in practice I've found important). Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Not for someone who just wants to become a baker, this book is for someone who wants to make Ken Forkish's bread. And for a casual bread baker I can't imagine a better introduction. Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham. Andrea Nguyen is out there and Andrea Nguyen is awesome, but I really like Mai Pham's book. It's accessible, reliable and regional. You don't get the dissertation-level breakdown on the origins of chicken pho that you get from Andrea, but the recipe's there, among many others, and it's fucking outstanding. Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This vegan cookbook is dope as hell and will really expand your imagination when it comes to vegetables. This could actually have been number five.

I have the answer for you. Yes, a lot of cookbooks and videos will attempt to give you the "authentic" kind; I myself was consistently disappointed until I found the key. Or keys, actually. A few things they tend to do wrong:

• Too little onion. The gravy in Indian food is based on onions. It's what gives the sauce its smooth body; it acts as a thickener and a very subtle but important flavour enhancer. Can't make Indian food without it. It's not just one onion chopped and then "fried for 5 minutes until translucent". No — you need a whole bunch of onions, cooked (sweated) until tender and then blended into a fine pulp. Some Indian restaurants will also cook the onions with peppers, cabbage and tomatoes, among other things. Sweating the onions for 45-60 minutes is absolutely paramount. Sweated onions develop complex aromatics that taste completely differently from onions that have been just lightly fried in some oil.
  
  
• Too much unconcentrated tomato. Rather, a lot of recipes call for you to plop in a can of chopped tomatoes. This makes no sense: Tomatoes have a lot of water, so you don't get a concentrated gravy out of this, not unless you cook it for hours. It's the same shoddy deception as the classic cook-book illusion that pretends you can caramelize onions in five minutes. No, you need tomato paste: A really concentrated reduction of tomato.
  
  
• No ginger-garlic paste. One of the cornerstones of Indian food (and coincidentally also some middle-eastern cuisines and Thai) is the ginger-garlic paste, but it almos never comes up in recipes. In India you'll find jars of this in the supermarket. Making your own is better. It's what it says: Chopped garlic and ginger, minced in a blender until a fine paste.
  
  
• They skip the blending step. A lot of recipes ask you to combine chopped onions, tomatoes, spices and what not, and you get this chunky mess that is nothing like a true tikka masala. All the flavour is distributed in bits of onion, bits of coriander, watery tomato sauce. A great tikka masala sauce must be blended for about 5-6 minutes until perfectly smooth.
  
  
• Not enough fenugreek. This one is a matter of preference. I think tikka masala absolutely needs to be made with (a modest amount of) fenugreek leaves. To me, it's what turns something good into something awesome.
  
  
• Not enough paneer. Again, this is a matter of preference. Some cooks apparently only add paneer to butter chicken, not tikka masala. For me, the sauce is exactly the same thing (and historically, I think that is right: tikka masala is butter chicken sauce + tikka chicken). Anyway, adding crumbled paneer to a sauce makes it a lot better.
  
  The only recipe I have found to match the stuff you find in restaurants is an ebook by a British cook named Julian Voigt: The Secret to That Takeway Curry Taste. It's amazing. (I'm not affiliated with the author, just a happy customer.)
  
  Voigt runs a small "BIR"-style (British Indian Restaurant, pretty much what you associate with Indian food in the West) takeout place in England. His own recipes come from recipes he learned by working in Indian restaurants before he started his own. And unlike many recipes which claim to be "authentic", they truly are. The book is charmingly amateurishly put together and completely unpretentious.
  
  Voigt's recipe is basically a three-step process, from memory:
  
  
• Onion gravy base. This is, at its most basic, sweated onions + lots of neutral vegetable oil + fresh chili + some tomatoes + garam masala, cooked for about 90 minutes and then blended until perfectly smooth. The base smells like old gym socks and has a brown, goopy, unappealing exterior. It's used as the base for the actual sauce.
  
  
• Tikka masala sauce base. This is yogurt + tomato paste + spice paste + red food dye. Voigt uses a combination of several off-the-shelf Indian spice pastes as a shortcut.
  
  
• Final sauce = heat onion base, add a few spoonfuls of tikka masala sauce base + ginger-garlic paste + coriander leaves + coconut powder (aka coconut flour; a BIR oddity, I believe, but it does makes the sauce mellower) + fenugreek leaves + paneer (optional, it's not in the book) + a little heavy cream to finish.
  
  The whole book is made from the perspective of a restaurant chef, so everything is scaled to large batches. That's why the sauce bases are separate. The nice thing is that you can make 5 liters of onion base and freeze what you don't need; the onion base can be used for all sorts of dishes since it's pretty flavour-neutral.
  
  I highly recommend the book.
  
  Edit: Didn't read the Guardian recipe until now. Yeah, they make those mistakes. The author knows about ginger-garlic paste, but uses a can of tomatoes and doesn't sweat the onions.

I think there are a few books that would help. I don't know of any specific titles but I know there are some fairly famous books that basically talk about flavors and which flavors go with what. They are quite specific and thorough. It'd be worth learning more about that if you try things on your own a lot.

I think something else that really helps is understanding the science behind cooking. Places like The Food Lab are great for that. Check out Kenji's other posts on that site as well, mostly from the Burger lab. He covers a lot of the science and always writes about the full journey. What his goals were, what he tried, what did/didn't work and why. Very useful.

Finally, if you can grill, bake and fry, you might try and play around with the 'new' forms of cooking that are popular. Read up on Sous Vide (The Food Lab has a great article with a beer cooler hack) and Molecular Gastronomy. For MG, this is a great source as well as this and on that blog for a fun read check out this

If you want some good cookbooks with a challenge look for anything by Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, David Chang and a few others. I'd say start with Keller's Ad Hoc. The recipes are things you are familiar with but often quite complex. Check out this for an example. I don't have it myself, but I've heard for lovers of asian food, this is the best book out there.

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

Hey there. Came into this thread for other reasons, but saw the mini-discussion on Indian food and felt compelled to chime in, lol.

