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Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors [A Cookbook] Hardcover – February 5, 2019
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IACP AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The Washington Post • Eater • Food52 • Epicurious • Christian Science Monitor • Library Journal
Drawing on decades of experience, as well as the cooking hacks her mom adopted after fleeing from Vietnam to America, award-winning author Andrea Nguyen shows you how to use easy-to-find ingredients to create true Vietnamese flavors at home—fast. With Nguyen as your guide, there’s no need to take a trip to a specialty grocer for favorites such as banh mi, rice paper rolls, and pho, as well as recipes for Honey-Glazed Pork Riblets, Chile Garlic Chicken Wings, Vibrant Turmeric Coconut Rice, and No-Churn Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. Nguyen’s tips and tricks for creating Viet food from ingredients at national supermarkets are indispensable, liberating home cooks and making everyday cooking easier.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTen Speed Press
- Publication dateFebruary 5, 2019
- Dimensions7.74 x 0.87 x 9.26 inches
- ISBN-100399580352
- ISBN-13978-0399580352
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Bon Appetit
"Nguyen’s newest is as utilitarian as it is innovative."
—Publishers Weekly
“Packed with bold new recipes and expert advice, Vietnamese Food Any Day opens up a world of exciting flavors to cooks at any level. WIthin hours of getting my hands on this book, I charged into the kitchen to make Shaking Beef and Easy Soy Sauce-Glazed Zucchini. Both winners! I’ll be adding these and many more of Andrea Nguyen’s thoughtfully crafted recipes to my weeknight repertoire.”
—Molly Stevens, author of All About Roasting and All About Braising
“Andrea Nguyen is a masterful and irrepressible guide to Vietnam’s cuisine and culture. Vietnamese Food Any Day delivers big, bold flavors translated for the American kitchen. It’s exotic simplicity at its best.”
—Christopher Kimball, founder of Milk Street
“From beginners to more experienced cooks, everyone will benefit from Vietnamese Food Any Day, which demystifies ingredients and techniques so anyone can make extraordinary, authentic Vietnamese food at home. I’ve been using Andrea’s recipes for years and each one has been a sure-fire hit. I’m thrilled to have this collection of favorites that are easy to master, from snacks and soups, to shaking beef and spicy sweet tofu!”
—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen and The Perfect Scoop
Praise for The Pho Cookbook:
"With the same clarity and care displayed in her previous books, Nguyen guides even the nervous first-time pho navigator to slurp-worthy success."
—NPR.org, Best Books of 2017
"Nguyen's recipes are a cook's dream...This is not unique to The Pho Cookbook; cooking from any of Nguyen's books is like listening to an incredibly patient friend explain a recipe over the telephone."
—Lucky Peach
"Nguyen is a master teacher when it comes Vietnam's national dish, and in her new book she provides meticulously clear instructions for every imaginable variety--we recommend you cook through every chapter."
—Food & Wine
"Nguyen is teaching a master class that ninth-graders can comprehend....[she] is respectfulof our time without diminishing quality."
—Food52
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
In my hometown of Santa Cruz, California, as well as cities I’ve visited, I noticed a steady change in the Asian food sections of local supermarkets; there was a much greater variety, which went beyond the usual suspects of Chinese and Japanese soy products. More important, I could purchase seeds of my supermarket obsession brands that I used to find only at Asian markets, such as Chaokoh coconut milk; Sun brand’s Madras-style curry powder, a family favorite, could be found in the regular spice aisle; and quality white and quick-cooking brown jasmine rice were in the Asian aisle and regular rice section.
