Regional & International Books - Page 11

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

Claudia Roden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this updated and greatly enlarged edition of her Book of Middle Eastern Food, Claudia Roden re-creates a classic. The book was originally published here in 1972 and was hailed by James Beard as "a landmark in the field of cookery"; this new version represents the accumulation of the author's thirty years of further extensive travel throughout the ever-changing landscape of the Middle East, gathering recipes and stories.

Now Ms. Roden gives us more than 800 recipes, including the aromatic variations that accent a dish and define the country of origin: fried garlic and cumin and coriander from Egypt, cinnamon and allspice from Turkey, sumac and tamarind from Syria and Lebanon, pomegranate syrup from Iran, preserved lemon and harissa from North Africa. She has worked out simpler approaches to traditional dishes, using healthier ingredients and time-saving methods without ever sacrificing any of the extraordinary flavor, freshness, and texture that distinguish the cooking of this part of the world.

Throughout these pages she draws on all four of the region's major cooking styles:
        -        The refined haute cuisine of Iran, based on rice exquisitely prepared and embellished with a range of meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts
        -        Arab cooking from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan--at its finest today, and a good source for vegetable and bulgur wheat dishes
        -        The legendary Turkish cuisine, with its kebabs, wheat and rice dishes, yogurt salads, savory pies, and syrupy pastries
        -        North African cooking, particularly the splendid fare of Morocco, with its heady mix of hot and sweet, orchestrated to perfection in its couscous dishes and tagines

From the tantalizing mezze--those succulent bites of filled fillo crescents and cigars, chopped salads, and stuffed morsels, as well as tahina, chickpeas, and eggplant in their many guises--to the skewered meats and savory stews and hearty grain and vegetable dishes, here is a rich array of the cooking that Americans embrace today. No longer considered exotic--all the essential ingredients are now available in supermarkets, and the more rare can be obtained through mail order sources (readily available on the Internet)--the foods of the Middle East are a boon to the home cook looking for healthy, inexpensive, flavorful, and wonderfully satisfying dishes, both for everyday eating and for special occasions.

Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run

Alton Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

He’s on the road again. This time, Alton Brown and his motorcycle-mounted crew are off on a thousand-mile, south-to-north journey that follows America’s first “superhighway”—the Mississippi. Starting at the great river’s delta on the Gulf of Mexico and ending up near its headwaters in Minnesota, Alton and buddies travel the heartland’s byways to scout out the very best of roadside food—and to get to know the people who spend their lives preparing and serving it.

A companion to the six-part Food Network series airing in fall 2007, Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run is a travel diary, photo journal, and, of course, cookbook. Alton’s itinerary includes big-city eateries and small-town chat ’n’ chews, as well as markets, inns, ice cream parlors, museums, barbecue joints—and even an alligator farm.

Louisiana-style Grilled Alligator Tail (served simply, with lemon and butter) is one of the book’s forty original road-food recipes. Others include Pecan-Coconut Pie from an Arkansan roadside restaurant; BBQ Pork Ribs in Mississippi that Brown eats over pancakes; Vegetable Borscht from St. Paul’s Russian Tea House; and Fried Catfish from a riverside burg in Illinois. When it comes to America’s foodways and folkways, there’s no better tour guide than Alton Brown.

Jamie's Italy

Jamie Oliver

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author Jamie Oliver finally devotes an entire book to America's favorite cuisine -- Italian!

Italy and its wonderful flavors have always had a major influence on Jamie Oliver’s food and cooking. In Jamie’s Italy, he travels this famously gastronomic country paying homage to the classic dishes of each region and searching for new ideas to bring home. The result is a sensational collection of Italian recipes, old and new, that will ensure that Italy’s influence reaches us all.

Italy has inspired Jamie Oliver throughout his career. His ambition has always been to travel across the country on a quest to capture the very essence of Italian cooking -- and to produce the best and simplest Italian cookbook for everybody anywhere to enjoy.

Jamie’s Italy is the result of that journey -- and it’s a land of plenty. As well as providing more than 120 brand-new recipes for everything from risotto to roasts and spaghetti to stews, structured as traditional trattoria menus, Jamie takes you all over Italy to cook with and learn from the real masters of Italian cuisine: the locals. Far from the standard "lemons and olives" version of Italian cooking, Jamie’s Italy is a cookbook by the people for the people. From Sicily to Tuscany, it’s about the local fishermen, family bakers, and, of course, the "Mamas," sharing their recipes and the tips that have gone into their cooking for generations. But it’s not only mouthwatering food that Jamie brings back home: it’s also the spirit that makes cooking and eating absolutely central to family life, whichever part of Italy you’re in.

Bursting with the warmth and hospitality of real family life, this is both a superbly accessible cookbook and a unique travelogue and diary, in which you’ll find the authentic flavor of Italy and the people who live there. If you love quality food prepared with genuine passion -- you’ll never want to leave Jamie’s Italy.