A lot of great Youtube chefs exist that focus on the cuisine; VahChef and Manjula in particular stand out. Also sites like ShowMeTheCurry and VegRecipesOfIndia are great, too.

I hear a lot of good things about Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks, though I don't personally own one.

It's a really fascinating and diverse cuisine, since it covers many different regions of the Indian subcontinent with very different cultures, agricultural heritages, religious beliefs, etc., that all influence the food. From super healthy ultra vegan stuff to deep fried goodies, it's got it all :-D

Good luck learning more, and if you wind up with any specific questions, always feel free to shoot me a message :)

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.

For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).

Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.

Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.

And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!

Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.

I'm glad I'm vegan long enough now that I don't even really realize it anymore and don't feel the need to frequent any online vegan spaces. Like any place for any group online there's a lot of stupidity and of course plenty of misogyny.

Vegan spaces I'd put on par with libfem ones for the degree of misogyny that is celebrated. Lots of nudity, lots of imagery of violence. Libfems pretend it's 'for female empowerment'; vegans pretend it's 'for the animals'. Either way it's the same ol' standard rank and file 21st century western misogyny at play. Don't people ever get sick of not thinking for themselves? Not creating anything themselves? It's all so boring and uninspired. I realize that's like the least pressing issue about all of it, but sometimes I just wonder, don't people at least tire of that aspect?

Kind of off topic now but for practical purposes honestly I don't even seek out vegan websites (or subreddits) for recipes anymore. Either figure out my own these days, like the lentil bolognese I made last night (amaaazing), or far better resources are simply picking up non-'western' cookbooks. My latest acquisitions are Samarkand and Taste of Persia. So many amazing, exciting, fresh, flavorful vegetable based recipes that have stood the test of time, that you know are good cause all these countries full of non-vegans are eating them. Next on the wishlist is probably The Malaysian Kitchen, and old favorites are Lebanese Home Cooking and Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook. Sorry I know OT, but I just love cookbooks. What's the word for the cookbook-obsessed? Like foodie, but... cookbookie?

But anyway for fucks sake come on. I assumed most vegans would feel the same as I which is jesus christ people drink some damn almond/soy/oat/rice/bean/flax/whatever milk. I can understand wanting a meat substitute since it is pretty inimitable, but milk? It's just creamy white stuff with some fat protein and sugars. Not hard to imitate, and frankly the plant based versions are superior anyway. I would challenge anyone to stop eating dairy for a year or two, then tell me it doesn't smell rancid and sweaty. You get desensitized to it when you consume it regularly but give yourself a break from it and your nose will pick up on those things big time. But bottom line it's just not necessary. It's the most frivolous, weird, and frankly disgusting part of non-vegan eating. I would think that would be the message (ok probably in more marketable inviting terms), not "well let's just have human women do it". ??? Ultimate facepalm.

I'm guessing you haven't looked yet? Given that most Indian food (I think) is good, and a lot of it is vegetarian, you'd have a hard time finding something not fitting your needs ;)

You might want to take a look a Manjula's Kitchen, a free YouTube-based Indian cooking guide.

A good book I'd recommend (if you really like Indian food) is Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, an 800 page tome with everything you could want. Here's a recipe I made recently which I enjoyed.

---

Cabbage Kofta (Bandhgobhi Kofta)

Preparation and cooking time (after assembling ingredients): about 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

3 1/2 cups (930 ml) finely shredded trimmed cabbage (about 1 lb/455 g)
1-2 hot green chilies, seeded and minced
1/2-inch (1.5cm) piece of peeled fresh ginger root
1/4 cup (25g) grated fresh or dried coconut
1 tsp (5 ml) each turmeric and garam masala
3 Tbps (45ml) finely chopped fresh coriander, parsley or mixed herbs
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
ghee or vegetable oil for deep-frying
about 1 cup (100 g) sifted chickpea flour (sifted before measuring)
a few sprigs of coarsely chopped fresh coriander or minced parsley for garnishing
1 Tbps (15 ml) toasted chopped pumpkin seeds for garnishing

1. Squeeze the shredded cabbage between your palms to extract excess moisture, then blend with the green chilies, ginger, coconut, tumeric, garam masala, herbs, salt and baking powder.
   
2. When you are ready to fry the koftas, being warming 2 1/2 - 3 inches (6.5-7.5 cm) of ghee or vegetable oil in a karai, wok or deep-frying pan over moderate heat. While the oil is heating, add the flour into the cabbage mixture and knead by hand until the ingredients are bound together. (The cabbage should have enough moisture to hold the ingredients together. As it sits, the mixture will become looser. For this reason, it is important to add the flour just before shaping and frying. You may need to add sprinkles of water or more chickpea flour to ensure a mixture that can be pressed into logs. If you make this recipe in quantity, mix the ingredients in batches.) Divide into 8 portions and press into logs about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) long.
   
3. Raise the heat to moderately high, and when the oil reaches 355ºF (180ºC), slip in 6-8 logs at a time, depending on the pan size, maintaining the temperature at between 335º-340º (168ºC-171ºC). After the koftas bob to the surface, turn them frequently and fry for 8-10 minutes or until evenly browned to reddish-gold color and crispy texture. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep warm in a 250ºF (120ºC) oven while frying the remaining koftas. Allow the temperature to reach 355ºF (180ºC) before frying the second batch. Before serving, place the logs in a heated shallow serving dish and cover with a seasoned tomato gravy (another recipe).

> the most flavorful cuts of meat are the ones that scare you and you'll never purchase them

This. In some of my favorite recipe books, several potentially great meals are skipped because they're calling for unorthodox cuts that scare the shit out of me. Half the time it takes days to find a place where I can get it. Two butchers will tell me they don't sell that, one will tell me they can get one for Thursday. With some luck I can find a frozen specimen. Truly, it feels like I'm hunting for some piece of extraterrestrial belly.

