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The Wong way is the right way

By Catherine Toth Fox • May 9, 2011 • Food

What doesn’t chef Alan Wong win these days?

His restaurants — Alan Wong’s and The Pineapple Room — win every award you can think of, including “Restaurant of the Year” and “Best Restaurant” — 10 times. (You’ll see why when you eat anything on the menu, including the sweet pork belly appetizer above.)

In addition, he’s earned the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef-Northwest in 1996 and was one of 10 U.S. chef nominated by the Wedgewood Awards for the title of World Master of Culinary Arts and ranked as one of the best restaurants and chefs by national food publications.

So it’s no surprise his book, “The Blue Tomato: The Inspirations Behind the Cuisine of Alan Wong,” would be award-winning, too.

It won the Award of Excellence in Cookbooks on Friday — the top award in the category — by the Hawaii Book Publishers Association‘s Ka Palapala Po‘okela Awards. (It also got an honorable mention for design.)

And for good reason.

Every foodie should have this book. It belongs with the staple of cookbooks including:

• “The French Laundry Cookbook” by Thomas Keller
• “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman
• “The Dessert Bible” by Christopher Kimball
• “Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer, Ethan Becker
• “America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook” by the producers of PBS’ cooking show of the same name
• “James Beard’s American Cookery”
• “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child

“The Blue Tomato” ranks up there for two reasons: 1) You hear about Wong’s inspiration through his own words — it’s a personal journey — and 2) the recipes are pornographic just to read.

Plus, Wong’s book is the only way you’ll get your hands on the recipe for his popular Li Hing Mui Dressing.

Congratulations to Wong and Watermark Publishing!

Alan WongcookbookFoodfoodieHawaiirestaurantThe Blue TomatoThe Pineapple RoomToth
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About the Author

Catherine Toth Fox

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5 Comments

  • Reply Nathan Kam May 9, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    Cat…agree that Alan’s cookbook is a good one. Another thing that impressed me is that a lot of the photos in the book were taken by chef himself. Now to try and cook something out of that thing. 🙂

  • Reply Catherine Toth May 9, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    I thought about doing a blog where I made every single recipe in the book a la “Julie & Julia,” but I don’t have that kind of time or money. 🙂

  • Reply matt May 9, 2011 at 9:37 pm

    I gotta get that one. my favorites on my shelf are A Return to Cooking by Ripert/Ruhlman and The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan.
    It’s easy enough to get a recipe off the internet now, but cook books are fun to read. I often get insight from the authors that you don’t get when you just google for your recipe.

    • Reply Catherine Toth May 9, 2011 at 9:55 pm

      You’re totally right about cookbooks… I don’t seem to use them as much as I used to, thanks to the convenience of the Internet. But I occasionally like to browse through some of my favorites, indulge in the great photography and pretend someday I’ll make these dishes myself. (Yeah, right!)

  • Reply Annoddah Dave May 10, 2011 at 5:44 am

    CAT: How’s about those comb-bound recipe books from Maui. My Mom had like 5 or so different editions. They are dog eared and turning color, but still viable for local style dishes.

    When are you going to set up the annual “best fried rice” tasting? It could be like a mini-spam fest one of these days…..

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About Me

About Me
Born and raised on O‘ahu, Hawaiʻi, Catherine Toth Fox has been chronicling her adventures in her blog, The Cat Dish, for more than a decade. She worked as a newspaper reporter in Hawai‘i for 10 years and continues to freelance—in between teaching journalism, hitting the surf and eating everything in sight—for national and local print and online publications. She’s currently the editor of HAWAIʻI Magazine.

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