This book is a great home-cook-friendly recipe book with one major flaw: the index. I can’t actually believe that the index was user-tested at all, unlike the evidently very thorough testing magi does of all her lovely recipes.
The ‘recipe index’ is just a detailed table of contents of the recipe (main) sections of the book, but at the back of the book. Then the ‘index’ which follows it is just a different way of grouping all the recipes, with the groupings listed alphabetically. Yes, I know many recipe books list items like ‘crispy garlic chicken thighs’ under ‘chicken’ in their index, but they could usually also be found under ‘crispy’. Is it that the publishers thought Nagi’s readers would be put off by more closely spaced columns of print?
The publishing decision totally falls down in places. When it comes to items like ‘beef biryani’ and ‘Italian beef rice pilaf’, they are only found under the ‘rice’ section, and nowhere to be seen under beef. And if I’m trying to find what page ‘chow mein’ is on (one of nagi’s classics), how should I know to look under ‘chicken’ to find it?
I wonder if someone set an arbitrary rule that an item could only fall under one of the predetermined categories.
Whatever it is, it is not an index, and the overall usability of a great book is spoiled. So disappointed because recipetineats.com is my favourite food blog, and a better index would make a much better book. There’s chance for redemption in a second edition!