Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero
Review So what if you have no idea how to pronounce the name or, if once you do know how to say it, you haven't a clue what it means. That's not the point. The point is: it's another vegan masterpiece, and your life will improve drastically once this 11th grade chemistry-textbook-looking-thing is in your kitchen. Vegan With a Vengeance is the book you use when you want to impress your punk rawk foodie friends. Veganomicon will just impress anyone who eats. What these two chefs have mastered is the art of both flavor and texture. Nothing is ever too sweet, too salty, too spicey; the cookies are chewey and gooey, but will not induce vomiting if you eat the whole batch; the vegetables are seasoned, but subtle and never overdone; the tofu is tangy and the seitan (I can't resist!) is devilishly good--chewy but never sponge-like. There are plenty of recipes, too, that you can come home from a long and depressing day at the office and not break a sweat over--which is, in my opinion, the biggest problem facing vegan cuisine today: the two hour recipe. (Who's got time?) You could make a four course dinner from Veganomicon in less time. For real. This is the kind of cookbook that has the power to teach you everything you need to know about vegan cooking. I have a bad habit of buying cookbooks that gather dust in the kitchen. Veganomicon, like Vegan With a Vengeance before it, will be one that gathers splatters of grease, chocolate, tomato sauce and perhaps the odd leaf of kale; sugar and flour will probably make the pages stick together. Don't waste another second of your so-called vegan life. Get this cookbook. Dustin G. Rhodes, Washington, DC (Amazon.com)
About the Author Isa Chandra Moskowitz is America's most popular vegan chef. She is the author of Vegan with a Vengeance, which won PETA's Proggy Award for Best Cookbook 2006. She and Terry Hope Romero are the authors of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, winner of VegNews' Veggie Award for Best New Cookbook. Since 2003, Isa and Terry have hosted the public access/podcast vegan cooking show The Post Punk Kitchen. They live in New York.