Bones, fuck even bones can be complicated to get. Lamb bones for stock. Sorry, we throw them away unless a customer asks, come by Thursday. No problem, please cut them in 3 inch pieces, I'm making stock, not a marimba, thanks! As for what body part or appendage those bones from are (legs, ribs, shoulders) I never dared to ask.

Fish, I hate shopping for fish. Hello, do you have sable fish? No we rarely do, except sometimes at the end of the season. Well thanks good sir, how can I subscribe to your newsletter? I'd feel like an ass to call and ask what fresh fish they're carrying today so I can select a recipe accordingly BEFORE going out shopping. The short shelf life of fish creates an egg or chicken dilemma: do I choose a recipe and hope to find the fish, or go get some fish and go back home to find a recipe and again back to the store to get other ingredients.



> most (not all) restaurant cookbooks dumb down recipes for you

That's strange, my best cookbooks are from restaurants. I find that most non-restaurant cookbooks (rachel ray stuff, cooking the italian way) contains a multitude of beginner meals I don't care about. If I want to mix pasta and pancetta with some vegetables, I can do it myself thanks. And thai cookbooks that calls for "store-bought green curry paste" goes directly to the trash. Googling recipes works just as well.

On the opposite side, you you have the classical hardcore style "French Cooking" stuff that calls for killing and brining a living rooster in every other recipe. That sounds fantastically rewarding, but I have a day job.

For fine, modern, complex and layered yet approachable recipes, locally oriented & world-inspired restaurants seems to be where it's at. I'm not sure how dumbed down those recipes are from the real thing (as I've never been to them), but those 2 from Vancouver have provided quite fantastic culinary learning and experiences for me:

• Warren Geraghty's West, The Cookbook
  
• Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine
  
  If anyone has recommendation of great restaurant cookbooks, I'd love to hear them.

Here's a list of the ones I own and love:

• Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook
  
  
• Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen: Epic Anytime Recipes with a World of Flavor
  
  
• Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face
  
  
• Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Desserts: More than 100 Exciting New Recipes for Cookies and Pies, Tarts and Cobblers, Cupcakes and Cakes--and More!
  
  Can't go wrong with any of these. I have come to view the world differently through food since going vegan. I would love to add a variety of other flavors like Caribbean, Asian - though some of these do include that, Vegan Richa is great for expanding beyond Indian food. I also highly recommend looking into Ethiopian foods, they are lentil heavy and flavorful.
  
  Also to note, Hot for Food has a blog and youtube channel, and Vegan Richa has a blog and has been making videos as well so you can check them out and see if the recipes interest you.
  
  
• https://www.veganricha.com/
  
• https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/
  
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudzojQxnLAI7uQPVYJy_oQ

I won't be much help with this, but Indian food is insanely varied. It's not just as simple as "North Indian/South Indian" or "Vegetarian/Meat". I think one of the challenges with finding great "authentic" Indian recipes, is that each family has their own adaptation, and these are passed down through each generation through sharing the love and need to cook quality food in the home.

I guess what I'm saying, is that regional authentic dishes often don't make it onto paper.

I've had great success making Vikram Vij's recipes, he's from Vancouver, BC.

https://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510071514&sr=1-1&keywords=vikram+vij&dpID=41J5kSp1EuL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak is a great book with tonnes of clever ideas and substitution advice, all of her books are pretty great. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen would be a great one as well, same with Bryant Terry's Afro Vegan. If you are looking for something easy and cutesy, the vegan stoner cookbook is a good bet too.

This is vegetarian and does the no-onion and no-garlic thing, but it's quite big and covers a lot of material - a good starting point. It really teaches a lot about the what and the whys of Indian food. It was written by the (American) personal cook of the Hare Krishna founder, she followed him around all over India when he travelled there, learning recipes from his hosts.

• http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642
  
  Some easy to get into books
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Home-Cooking-Introduction-Recipes/dp/0609611011
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Indian-Cooking-Recipes/dp/0778801705
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Street-Food-India-Greatest-Complete/dp/184885420X
  
  This is a classic Indian cookery books that grannies used to have
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Balbir-Singhs-Indian-Cookery/dp/0263700194
  
  Tarla Daral was a popular food writer in India
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/user/TarlaDalalsKitchen
  
  Something from Punjab
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Punjabi-Khana-Tarla-Dalal/dp/8189491547
  
  This is not a beginners book, but very interesting
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Grand-Trunk-Anirudh-Arora/dp/1847739687
  
  These Kerala restaurants do lovely modern cookbooks
  
  
• http://www.rasarestaurants.com/rasa_books.html
  
  More from South India
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dakshin-Vegetarian-Cuisine-South-India/dp/9625935274/
  
• http://www.nimmypaul.com/html/nmy_recp_01.html
  
• http://www.kamalascorner.com/
  
  SOURCE: have been collecting books and shared cooking tips with Indian friends for a while

I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...

Real Thai (McDermott)

I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.

Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop

Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop

I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.

General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)

Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.

My favorite new, specialty cookbook is

Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)

which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.

There are a lot of varieties, and they can taste pretty different. The good news is that they are hard to screw up.

For Thai curries, I like these pastes, they just get mixed with coconut milk (ratio is on the can), heated, and then you simmer veggies in the sauce until they are cooked to your liking. The red and green are spicy, the panang is somewhere in the middle, and the yellow and masaman are mild.

This is a good and easy Japanese curry. Instructions are on the box. It involves some simple sauteing and simmering.

And for Indian curries, I have been making my own using these recipes. There are so many good recipes in this book, and they are pretty easy too. However, you might need to up the contents of your spice cabinet to make these.

Anyhow, curries are usually just a very flavorful sauce with veggies simmered in them. Pretty easy stuff, lots of variety, and very tasty.

