I loved the cookbook. My 9nky complaints are one I am a firm believer cookbooks need pictures of the prepared food. I feel this is especially important in a book exclusively dedicated to a specific region or nationality so one can see if it looks good to eat.

Beyond that many of the spices are specialty items. This is not really a complaint since this is a cookbook dedicated to South Indian food for authentic flavors special ingredients are necessary. So for this I am simplely letting others know you may need to look for a specialty shop or order certain spices online before trying some of the recipes.

Now as far as what I was able to try I was delighted and I was happy with the flavors and recipes. I recommend it if your looking for some new recipes and want to explore South Indian food.

After reading this, I suspect that many of the Indian dishes that I have tried are from the northern regions of India. Having said that, I’m looking forward to broadening my limited repitoire of Indian recipes with some of these. I would have liked some pictures so hopefully there will be more in the print version. Also, some of the recipes require ingredients that may be hard to obtain. I may have missed it but an index of possible substitutions would have been helpful.

Indian food is enjoying a surge as a trendy kind of food. Unfortunately, there are plenty of Indian restaurants with less than appetizing dishes, so many diners don’t think they like Indian food. If you can’t go to India or London, the places that seem to have the best Indian food, you’ll want to purchase The Essential South Indian Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Into South Indian Cuisine and Culture. It contains dozens of mouthwatering dishes that are not only authentic, but very good. This cookbook explores the excellent, but not as well-known dishes in South India (incidentally, the trendy Chicken Tikka Masala, as well as Tandoori Chicken and popular curries are from Northern India). South India has fabulous curries, as well as different types of Biryani and some mouthwatering fish and shrimp dishes that shouldn’t be missed. Rice and lentils are popular in this area of India, and they are prepared in very unique ways. South India features several types of delicious spicy snacks that are deep fried.

Although several of the ingredients called for in the recipes aren’t available at mainstream grocery stores, most cities have an Indian or Asian grocery; it’s fun to search out the different ingredients, and definitely worth the trip.

The recipes in this cookbook are well-written and easy to follow. Most sound wonderful, but unfortunately there are few photographs. A cookbook that features recipes that aren’t run-of-the-mill should at least let the readers know what the dishes should look like. That is really the only negative about the cookbook. Each recipe has an explanation or vignette regarding the dish, which is very helpful.

Recommended for cooks that like to try new dishes, this cookbook is one that will be fun to cook from and will reward you with delicious, unique meals.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This is a very delicious cookbook that helped me create food that i love to eat but had no idea how to make! Every recipe we tried was yummy (although we did not make them all, at least not yet).

Will eat everything out of this cookbook! Super easy to navigate and create authentic meals - my picky kid even joined in!

I love Indian food, and finding a cookbook that gives you the ability to create at-home, easy to make, Indian dishes is the best. Recommended.

I love Indian food in general so I really wanted to see the recipes in this cookbook because South Indian cooking isn't as prevelant in my area. I love dosas and biryani, so I was excited to see recipes for those dishes in the book and it was interesting to see so many foods I have never heard of at all. The only real problem is I am not sure where to get all of the ingredients so many of them would be difficult to make. We have Indian grocers around us but I do not recall seeing many of these ingredients before. I will have to go back and seek them out and maybe try a few of these South Indian dishes.

Absolutely loved thumbing through this book.Easy to follow recipes. The introduction and history of South India was very interesting.I was happy to see that the author separated out and explained the different states in South India and didn’t just lump it all in one group.
Indian cooking may have a lot of ingredients but typically dry spices stay fresh for a long time.
The detailed explanation of every recipe definitely had my attention.
A must for every foodie who wants to venture beyond butter chicken.
Thankyou Netgalley and Rockbridge press for this ARC

A big thank you to NetGalley and Callista Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I enjoyed looking at this book and dream about making some of the recipes but I doubt most people can find most of the spices. My ARC did not have any photos either- that would have been nice. A couple of times they have options for substitutions but not often. I have no access to most of the spices and some of the vegetables. I think this is a nice book but probably not for a beginner as I had not even heard of many of the spices. 3 stars

Love the bright cover on this South Indian cookbook! The recipes inside are varied and look delicious, the main issue I had was the difficulty sourcing ingredients that would likely trouble our patrons. The recipes listed some substitutions, but usually it was for the easier to find items, spinach for greens. Our local markets might not have ingredients like iidiyappam flour, sona masoori rice, jaggery, Bengal Gram, Gunter Chiles, rasam powder, and
vegetables such as drumstick or brinjal. Perhaps alternative could be listed? Although, I do admire the determination to remain authentic. A great book for locations with better access to the above ingredients.

I used to work for an Indian company and would travel over several times a year. Having spent time throughout India, but mostly in South India, these recipes brought back many memories. My colleagues and the people I met along the way were always excited to share their history and cuisine with me, but I never could get recipes out of them.

Knowing that Indian cooking uses spices as medicine, I was excited to review some of the recipes in this book and put them to use. My inflammation is through the roof and several of the spices in this book are helpful in trying to get this under control. 

Dosas and coconut curry are the one thing I miss the most. Will be trying these recipes out as soon as I am able to get back into the kitchen and experiment. 

A fabulous book for anyone who wants to explore cooking in Southern India.

I didnt know that you could make bisi bhele baath powder ahead of time.

Onion and Mint Pakoda sounds invigorating.

Havent heard of poppy seed kheer.

Nice presentation of dishes.