The diversification of American supermarkets has been tremendous. According to the Food Marketing Institute (a trade group), in 1975, supermarkets carried about 9,000 products. Today, the average supermarket has roughly 40,000 items. Too many choices can confound (which is why cellphones are common grocery-shopping lifelines), but I see them as an opportunity to help cooks shop wisely and mine the resources at their fingertips to make good Vietnamese food. For example, trends in gluten-free and whole foods nudged pasta companies to develop white and brown rice capellini and spaghetti—terrific subs for traditional Vietnamese bún (round rice noodles).I use rice spaghetti for Spicy Hue Noodle Soup (bún bò Huế, page 89), and the capellini is great for rice paper rolls (see page 119), lettuce wraps (seepage 139), and rice noodle salad bowls (see page 197). Pomegranate molasses (see page 34) and juice are my tart-sweet stand-in for tamarind, which has yet to be widely distributed. Fresh turmeric, coconut water, and coconut oil may be new health-boosting ingredients to some people, but to me, they’re game changers for creating vibrant flavors that beautifully capture what I’ve enjoyed in Vietnam. Realizing that a wider array of Viet dishes can be part of the American table, I decided to write Vietnamese Food Any Day based on ingredients found at most mainstream market chains such as Kroger, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Trader Joe’s, Publix, and Giant Eagle. I’ve also canvassed Costco and Walmart. And whenever possible, I’ve scoped out well-stocked independent markets too. Given the reasonable inventory overlap between mainstream and ethnic grocers, there’s no Asian-market shopping required for this book. That said, this book’s approach to showcasing Vietnamese cuisine isn’t hodgepodge. It’s based on a Vietnamese term, khéo, that means“smart” and “adroit,” but when applied to cooking, it conveys food that’s been thoughtfully and skillfully prepared with intention and a grounding in the fundamentals.
In the spirit of khéo cooking, the recipes herein are streamlined but not dumbed down. They capture the essence of Vietnamese foodways, while demystifying and decoding the cuisine for home cooks. Simple recipes that I’ve gathered from Vietnam, such as the Grilled Slashed Chickenon page 98, underscore the cuisine’s possibilities. On the other hand, reimagined classics prepared with nontraditional ingredients, such as the Smoked Turkey Pho on page 84, will inspire you to improvise. Developed to be fun and/or low-stress, the recipes are prepared with regular pots and pans (no wok or Chinese steamer is required), a pressure cooker, anda microwave oven. There’s no deep-frying, because as much as many of us love eating fried food, few of us want to make it and clean up afterward.
We’re cooking and eating in very exciting times. The tumultuous history of Vietnam, informed by its regional differences, varied topography, and extensive interactions with foreign peoples through colonial occupation, war, and diaspora, laid the foundation for a lot of make-do cooking. Viet cooks are curious and inventive by nature. They’re always creating new dishes, incorporating new ingredients, or reconsidering old-fashioned, labor-intensive techniques. That dynamic keeps the cuisine and culture evolving. This cookbook will help you plug into that mindset to make Vietnamese food. Through preparing recipes in Vietnamese Food Any Day, you’ll come to understand how Vietnamese flavors may be built, how to put together a Vietnamese meal,and how to incorporate Vietnamese cooking into your repertoire. Viet food doesn’t have to be an exotic, special weekend project. It’s deliciously doable whenever you want.
Product details
- Publisher : Ten Speed Press (February 5, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0399580352
- ISBN-13 : 978-0399580352
- Item Weight : 1.92 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.74 x 0.87 x 9.26 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #31,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Vietnamese Cooking, Food & Wine
- #260 in Quick & Easy Cooking (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

A culinary bridge builder and leading authority on Asian food, ANDREA NGUYEN was born in Vietnam and came to the United States at the age of six as a refugee. She has authored six acclaimed cookbooks, including "The Pho Cookbook", a James Beard Foundation award winner. Epicurious named her one of the 100 Greatest Home Cooks of All Time.
A former Saveur contributing editor and Cooking Light columnist, Andrea holds a master’s degree from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She has written articles and developed recipes for Food & Wine, EatingWell, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
Andrea lives in Santa Cruz, California, where she does most of her writing, teaching, and podcasting. Ever-Green Vietnamese is her seventh cookbook. Visit her website at vietworldkitchen.com, Twitter @aqnguyen, and Instagram @andreanguyen88. Subscribe to her newsletter at: https://andreanguyen.substack.com
Cookbooks by Andrea Nguyen:
- "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" (2006), triple finalist for James Beard and International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook awards
- "Asian Dumplings" (2009), selected in 2012 by Cooking Light as one of the Best 100 Cookbooks of the Past 25 Years
- "Asian Tofu" (2012), IACP cookbook award finalist
- "The Banh Mi Handbook" (2014), among National Public Radio's best cookbooks of the year
- "The Pho Cookbook" (2017), 2018 James Beard Foundation Award of Excellence winner, IACP finalist, NPR best single subject books.
