[.ca] Dakshin (ISBN 9625935274)

a wonderful cookbook:
Well, what can I say other then this book is the greatest! It has opened up a whole new world as I have very little experience with South Indian food.I find most cook books are beautifully designed and very inspiring until you actually cook from them and then you find out quickly that the author is culinarily clueless. The recipes in this book look like the accompanying photos which is unusual in the cookbook world I made a Sambar dish and offered to an Indian aquantence who works on my block. He tells me that my Sambar is better then his wife's , who is from India. He sitll can't quite comprehend a white American Male cooking Indian food. He keeps asking me for more ,I'm sure his wife doesn't know... (On the side, one photo comment: The photo of mixed vegetable Kootu has mustard seeds sprinkled on it but the recipe does not contain mustard seeds...OK, I'm getting picky..) All in all this is now my favorite Indian cookbook and has tweaked in me the desire to travel to South India.

Perfect Format. Way Under-Priced.:
Large full-color pictures of every recipe. Authentic. Delicious. Should sell for more than $30.00.

Julia Child of South Indian Cooking:
Its very difficult for Indians and Americans, possibly Europeans and Asians to get South Indian food outside of India, and arguably outside of South India other than the those tiring stereotyped 'dosa' and rockhard 'idlis', if at all. Its all too North Indian whereever you go out, and the world, as a result, is blissfully innocent of South Indian Food. So, you have to cook it yourself. South Indian food is extremely modular in structure, process and style - Vegetables, Meats substitute/compliment vegetables and viceversa, \othis book is vegetarian\c, Sauces, Garnishes, Curry Powders, and Order of frying, boiling, roasting, steaming - and this is an excellent book to get a hang of the varieties you can make in South Indian Cooking. If nothing else, its an education even to those familiar with indian food that there are half-a-dozen 'sambars', 'rasams', 'dosas'. The end section which puts together a buffet menu is simply devine. The garnish for this excellent book is the glossy photographs to every recipe that's very essential for visualization as well as make anyone drool. Everytime I flip the pages I land up cooking something from it. I keep it along with Julia Child's How to Cook and How to Bake Books, which I may remind the readers graduated America from Canned Beans to Food! I hope this book will graduate the world from Naans & Chicken Masala. Just writing this review has made me hungry...

Excellent:
Amazing book. All recipes I have tried were great. It is the kind of book where just looking at the photos makes you hungry. (I am an Indian, though not a South Indian.)

Authentic Recipes !!:
It's amazing. They say there's nothing like home-cooked food. This is the only - repeat ONLY - cookbook I have ever found to be true to my cousine. I'm a Brahmin Iyer from Tamil Nadu and these recipes could have come straight from my grandmother. Anyone who knows India knows that cousine varies with geography & caste. For example, Brahmins dont eat garlic for religious reasons, while other castes do. I'm staunchly against the caste system in India; I mention it now only to stress the authenticity of Padmanabhan's book. So if you want unadulterated (i.e. not catering to a Western palate) recipes, here they are. Also, the photos are AMAZING.