That Noodle Life arrived on my radar thanks to emmalita’s review last fall. I wanted to love this book. A cookbook that is all about noodles should be a book I love. Noodles are THE BEST. But sadly, I didn’t love this book. I do like it though, and copied many recipes to keep on hand when my library demanded I give the book back.
Mike and Stephanie Le are the creators of iamafoodblog and have written a cookbook that is a love letter to all things noodle. There are deep dives on certain noodle dishes that are instructive as well as instructional. Recipes range from traditional Sunday Sauce with Tagliatelle to quick weeknight noodles. There’s also Sexy Date Night Noodles and a section on how to upgrade instant noodles to make them shine, recipes for making noodles from scratch, notes on essential ingredients, and noodle etiquette, including how to use a ramen vending machine in Japan.
This is a very visual book and it made me hungry – which is always a good sign with a cookbook. Stephanie Le’s beautiful photography is a strong presence and matched with fun, vibrant colors and a friendly voice that makes you feel empowered to cook. But like my time with Stephanie Le’s first cookbook Easy Gourmet the recipes looked delicious there were still a couple of boundaries to me jumping right in. The first is that some of these recipes are a little fancier than I traditionally cook or eat and while the authors make adapting recipes easy by writing the cookbook in a way that encourages adaptation and playing with your food, I will need to do some serious planning in order to tweak the recipes to my skill level and the equipment I have on hand. The other problem is that even though I live in the suburban megalopolis of New Jersey I am still over a half hour away from an Asian market that would allow me to purchase some of the ingredients I will need – which is a reality that isn’t particularly dealt with by the authors who assume that all the specialty ingredients, Asian or otherwise, are easily and affordably available without getting into how or where to source them.
Bingo Square: Dough (this one feels a little on the nose, but I’m going with it because its perfect.)