- "Vietnamese Food Any Day" (2019), IACP finalist, one of the best cookbooks of the year per NPR, Bon Appetit, Washington Post, and New York Times
- "Ever-Green Vietnamese" (2023)
Regardless of topic, Andrea unlocks the cuisines of Asia for home cooks to explore, master, and savor.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the recipes in this cookbook delicious and easy to follow. They appreciate the authentic Vietnamese cuisine made simple with easy-to-find ingredients. The book provides valuable information and tips on using Vietnamese ingredients. Many consider it a worthwhile purchase and an asset for those new to cooking Vietnamese cuisine. However, opinions differ on the picture quality - some find it beautiful and appealing, while others mention that there are few pictures of finished dishes.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the recipes in the book easy to follow and authentic. They say it's a great introduction to Vietnamese cooking with delicious classics like shaking beef and crispy lemongrass salmon. The book provides tips on substitutions for vegetarian and vegan dishes, plus notes on which tempeh to use. It's suitable for both experienced and novice cooks, with plenty of substitution suggestions.
"...And there are plenty of tips on substitutions for creating vegetarian and vegan dishes, plus notes, for instance, on which tempeh has the most umami..." Read more
"...a variety of excellent, healthy and not quite so-healthy, delicious recipes that I can and do make over and over again to general household happiness..." Read more
"...This is a great book for both the accomplished cook as well as someone with more modest skills - perhaps looking for an introduction to Vietnamese..." Read more
"Great book for my collection. Good recipes. I recommend." Read more
Customers find the cookbook easy to follow and quick to make. It uses simple ingredients and methods, starting with basic recipes. The author explains cooking clearly with photos for novices. The book provides the right details in the right places.
"...And there are how-to instructions: For working with lettuces and herbs, working with rice paper, how to cut into matchsticks, and how to buy, prep..." Read more
"...The former is filled with quick, DELICIOUS recipes that you can make with either traditional ingredients or more accessible substitutions...." Read more
"...This book captures all of the best traits of Vietnamese cuisine - simple, flavorful and fresh...." Read more
"I like easy, and these were easy...." Read more
Customers appreciate the authentic Vietnamese food made simple. They mention it's a mild collection of dishes, like Vietnamese empanadas, flan, and shaking beef. The recipes are simple and provide a sample of dishes, and the author gives you choices for alternate ingredients for those that might be hard to find.
"...•Vietnamese Empanadas - These little packets of goodness are Vietnamese empanadas. We made these for a dinner party, and wound up with extra filling...." Read more
"...Vietnamese flan, pomegranate tofu, and shaking beef are some of my new favorites...." Read more
"...The author gives you choices for alternate ingredients for those that might be hard to find...." Read more
"...The recipes are simple and provide a sample of dishes. A good first book on Viet cuisine. Highly recommend!!" Read more
Customers appreciate the book's valuable information about Vietnamese ingredients and cooking. They find it helpful and a great way to learn how to use them in various dishes. The author's extensive experience and pragmatism are also appreciated. Overall, readers describe the book as an excellent resource for those interested in cooking Vietnamese cuisine.
"...Andrea Nguyen's Viet spirit, her vast experience, her pragmatism, and her reasonable and logical way of doing things come shining through in this,..." Read more
"...and recommendations on brands of products to use that are very helpful and spot on...." Read more
"...Her writing is easy to follow and stories so full of meaning, does have switch outs, and won't bust your pocket but your stomach will burstwith..." Read more
"...incredible job of explaining the steps in each recipe in a way that's helpful and not intimidating...." Read more
Customers find the book provides good value for money. They appreciate the valuable tips.
"...Nguyen is very generous with her tips--and they are so valuable, useful, spot-on...." Read more
"...The Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream is worth the price of the book alone...." Read more
"...of her books-check out her others and her website, and they are so worth it with fantastic pictures, easy to source ingredients and simple recipes...." Read more
"...This cookbook is worth purchasing if you are interested in Vietnamese cooking. You won't regret it." Read more
Customers find the recipes in the book unique, distinct, and extraordinary. They describe them as authentic with a few twists.
"...So, these recipes are unique, distinct and extraordinary: There is not a single ingredient in this Vienamese cook book that can't be found in any..." Read more
"I have many of Andrea’s recipe books, but this one is special. Easy to use, with wonderfully delicious recipes...." Read more
"This book is amazing and authentic with a few twist! I am Vietnamese and everything that I have tried has been delicious and so easy!" Read more
"Innovative and easy." Read more
Customers have different views on the picture quality. Some find it great and easy to read, with beautiful pictures and recipes. Others mention there are few pictures of finished dishes, and the dishes come out bland without spices.