I recommend them all, if you get the chance. If you're interested in Lao food, then this book is worth a look - it's not the easiest book to work from (it kinda assumes you have a palace-full of kitchen lackeys to do the hard work for you), but it's a wonderful read, and all the dishes I've managed to cook from it have been delicious. Also, this book covers everything I listed, IIRC - we only got our copy recently and have only made a few recipes from it, but so far everything's good :-)

Not sure how you feel about Indian food but I've been working my way through this cookbook and the author does a really good job of telling you how to modify the recipes to make things gluten free or nut free or other dietary/allergen needs. Recipes are some of the tastiest things I've made too, probably from using fresh spices. The variety of spices can feel a little over whelming but it's been fun learning about it. Also if you go to an Indian grocery store they are suprisingly cheap.

If you don't find yourself drawn to meat dishes, and you've got the basics of French technique down, why not try exploring Indian cuisine? Obviously, they have a whole different take on spices --- it's a whole different layer in your cooking that should teach you how to draw out different flavors from the same ingredients, learn new flavors, and different ways of combining them -- there was an interesting study recently suggesting that in contrast with most Western cuisines, which tend to put complementary flavors together, indian cuisine tend to combine contrasting flavors, balancing them against each other. The thing with a lot of that California farm-to-table style is that a lot of it's about finding great ingredients and doing as little as possible to them, but if you're finding yourself bored with that something that's a little more sophsticated and layered might be an interesting challenge.

There's lots of places to start -- Madhur Jaffrey, of course, or Manjula on youtube, but I've always liked this cookbook, myself --- 50 Great Curries of India. has a solid introductory section on spices and really showcases a huge variety of stuff from differnt parts of the continent.

Between Just One Cookbook, Japanese Cooking 101, Chopstick Chronicles, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art ^BOOK, and Ochikeron ^YouTube you should be able to figure out something you like.

I am not the biggest fan of any of Nancy Singleton Hachisu books for beginners, but there are other good books, like Everyday Harumi - pretty much any of Harumi's books will be good, she doesn't go for crazy ingredients (ala Nancy Hachisu) and she's usually the top cookbook writer in Japan.

I always like a good curry in cold weather. Have various recipes but recently was recommend this book, The Curry Secret, so hoping you try it soon.

Something else that I came across last summer, is a dessert. Super simple, unhealthy but seriously delicious.

Apparently, it’s called a Malaysian pudding - not sure why though.

1lt of good quality double cream yoghurt mixed with half a can (~200g) of condensed milk. Somehow this combination just makes a difference. Then add all your cut fruits, so...paw-paw, sweet melon, apple, peaches, banana, maybe pineapple. Let it refrigerate a bit to release the fruit juices. Simple goodness.

If they are in season, I like to make a berry version with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a banana to balance the flavors. It’s also for the lazy, because only the bananas and strawberries require cutting up. When dishing into bowls, garnish with a cherry.

I've used a lot of her recipes successfully. I also started using her once I returned back to the States to cook some good Korean food.

I have used the following recipes to great success from her:

Tteokbokki

Buldak

Kimchi Fried Rice

Soybean rice

Kimbap

Bulgogi


Maangchi also has a great cookbook. But her website has a lot more recipes than the cookbook does. But the cookbook does have about 95% of what you want, including the side dishes.

Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.


Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!

I know, it's easy to get tired of chili since it's easy to make a TON of it and eat it regularly.

So it's the instant pot worth it? I've seen all over the place in reddit. It's not so popular here in Europe and I haven't seen it in appliance stores.

Also never heard of the Thug Kitchen cookbook. "Eat like you give a fuck" lol. Thanks for the references :)

By the way, if you like indian food I highly recommend this book I've been getting lots of good curry recipes from it.

This past year, I really enjoyed SUQAR and its approach to composition in dessert, in terms of complementary and contrasting flavors, texture, aromas, and color.

At home, particularly in the fall and winter, I find myself cooking from Donabe quite often, particularly the tonyu nabe, which I make so often my sister in law requested it as her first meal coming home from the hospital last month with her second child. It's very comforting food!

It may not seem like a food science book up front, but the Flavor Thesaurus has such amazing insight into the interplay of flavors on both an emotional and chemical level, and it has really influenced how I work to underscore flavors in dessert. I love it so much I wrote an entire article about it, haha. and want to make that your life, it may saddle you with more debt than you'll every pay off with a baker's wages.

Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.

Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.

You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.

Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.

Also they're sexy as fuck.

The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.

Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.

Happy wok'ing!

Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.

Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!

I recommend you check out Vegan Richa, who has tons of traditional Indian recipes without all the butter and cream, and far fewer calories. I've been a fan of Indian food for decades and can tell you her recipes are very hard to distinguish from their higher-fat inspirations and in many cases, possess more complexity and nuance than what I'm used to. One of my favorites is her Mango Tofu Curry, which is the sort of recipe you'll never find in the typical Westernized Indian restaurant, and cleverly subs tofu for paneer. She also has a book I definitely recommend.

This is an amazing destination. I'm curious what type of journey you're on. What is the food like, for instance? I heard the author of Samarkand: Recipes & Stories from Central Asia & The Caucasus interviewed once and it sounds amazing. I may come back here and post that interview if I can remember where it exists...

Edit: It was from this Splendid Table podcast (an excellent cooking podcast): The road to Samarkand
by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

Nice! If you're into cooking, I recommend this cookbook. Super delicious Indian food that tastes really rich but is 100% vegan. Lots of coconut cream and coconut yogurt and tons and tons of vegetables.

I seriously feel like I'm indulging whenever I make some of these recipes, and then I remember it's VEGETABLES. IT'S ALL VEGETABLES.

not that coconut cream is the least caloric thing,but still. it's delicious, so worth it.

Get yourself Julia Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking book. It's a great place to start. If you're primarily into veg, another place to go would be Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine which is a positively massive cookbook that is great and vedic (no onions, etc. only hing).

Also, Manjula's Kitchen has some good videos.

Honestly, most anything by Madhur Jaffrey is great. She is not an exclusively vegetarian chef, but she treats vegetarian dishes with respect. I love her book Vegetarian India.

lol my parents get tired of it too but they cant deny my request because they love it just as much as i do. my mom cant find her really old one from when we were kids BUT she bought this one a year ago and has been getting recipes from it since then. I personally recommend making the 참치전 (tuna pancake) with some kimchi fried rice. i make that when i'm in between classes because it's fast and it tastes sooooo good. it reminds me of my childhood.

