I think the task the Sumatran cookery writer Sri Owen undertook when she agreed to write the Classic Asian Cook Book must have been one of the most difficult undertaken by any food writer.
For what Owen had to do was to present, in a book of 160 pages, a compression of the cuisines of 14 different countries whose styles of cooking vary wildly. What connections are there between the cooking of India and that of Japan? Between Sri Lanka and the Philippines? Few, if any, and so what Owen has wisely done is to feature many of the classic dishes of each country - gado-gado for Indonesia; sushi for Japan; beef with broccoli for China; pork vindalooo for India, and to let these dishes point the user in the general direction of the style of the various cuisines.
The exposition and layout is as exemplary, as we have come to expect from this Classic Cookbook series, but I would imagine many serious cooks will most likely have specialist books about many of these cuisines, with the possible exceptions of Laos, Singapore, Cambodia and Burma, from which countries the book offers a small number of recipes. For the general reader, however, the book can be recommended as a precise, intelligent introduction to these cuisines.
Classic Asian Cook Book, by Sri Owen is published by Dorling Kindersley, price 16.99 in the UK