"...Index is sufficient. Type style, size and black ink, plus a well-designed page layout, all contribute to easy reading...." Read more
"...out her others and her website, and they are so worth it with fantastic pictures, easy to source ingredients and simple recipes...." Read more
"...bad, but I feel like I need to double the spices, otherwise it comes out pretty bland...." Read more
"I didn't enjoy this book much. Designed nicely with highly styled photos of finished dishes (though few photos illustrating dish preparation) but..." Read more
Reviews with images

We Spent A Week Cooking Recipes From This Book For Our Cookbook Blog. Read About Our Results Below!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2019There is not a single recipe in this book that I would not enjoy making. And this cook book--surprisingly and delightfully--is quite a "page-turner"!
Quite the statements, but they are true. Andrea Nguyen's Viet spirit, her vast experience, her pragmatism, and her reasonable and logical way of doing things come shining through in this, her newest cook book. She is a real star in my opinion.
What's really special about this book: This author has an acute awareness of what's available in our "normal" American grocery stores and the appliances, counter and pantry space in the "normal" American kitchen. How was she able to so successfully transfer this awareness to her recipes? She paid close attention to her mother's cooking back in the mid-1970's when the family arrived in the US as refugees. No familiar Vietnamese foodstuffs to be found in the neighborhood grocery stores back then, so Vietnamese families adapted American ingredients to mimic what they had been used to in their homeland--a good example of practicality and perseverance and strength of spirit.
So, these recipes are unique, distinct and extraordinary: There is not a single ingredient in this Vienamese cook book that can't be found in any all purpose, good-sized neighborhood grocery store. (Well, finding lemongrass might cause you some extra effort, but not much.....and there is always lemongrass paste.)
Not only are these recipes mouthwatering, they are fairly easy to accomplish and master. Give me a recipe that tastes great and is quick and easy to make, and I will gladly embrace it. Make them recipes with the Vietnamese flare for balancing flavors and textures, and that's even better.
Andrea Nguyen, (last name pronounced "Win") is a fine teacher. She writes with a personable style and has so much worthwhile information to share, that there's no way you'll come away from your first read-through of this book without more knowledge and experience under your belt. And with her thorough explanations, I can't see any recipe failing for you.
After a chapter of essential ingredients and strategic shopping advice, (including some brand recommendations), comes a chapter of basic recipes. I am no longer leery of making Vietnamese caramel sauce--easy-peasy. And there are recipes for making your own basic dipping and chili sauces, and pomegranate molasses. (Her way of showing us that we don't need to rely on Asian condiments from the store shelves.)
After a chapter of uncomplicated snack recipes, comes a soup chapter. And if you are familiar with Nguyen's Pho cook book, you would know to expect the soup recipes in this book to be stellar--and they are.--all ten of them! There are helpful tips on the best store shelf stocks, and how to build a sweet note into a broth.
My favorite chapter is Chicken and Seafood: There are a handful of chicken thigh and shrimp recipes that I could live on...... There are plenty of great recipes in the Pork and Beef chapter, too.
The eleven salad and veggie recipes have me wishing for more. And really, with all the substitutions and suggestions, there are more--plenty more! And adding--even just a few--of the rice and noodle recipes to your repertoire will have all those sitting around your table praising you with big grins on their faces.
Nguyen is very generous with her tips--and they are so valuable, useful, spot-on. Some examples: Why muslin is better than cheesecloth; the difference between cane and beet sugar when caramelizing; the richest coconut milk; how to prevent noodles from sticking together after draining. And there are how-to instructions: For working with lettuces and herbs, working with rice paper, how to cut into matchsticks, and how to buy, prep and store lemongrass, and many more.
And there are plenty of tips on substitutions for creating vegetarian and vegan dishes, plus notes, for instance, on which tempeh has the most umami. And there is an entire chapter on eggs, tofu and tempeh.
Nguyen also offers alternative cooking techniques, by incorporating instructions for pressure cooking and working with a multi-cooker, and providing substitutions for utensils that we might not have.
Here is another thought: If you have Charles Phan cookbooks, and love them, but don't use them much, you will love this cook book even more. In fact, what you learn in this book will help get you back in touch with Phan's books.