Check out vegan richa's cookbook. If you like indian food, you'll love it. Most of the recipes are simple-medium complexity, and they make a lot of servings. Plus you don't feel bad for stuffing yourself with them since it's almost entirely really healthy food. Plus some of the desserts (especially the doughnuts) are unbelievable in how good they taste.

I don't know if it's necessarily for a "beginner", but I really love Maangchi.

Here's a link to her cookbook that I have:

Maangchi Cookbook

The thing that I love about her is that she also has a youtube channel where she uploads videos on how to make different things.

Here's her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi

that sounds wonderful. I have seen and liked the ones by Madhur Jaffery. She almost holds your hand and guides you in the kitchen in her books on Indian cuisine. And the curries turn out great too.

Edit: Is this the book you are referring to?

Got one Asian store and one Indian resto in this burg. The store's pretty good, and the resto survives because -- only one in town.

Here's what I did:

Shop online, and learn how to make a base gravy like THIS BLOKE does and take it from there into the higher orders of Indian cooking. It's BIR, not Mumbai, but you take what you can get and BIR ain't exactly chump change for Small Town, USA.

You can order just about any of the basics for Indian cooking, and cooking appliances (karai for example), online.

Indians are fantastic at blogging and putting up YouTube videos; there's a real opportunity to learn from that as opposed to when this older Redditor was expanding horizons.

The online purchases won't be cheap, but when you have a craving for quality food, you have the budget to get it.

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com is a great resource.

As for an Indian cookbook: this is regarded as the bible: India: The Cookbook, it has everything you will ever need (it has over 1000 recipes!). It’s wonderfully designed, to look like a bag of flour like one would buy in India.

Her book, Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen is really good, she has a vegan "paneer" recipe in there and pretty much everything you could want. Even sweets, there's a good gulab jamun in there too!

Vikram Vij's cookbook is excellent, there are a ton of super easy curries easily made with spices that are available in most North American supermarkets. There's one made with eggplant and green onions, and another that combines chicken thighs cooked in coconut milk with a raw cilantro, onion, garlic, ginger chutney at the end...spectacular! Can't recommend this one enough!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1553651847/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20

If she likes cooking like I do, I guess this with this would make a good gift.
Or buy those and cook her plov as a gift.

We love ours so much that we bought a second one. I can cook food that I like better than what I can get in a restaurant, and that together with Alternate Day Fasting has lead to 30 pound weight loss since August.

I really love the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/

There isn't one Indian cuisine. There's a few dozen, at least.
For a somewhat US focused book:
http://www.amazon.com/660-Curries-Raghavan-Iyer/dp/0761137874

For a somewhat worse printing, with better recipes: http://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

Reading the reviews will probably help.

I like the "Essential Cookbook" series from Penguin. These are definitely closer to what I would eat at home than the recipes in the more popular cookbooks.

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Kerala-Cookbook-Vijayan-Kannampilly/dp/0143029509

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Marathi-Cookbook-Kaumudi-Marathe/dp/0143068024

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Andhra-Cookbook-Hyderabadi-Bilkees/dp/0140271848

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pondicherry-Kitchen-Lourdes-Tirouvanziam-Louis/dp/9381626995

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Sindhi-Cookbook-Aroona-Reejhsinghani/dp/0143032011

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cookbook-Maria-Teresa-Menezes/dp/0141000872

http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-North-East-Cookbook/dp/0143030272

http://www.amazon.com/Saraswat-Mahila-Rasachandrika-Second-Paperback/dp/B00RWSJ7M0

SAMAITHU PAR (vol 1-4) is a book aimed at Tamil Iyer vegetarian cooking.

If you want authors more aimed at an occidental cook, I would suggest Madhur Jaffrey, Sanjeev Kapoor, Tarla Dalal, Vikas Khanna and Julie Sawhney

I love cooking Indian food. My favorite that hasn't been mentioned yet is Lord Krishna's Cuisine. It's vegetarian but contains hundreds of recipes (dals, bean dishes, vegetable dishes, rice dishes, breads, chutneys, sweets, etc) and a lot of information about general indian cuisine and it's an interesting read.

Real ramen is nothing like those instant ramen packets. Fresh meats and vegetables, insane broths, and fresh noodles make it a completely different dish.

I was on a ramen kick awhile back and bought the Momofuku cookbook. AWESOME recipes. I spent hours making some of those broths in the book, went to several asian markets to find the right noodles, and spent a lot of time learning different techniques. It was a ton of fun, and now my kids are crazy about ramen. Even if you don't plan on making it yourself, the cookbook is a great read. It's basically more of a story about how the author got into ramen and opened his first restaurant, interlaced with recipes and other instructional stuff.

Edit: Here's the link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474393414&sr=8-1&keywords=momofuku

This is a decent video on broth making for pho, a bit long perhaps, makes for a good watch though; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxM4t8vP-0A

What I do is pretty similar. There are the traditional ways of making it of course with the beef bones..but I've found I enjoy a mix of veal and pork bones more. Sometimes I use duck bones, just depends if I want something different taste wise.

There are a decent amount of recipes out there for broth, the one I played with at first was this; http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vietnamese-Pho-Rice-Noodle-Soup-with-Beef-232434 and then a few from books like http://www.amazon.com/Vietnamese-Home-Cooking-Charles-Phan/dp/1607740532/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414444571&sr=1-1&keywords=pho.

The key for me at least is I make my own spices, fish sauce, and trying to get down a recipe for Vietnamese style soy sauce. I keep to similar spices just homegrown instead..or from a CSA I belong too. Idea for me is freshness, home made dried star anise is going to be fresher than the store bought. It sounds like a lot of effort but it's not just for the Pho recipe, it's for everything else I use the spices for too. The only thing I have yet to grow is poppy (for obvious reasons) and saffron.

