Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen

I saw Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen on RTE and was pleased to watch her valiant effort to introduce the Irish to something more interesting than cabbage, potatoes and Guiness. Her TV show covered scrumptious popular dishes in a variety of Asian cuisines, skipping from Chinese to Japanese to Thai after each ad break. Although this makes the show culturally unfocused, its continent-wide scope gives it room to showcase the most enticing (and easy) dishes that Asia has to offer and maximises its appeal. To the benefit of all Westerners, Eva reassuringly explains Asian cooking instructions for absolute beginners, starting with the basics: you should wash rice, you should get a rice cooker to cook rice, you should cook rice in water, and so on (though it's interesting that she never pre-soaked the rice). The presentation of the cooking process is visually clear and appealing, with the best angles used to highlight every ingredient as they are chopped, mixed or added to the sizzle, and the final result is perfectly presented. During the cooking, Eva's explanations are clear, smooth and enthusiastic, even as she is busy going through each step of the recipe. The show has just the right amount of extra material, explaining some personal anecdotes or cultural background without becoming excessive fluff like in other shows. However, the extra material is quite basic as the show doesn't seem to have the budget to actually travel to Asia, so it is restricted to showing Eva's family photos, repeated stories about her aunt Beatrice and trips to the supermarket.