Rex De Guz­man's col­or­ful cook­book Kamayan is a tempt­ing ini­ti­ation into Filipino cuisine. Brit­ish-born Filipino chef Guz­man runs pop-up res­taur­ants and was a final­ist on The Great Cook­book Chal­lenge with Jamie Oliver. A three-month stay in the Phil­ip­pines allowed him to recon­nect with his her­it­age. Com­pared to other Asian coun­tries' cuisines, he says that the Phil­ip­pines' is "largely unknown in much of Europe. However, that is all begin­ning to change." Due to out­side influ­ences encountered through trade and colo­ni­al­ism, the Phil­ip­pines developed "the ori­ginal fusion food," Guz­man con­tends. A trade­mark sour­ness from vin­egar and fruits is bal­anced by sweet and salty fla­vors. Coconut and rice are ubi­quit­ous ele­ments.

Staples take on dif­fer­ent dimen­sions when used in a savory dish versus a dessert, and the recipes lend them­selves to adapt­a­tion. Break­fast options include a charred egg­plant omelet and gar­lic fried rice. Sin­igang, or poached sal­mon in sour tam­ar­ind and tomato broth, and roas­ted cauli­flower and pea­nut stew are among the allur­ing plates. Other sec­tions cover bar­be­cue and street food, nibbles to eat with beer, and the "mer­ienda" snack between lunch and din­ner. Two mouth­wa­ter­ing sug­ges­tions are plantain spring rolls with brown sugar syrup and "Lola Rosa's mango float," a layered con­fec­tion of crème p'tissière and mango gel on a Bis­coff and gra­ham cracker base. Some pre­par­a­tion times are less than half an hour, but there are also more involved menus for feast days. All instruc­tions are writ­ten in a clear fash­ion. Inform­a­tion is also given about what ingredi­ents to keep in the pantry.

Street scenes are depic­ted, too, set­ting the food in con­text. With bold fonts, geo­met­ric color blocks, and crisp pho­to­graphs, often taken from above, the sunny cook­book Kamayan is an invig­or­at­ing culin­ary tour of the Phil­ip­pines.