So that's basically my secret, follow the normal recipes but with pork and veal bones along with home made spices. If you can afford it, spring water for the broth I find to be good. I personally have hard water at home so I have to soften it which makes it salty..messes with everything I cook. Thus I use spring water. As to how much greatness that adds I don't really know..just better than using soften salty water.

Edit* - forgot, so in the youtube video, how they roast the veggies I do mine on a charcoal grill. A lot of my spices that need to be roasted I roast in a pan over charcoal.

I bought an Instant Pot and have been cooking Indian recipes from Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. I think you could make it work in a dorm with a small set of kitchen items (knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, utensils) if appliances are allowed in your room. A lot of the ingredients don't require refrigeration (lentils, spices, ghee, rice, etc) or can be canned (e.g. tomatoes). I can get most of the non-perishable ingredients online, and just buy the fresh ingredients as I use them.

The food is healthy, affordable (I used to eat out a lot but now rarely do), and leftovers have been delicious!

Instant Pots do cost a bit, but I'm certain I've already saved money and I'm eating much healthier. I'm not really tracking my calories (yet) but I lost 4 pounds since I started cooking this way a month ago.

Aah asafoetida - sometimes called Devil's Dung because of its aroma, especially when the powder is fresh! A pinch or two is all that is ever needed, and it adds a similar flavour to onions and garlic to a dish. It is commonly used with lentils and beans.

In South India it is used quite a bit. It is very common in Sambar and Rasam dishes. It is also very common in Ayurvedic cooking as that does not use onions or garlic.

The cookbook Lord Krishna's Kitchen uses it in almost every recipe, and the recipes are all great.

This is a great article on Asafoetida - and here is one of the few recipes you will find with it in the title - Salt Lassi with Asafoetida

I've come across a few great vegan cooking resources that you may be interested in:

• minimalist baker
  
  
• vegan richa site
  
  
• vegan richa indian cookbook
  
  please share others!

I like Pushpesh Pant, India: The Cookbook. However, it isn't a beginner's cookbook, and might be hard to get into if you haven't cooked Indian food before.

For a great beginner's cookbook: Monisha Bharadwaj, The Indian Cooking Course.

Not as comprehensive as the first one above, and not as beginner friendly as the second, but a nice cookbook with some very good recipes: Priya Wickramasinghe, Food of India.

a giant granite mortar and pestle is a good tool to have. This is a good book, as long as you can track down the ingredients. Andy Ricker's is probably also good, as I'm sure David Thompson's other book is too.

I have been doing the same thing (I am into the better part of the learning curve now :)

I highly recommend this cookbook by Vikram Vij. Everything in it I have cooked has been dynamite. What I think is more important is that there is much information about the various methods (for example how to make ghee, garam massala etc) and a lot of insightful suggestions in the recipes themselves about certain pitfalls to avoid etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451415907&sr=8-1&keywords=vijs

Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!

you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.

Agree with /u/X28.

Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).

Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).

I'm no expert in Indian cuisine, but I have this book and I really like it. Great variety in the recipes and tons of pictures. I think it represents most of the regions cuisines.

https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

There are lots here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes
https://www.google.com/images?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes

Here are just a few others that are either keto or low carb (which could have ingredients left out or modified), some of which are groups at Facebook with lots of recipes:

Keto Instant Potters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1700398993513578
Low Carb Instant Pot Recipes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1434534513230508
The Paleo Instant Pot (Paleo or Primal, or not)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/paleoinstantpot

I Breathe I’m Hungry:
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2017/03/35-best-low-carb-paleo-instant-pot-recipes.html
Nomnompaleo:
https://nomnompaleo.com

Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/shariweiner55/low-carb-instant-potpressure-cooker

twosleevers --blog & cookbooks (mostly keto because she and her husband eat keto or very low carb):
https://twosleevers.com/recipe-index/?fwp_dietary_consider=keto
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF
https://twosleevers.com/product/instant-favorites-easy-delicious-mexican-pressure-cooking

cookbook...looks good, but haven’t gone through entirely:
Instant Pot Cookbook: Delicious Asian Inspired Ketogenic Diet I.Pot Recipes (Kindle)

I can highly recommend either of Fucshia Dunlop's books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook and Land of Plenty, as excellent recipe and instruction books for Chinese cooking. In the front matter she lists the equipment you'll need to get started as well as goes over the techniques. I cook out of both of them several times a week.

I purchased my wok and cleaver from the Wok Shop and was very happy with their prices and service.

The last apartment I lived in had an electric stove so I picked up a cheap butane stove from the local asian grocery store for ~$20 that worked fine. It's nowhere near as powerful as a high-end gas stove or a turkey fryer burner but it gets the job done. An electric stove will not work for Chinese, you need something with a flame.

Edit: I also own a rice cooker which is well worth the $20 I spent on it. I'd pick one up if you're serious about Chinese.

From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.

Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.

Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.

My mom uses recipes from the Korean cooking blog Maangchi.com — looks like she has a cookbook too

I know this is isn’t exactly what you asked for, but since you enjoyed Night + Market’s cookbook and you’re from LA, I’d suggest you check out Roy Choi’s cookbook LA Son

It isn’t exactly authentic, but an LA specific take and his personal stories are also interesting

Japanese Farm Food ... awesome recipes and a very helpful perspective. Award-winning

Donabe: Japanese Clay Pot Cooking ... requires a donabe

Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art ... a famous comprehensive bible of Japanese cooking

Im also on justonecookbook.com all the time.. and if they would ever print an actual cookbook I would buy it.

Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.

While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.

There is a book called "The Curry Secret" which has recipes for British-Indian Restaurant food - not 'authentic' Indian food, but the stuff you get in a UK restaurant. Very different thing.

It has a kickass chicken tikka masala recipe in it, I can eat the tarka dahl with a spoon until I turn greeny yellow from the tumeric, and if you take the time you can make the prettiest, fluffiest pilau rice you can imagine.

I own only one recipe book (the internet suffices for everything else) but that book is (to me) worth it.

