(Source: Esquire)

Di An: The Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy Flavors of Vietnamese Cooking with TwayDaBae

In movies, it’s said that 90 percent of great directing is about casting. With cookbooks, there’s a similar correlation between authors and the look, feel, and design of a book. When you find a seamless marriage of authorial sensibility and design, as is the case with Tue Nguyen’s Di An, you don’t even notice it at first, because you’re so swept up in the story, recipes, and pictures. Which is the point, of course. But still, the lively mix of photography, illustration, and pink-hued paper gives Nguyen’s introduction to Vietnamese cuisine a lift. She weaves memoir with practical introductions to the Vietnamese pantry and suggestions for menus. Andrew Bui’s pictures, including infectious shots of Nguyen, are generously peppered among yes-please-I-need-to-make-this-now recipes like the crispy pork belly, lemongrass chili oil noodles, and fish sauce brittle. I mean, the viral fried rice went viral for a reason.