Four-color pictures are well done, (but there is not a picture for each recipe). Index is sufficient. Type style, size and black ink, plus a well-designed page layout, all contribute to easy reading. After all, this is a Ten Speed Press publication and they are masters of the art of producing great cook books. Definitely take a browse through the "Look Inside" feature on this product page. If my review has not convinced you this is a wonderful book, maybe that feature can sway you one way or the other.
I bought this book as a pre-order. I recognize this author's name and her reputation, so it was no huge leap of faith that made me hit the buy button the day I first saw it advertised. I looked back to see when I purchased Nguyen's Pho cook book, and I was kind of surprised to see it was almost exactly two years ago that I bought it and reviewed it.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2021I love this cookbook! I have both Ms. Nguyen's "Vietnamese Food Any Day" and "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" - the latter has more traditional, detailed "classic" Vietnamese recipes. The former is filled with quick, DELICIOUS recipes that you can make with either traditional ingredients or more accessible substitutions. Since I am not Vietnamese myself, I actually don't feel like I have the authority to designate which cookbook is more "authentic" as some reviewers seem entitled to do. I will note that immigrant cooking is always necessarily a fusion of the traditional place-of-origin techniques and recipes made with whatever ingredients are available locally - which are often rather different from what was available in one's home country. Those additions - like the use of Maggi sauce for example - used by the diaspora communities in turn influence and reinvent the constantly evolving cuisine of any country or nationality. And of course Vietnamese food in particular reflects and incorporates the influence of their many-decades colonizer France, with recipes that use classic French techniques and ingredients. With all due modesty, I will say that I am an excellent cook and able to make elaborate, complicated, multi-course meals from French, Mediterranean, Italian, South East Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Persian, British, American, and yes even Vietnamese classic recipes. But, like most people, I prefer on a daily basis to make quick, tasty, reasonably healthy meals that my family - including kids - will eat. "Vietnamese Food Any Day" provides a variety of excellent, healthy and not quite so-healthy, delicious recipes that I can and do make over and over again to general household happiness. I can make the recipes more complex and nuanced by making the traditional basics like burnt caramel sauce to use as a foundational building block, or when in a rush I can rely on Ms. Nguyen to offer me a perfectly reasonable and tasty substitution for that critical ingredient from off my shelf - like molasses. And I appreciate and respect that extra advice, just like I appreciated and respected all the tips and shortcuts my parents and grandmother - all excellent cooks too - offered me as I learned to cook. Highly recommend all of Ms. Nguyen's cookbooks and this one in particular, which gets a lot of use in my kitchen.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2021This cookbook helps Americans or anyone not from Vietnam to get those flavors you're looking for. She breaks down recipes in an easy to prepaid method. I've made most of these dishes all ready, but flavor was missing nice, to see those little secrets to level up my dishes.
Top reviews from other countries
- CrosbyReviewed in Canada on May 14, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful cook book
I love this chef and she makes everything easy and very tasty
- DJATReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful recipes
So good to have authentic dishes.
-
LiaReviewed in Brazil on August 20, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente livro para comida vietnamita
O livro é ótimo no que diz respeito a adaptar a comida vietnamita do dia-a-dia para o que é possível se fazer em casa com os ingredientes que se consegue comprar num supermercado de cidade grande - o principal trunfo do livro é esse. Você não precisa necessariamente ter acesso a pasta de tamarindo, folha pandan (ingrediente que não existe meeesmo no Brasil) , café vietnamita.
Além disso, os sabores são bastante fiéis aos que você come no Vietnã - não são suavizados ou ocidentalizados - e sim , usa coentro :)
-
Maria D Leal SReviewed in Mexico on April 1, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto
Muy buenas recetas
- KatriReviewed in Germany on November 4, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and tasty Vietnamese recipes
The best cookbook I have ever bought! I bought the book in June and have worked my way through about 1/3 of the recipes; I'm aiming to test all the recipes in this book because they are approachable, easy and most importantly - tasty! I have never had a cookbook from which I would want to cook all the recipes. Some of my favorites include: ginger-garlic fish parcels, grilled lemongrass pork chops, shaking beef, shaking tofu, spicy broccoli & herb slaw and the zesty lime-chile vinaigrette on slaw (this vinaigrette goes with many salads!). I wouldn't be too concerned whether or not the recipes are completely authentic (I was a bit worried it would be "too American") but I feel the book is true to Vietnamese flavours and would heavily recommend this book.
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