Of course! Mine is mostly from Momofuku

2 Large pieces of konbu (or other seaweed if you can't find konbu)
2 cups dried shiitake mushrooms, (you can use fresh if you want, but they're stupid-expensive where I am)
1 Large chicken, whole.
5 pounds marrow bones (I use pork neck bone)
1lb bacon (one package)
2 bunches of scallions (green onions)
Mirin or Sake, Tare or teriyaki sauce to taste.

Rinse all ingredients before putting them in the stock pot. All ingredients can be eaten in any number of ways after they've given their flavor to the broth.

1. Take 6 cups of water and bring the water to a simmer (right before boiling) somewhere between 180-200ºF.
   
2. Simmer seaweed for 10 minutes then remove
   
3. Simmer mushrooms for 30 minutes then remove
   
4. Pre-heat your oven to 400
   
5. Skim off all the scum you see from the top from this point on.
   
6. Put the marrow bones in the oven
   
7. Add the whole chicken to the pot, yes, the whole thing, remove water if you HAVE to but try not to waste too much.
   
8. After 30 minutes flip your marrow bones over to roast the other side.
   
9. The chicken and the bones should be simmering/roasting for an hour now, take the bones out of the oven and remove the chicken (save your chicken for a topping or just eat it while you wait for your ramen).
   
10. Simmer the pork bones and the bacon, remove bacon after 45 minutes, remove bones after 7 hours. (you can cut down on this time if you're trying to rush the recipe, but at least 3 hours)
    
11. add your scallions 45 minutes before you take your bones out.
    
12. Remove everything and you have your broth, it freezes REALLY well.
    
13. Add mirin and teriyaki to taste.
    
    Toppings:
    Flavor eggs:
    Boil some eggs, peel the eggs, then put them in a ziplock bag.
    Add teriyaki, peanut sauce, and a little mirin and shake that sucker. Leave in the fridge overnight.
    
    Spicy Pork:
    I buy the shredded pork in the package for this.
    Heat some oil in wok.
    Add the pork, let the oil cook it.
    Add whatever spicy sauce you want to it, I use a schezwan stir-fry sauce.
    
    If you have the pork, an egg, some chicken, extra seaweed and a mushroom or 3 you've gotyourself some ramen, get the broth piping hot and let everything cook in the broth before eating. (I use fresh noodles because they cook faster)

It's in Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook. The book came out earlier this year, and it's great.

I like The Just Bento Cookbook that someone else already linked and also this cookbook: https://smile.amazon.com/Everyday-Harumi-Simple-Japanese-friends-ebook/dp/B01J24WP6Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=Japanese+cookbook+harumi&qid=1571830355&sr=8-3

I also really love the Cooking With Dog cooking show on YouTube. Her website is here with all the videos: https://cookingwithdog.com/ it appears that some of the recipes are translated to German.

Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.


Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking

I got his vegetarian book for Christmas. Haven't made any of the recipes yet, but they look great:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864/

Depending on where you live, your library might have a bunch. You can check them out, try some recipes, and see if it's one you might want to buy.

I like a lot of international and multi-cultural flavors so I like a wide variety of cookbooks including:

Afro Vegan

Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen

Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

and a general cookbook that helps you make your own dishes using vegan staples:

The Homemade Vegan Pantry

If you are a big fan of Indian food, like me, I recommend Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Richas-Indian-Kitchen-Traditional/dp/1941252095/ref=nodl_

She also has a website https://www.veganricha.com/

So a few people have recommended this book to you: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

Well, you're in luck, because I've found a couple of videos on Youtube made by the author of that book that explain how to make Tikka Masala.

Here's the video showing how to make the sauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLfhMF2WaZw

And here is the video showing how to cook the dish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wjyOdNdSw

Let me recommend an excellent Vietnamese cookbook.

This book takes you on a culinary journey and teaches you how to make your own.

THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.

I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.

Pick a classic in a cuisine with which you're generally unfamiliar but for which you feel confidant you can get good ingredients. A few ideas:

• Diana Kennedy - Essential Cuisines of Mexico or The Art of Mexican Cooking
  
  
• Barbara Tropp - The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
  
  
• David Thompson - Thai Food
  
  
• Claudia Roden - The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
  
  
• Shizuo Tsuji - Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
  
  You'll be forced to learn new techniques and deal with new ingredients, and get a sense of an entire cooking tradition. Any of those books will give you at least a small sense of the culture that inspired the cuisine, the human context, in addition to culinary knowledge.

Look up Jain and/or Buddhist recipes. Jain should exclude onions, potatoes & garlic. Buddhist should exclude onion & garlic, too but from what I've read, the onion is iffy, so it's good you have a substitute readily available.

Lord Krishna's Vegetarian Cooking cookbook follows the Vaishnava diet, which should also exclude onions & garlic.

Good luck!

Same reason all shop curries are a bit shit, they cheap out on the ingredients, a decent korma from a curry house will have a good amount of ground almonds in it, shop versions which are produced in massive quantities in factories for a very strict price margin will most likely have more cream in and possibly cheaper nuts, spices used in a curry house will also be freshly roasted and ground, where as factory versions are not roasted before hand and they will use the very bare minimum of the expensive spices to achieve something that is just about OK for the price demanded by the supermarket.

If they can save a couple of grams of spice in every portion accords hundreds of portions it’s hundreds of £s saved.

If you’re disappointed by supermarket versions, try making your own, I highly recommend;

The Curry Secret

This is an updated version of the original, I still refer to my copy which has so many spices impregnated into the pages I could probably eat the ratty old thing and it would taste goood!

This ebook would be fantastic!

How many dogs do you have? I'm currently a 3 dog household and its been rough! Still trying to get them all to get along.

Pooper Scooper

For a slightly less heavyweight introduction (to specifically Indian curry), I highly recommend this book by Camellia Panjabi. It's a selection of (only) 50 recipes, but it's got a great introductory section talking about the different basic techniques and ingredients, plus titbits about the regions/cuisine of India and the religious/cultural background to the food. I've been slowly making my way through the recipes for a few years now and I've yet to have a real flop from it

IMO Ready meal curries are generally similar to typical indian restaurant takeaway curries. I learnt to cook them this way thanks to https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant-Meals/dp/0716021919 . However it's actually easier and as cheap to buy the supermarket ones.

