Book Review: Food FAQS: Substitutions, Yields and Equivalents by Linda Resnik, Dee Brock

Book Review: "Food FAQS: Substitutions, Yields & Equivalents" by Linda Resnik, Dee Brock
by Jennifer A. Wickes
copyright 2003

I have had the wonderful opportunity to review the book, "Food FAQs: Substitutions, Yields and Equivalents" by Linda Resnik and Dee Brock, published by FAQs Press.

One of the authors approached me in November 2002 and noticed how I had not reviewed their book yet at Amazon.com. Through my information, they found the articles I have written at Suite 101, and there, also, I had not indicated once about their book "Food FAQs". Confidently, Linda Resnik offered me a copy of their book in exchange for a review. I accepted.

When the book first arrived, I noticed that it was small, and organized into 3 sections: Substitutions, Yields and Equivalents, and an Index, which fully cross-references. At a first glance of the book, I saw how functional this book was. Everything was alphabetized, with hard-to-find ingredients also included.

After 25 years of cooking experience (16 of those on a regular basis), I was very curious if this book would really work. Of course, I had to put it to the test. My first test, conveniently showed up the day the book arrived. I was planning on making a yogurt pumpkin pie and had just discovered that I forgot to buy the yogurt. I used their easy-to-use reference guide, and found that the substitution for yogurt was buttermilk. This was great, but I was leery, as one of the major ingredients in the recipe for this pumpkin pie was the yogurt. Well, I continued on my way, and prepared the pie as the recipe recommended. Later, my husband and I taste tested the results. My husband said, "This is delicious!" Being a man with challenging palate, I found this very rewarding, and I agreed to make this pie again for Thanksgiving!

My next mission was that of "lotus root". One of my friends has only been in the USA for barely a year. She is from Japan and made me this rice salad. Being pregnant, I was craving this wonderful concoction! But I could not find the lotus root in the grocery store. I looked up the ingredient in this handy reference book to discover that the authors feel like water chestnuts would be an adequate solution. I was also very pleased with the results here.

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