Palak (saag) paneer. This book has a recipe for it.

Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101874864/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_H-lqDbGAW2ZX8

If you're looking for a cookbook for this then Lord Krishna's Cuisine is one of the best cookbooks I've ever used.

https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642

India: The Cookbook by Prupesh Pant is probably the most comprehensive Indian recipe book you could ever hope to find.

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking is on my shelf. Good recipes & very comprehensive.

Great British Chefs, Challenging Recipes

Momofuku Milkbar

Thomas Keller recipes

that's why i cook my own or go to china town.

this is one great source for recipes:

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Chinese-Cookbook-Recipes-Province/dp/0393062228/ref=la_B001IGLRVG_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343350265&sr=1-2

FYI I'd recommend this book if you're into Thai Food

I got my first copy many years ago and it's a bit of a Thai food Bible.

I saw a recipe in David Chang's book (Momofuku) that I'm going to try:

Ginger scallion noodles.

There's a free preview with the recipe on the book's Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X

Ingredients are important. I suggest purchasing Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and vinegar to start.

Looked at a few recipes from this book and it seems pretty legit.

Buy The Curry Secret and make them yourself. They will taste just like a restaurant and so much better than a ready meal.

It's all about the broth, which means it's all about simmering a bunch of stuff in a giant pot for a very long time. Momofuku's ramen is not my favorite but the recipe in the Momofuku cookbook is very detailed. Good place to start.

This book is amazing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Curries-India-Camellia-Panjabi/dp/1856265463

Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook is excellent for a wide variety of Asian cooking.

I got this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941252095?keywords=vegan%20richa&qid=1452442977&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Has a ton of recipes in it, all are pretty damn good.

I bought "Indian Instant Pot: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast". I guess the author is kind of famous in Instant Pot circles?

https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1522776004&sr=8-3

I have this exact issue, and I find myself returning time and time again to this cookbook. It's Jain vegetarian cuisine (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), and it's just a terrific resource

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey. Here's a good one to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-Jaffrey-Indian-Cooking/dp/0764156497

Indian food: Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast

Braised meat... hmm i'd probably look at How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Though the recipes tend to be under-spiced for my tastes, but that shouldn't hold you back, it's a solid technique book.

A local Indian chef here, Vikram Vij, has produced a couple of cookbooks with his wife. I really like this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847

One of the biggest reasons I got the IP is for Indian food. Highly recommend Instant Pot Indian cook book

If you like Indian food, this cookbook is pure gold.

This is an amazing book of recipes: https://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864

not veg, but have reduced a lot.

For Indian cuisine, try Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Here's some background on the author as well.

Hey I got one for Christmas as well.

I also got this cookbook and it has been very informative.

u/Monkoton is right. First make a batch of rice porridge in your donabe to season it before cooking.

Just a some that likes cooking alot here. Maybe pick one of these bad boys up and start playing.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355

http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-2&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-3&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-4&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Pressure-Cooking-Sous-Vide/dp/1579653510/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-6&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-9&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373678139&sr=8-1&keywords=ratio

Alright then

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919

Yamuna Devi or Ragivan Iyer. The former is a true classic, and I've cooked nearly every recipe over the past 20 years. The later is a more recent book, but the recipes are every bit as classic (and delicious).

I decided to buy it because it was $4 on Amazon the 2nd book is $3

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_

Well, it's not limited to China. It covers 16 asian countries but it is very authentic.

I've owned this book for about 15 years and couldn't live without it.

Charmain Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook

I think you mean "definitive".

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

I came here to say the same thing. Here is the other one. Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine

The Curry Secret for Indian dishes. Actually making the base curry sauce right now.

Richa's Indian Kitchen is my curry-from-scratch bible.

On the left is Bear's Paw Tofu from Every Grain of Rice and on the right is Peng's Home-style Bean Curd from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.

Buy this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919

https://smile.amazon.com/Maangchis-Real-Korean-Cooking-Authentic/dp/054412989X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1AVS3BYUHZ74K&keywords=maangchi&qid=1572922278&s=books&sprefix=maang%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-2

And her new one, which I don't have yet:

https://smile.amazon.com/Maangchis-Big-Book-Korean-Cooking/dp/1328988120/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AVS3BYUHZ74K&keywords=maangchi&qid=1572922333&s=books&sprefix=maang%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-1

Thai

http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Food-David-Thompson/dp/1580084621

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Thai-Food-Classic-Recipes/dp/1607745232

http://www.amazon.com/Pok-Stories-Roadside-Restaurants-Thailand/dp/1607742888

Probably this one.

This is an oven-adapted and expanded from the recipe in Pushpesh Pant's India: The Cookbook. It's a common deep-menu item in westernized restaurants, very tasty. Sweet and aromatic. As I mention in the post, I don't recommend hand-mashing the eggplant; it's a pain.

I would argue "The curry secret" shows British cooking, including such classics as Tikka Masala, and Rogan Josh.

Now I get that these might not fit into the "traditional British" category for some people, but not everyone wants a Sunday roast or toad in the hole.

Wait, whaaat?! I'll Google and buy that shizz now, but I don't think she does... If I find one, I'll come right back.

Edit: her Patreon membership includes an ebook when it's done, and a hardcover one with the $5 tier, after 7 months. Here's her Patreon page. I just joined it.

Edit2: I got my threads mixed up in the inbox, and I was accidentally talking about and posted the Patreon for Souped Up Recipes, not Maangchi! Maangchi does have a cookbook - [maangchi's real korean cooking: Authentic Dishes for the Home Cook] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/054412989X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CeZ6CbZZG0WNR) - more than one, in fact. [Here's one for pre-order - [maangchi's big book of korean cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1328988120/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZfZ6Cb1MQ7PSG).