Wild, Wild East: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam

Bobby Chinn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The world is discovering Vietnamese food, and it’s a happy discovery indeed! Wild, Wild East is the creation of chef Bobby Chin, Hanoi’s enfant terrible and renowned master of Vietnamese cuisine. He characterizes Vietnamese food as having fresh, clean flavors, and as being light, healthy, and diverse. More than a recipe book, Wild, Wild East is the author’s authentic guide to Vietnamese food as it is prepared and enjoyed today. Combining his lively text with Jason Lowe’s striking color photos of Vietnam’s markets, kitchens, people, and foods, Bobby Chin starts out with instructions for preparing Vietnamese sauces, garnishes, and dips. Next, he provides recipes for a host of exotic and delectable dishes that include—

Minced Prawns on Sugar Cane

Chicken Wings Cooked in Caramel Sauce and Ginger

Braised Banana Blossoms

Meat, Crab, and Grapefruit Salad

Shrimp and Pork Crepe

Stir-fried Noodles and Beef

Pan Roasted Salmon and Wasabi Mashed Potatoes . . . and many, many more

Also included are delightful salads and special Vietnamese desserts that the author calls Sweet Sensations. This entertaining and informative book features approximately 100 recipes for exotically delicious dishes and 200 color photos.
(Sidebar)
From the Book’s Foreword by renowned chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain
“Bobby Chinn, chef, long time resident of Southeast Asia, television personality, hustler, International Man of Mystery, and now author, is the first guy you want to know in Hanoi if you want to find where to get the good stuff to eat, how to make it, and why it’s made that way. . . . what Bobby doesn’t know about Southeast Asian food is not worth knowing.”

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets

Deborah Madison

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

First published in hardcover in 2002, Local Flavors was a book ahead of its time. Now, imported food scares and a countrywide infatuation with fresh, local, organic produce has caught up with this groundbreaking cookbook, available for the first time in paperback.

Deborah Madison celebrates the glories of the farmers’ markets of America in a richly illustrated collection of seasonal recipes for a profusion of produce grown coast to coast. As more and more people shun industrially produced foods and instead choose to go local and organic, this is the ideal cookbook to capitalize on a major and growing trend.

Local Flavors emphasizes seasonal, regional ingredients found in farmers’ markets and roadside farm stands and awakens the reader to the real joy of making a direct connection with the food we eat and the person who grows it. Deborah Madison’s 350 full-flavored recipes and accompanying menus include dishes as diverse as Pea and Spinach Soup with Coconut Milk; Rustic Onion Tart with Walnuts; Risotto with Sorrel; Mustard Greens Braised with Ginger, Cilantro, and Rice; Poached Chicken with Leeks and Salsa Verde; Soy Glazed Sweet Potatoes; Cherry Apricot Crisp; and Plum Kuchen with Crushed Walnut Topping.

Covering markets around the country from Vermont to Hawaii, Deborah Madison reveals the astonishing range of produce and other foods available and the sheer pleasure of shopping for them. A celebration of farmers and their bounty, Local Flavors is a must-have cookbook for anyone who loves fresh, seasonal food simply and imaginatively prepared.

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

Mark Kurlansky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.

For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways.

Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers.

Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant’s peg leg and Robert Fulton’s “Folly”; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico’s; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even “Diamond” Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend.

With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.


From the Compact Disc edition.

The Country Cooking of France

Anne Willan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Country Cooking of France 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is now the finest French Cookery book that I possess. It is interesting just to read, and is well illustrated. The recipes are well laid out and easy to follow.
Absolutely love it !

A lovely book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a beautiful book to look at with wonderful, old fashioned French country recipes. Anyone who likes French food, and/or who has spent any time in the French country side is bound to find a favorite dish. The photographs alone are almost worth buying the book for

Editorial Review:

Renowned for her cooking school in France and her many best-selling cookbooks, Anne Willan combines years of hands-on experience with extensive research to create a brand new classic. More than 250 recipes range from the time-honored La Truffade, with its crispy potatoes and melted cheese, to the Languedoc specialty Cassoulet de Toulouse, a bean casserole of duck confit, sausage, and lamb. And the desserts! Cr pes au Caramel et Beurre Sal (cr pes with a luscious caramel filling) and Galette Landaise (a rustic apple tart) are magnifique. Sprinkled with intriguing historical tidbits and filled with more than 270 enchanting photos of food markets, villages, harbors, fields, and country kitchens, this cookbook is an irresistible celebration of French culinary culture.

The Comfort Table

Katie Lee Joel

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Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nothing is more comforting than a home-cooked meal. And the best home cooking starts with fresh ingredients found close to home with foods that are local, seasonal, and organic. Raised in her grandmother's Southern kitchen, Katie Lee Joel comes from a "family of great cooks and big eaters." And she knows exactly what appeals to the home cook: recipes that are delicious, easy to follow, quick to prepare, and made with readily available seasonal ingredients.

In The Comfort Table, Katie dips into her archive of family recipes and updates all the classics from her childhood growing up in West Virginia, and also creates some inventive new favorites. This mouthwatering assortment of more than 125 recipes includes Southern staples like Fried Green Tomatoes, Chicken and Dumplings, Peach Cobbler, Meatloaf, and the quintessential Pulled Pork BBQ, which stand alongside contemporary classics like Roasted Carrot and Ginger Soup, Citrus-Tarragon Mahi-Mahi, and Dijon and Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb.

But The Comfort Table is about more than just good old-fashioned home cooking. It's about sharing delicious, healthful meals -- made with love -- for friends and family. Katie's rich assortment of recipes for starters, salads, soups, entrees, side dishes, breads, breakfast, desserts, and drinks, is accompanied by entertaining tips and anecdotes to delight the modern foodie. The Comfort Table is a comprehensive, unpretentious, refreshingly accessible guide to creating unforgettable meals for occasions big and small.

Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors

Andrea Quynhgiao Nguyen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

amazing book- even for a non vietnamese 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

When I got this book I had very limited knowledge on Vietnamese food. There is a striking difference in ingredients, spices and herbs used in the Vietnamese cuisine compared to western cooking and the author takes the time to explain all the different ingredients used, how and where to purchase them and how to store them. I found that very helpful! All the recipes in the book are explained in detail and often take more than one page. The ingredients are also very well listed and the dishes are very well organized in chapters.The recipes are very easy to follow and I have been really satisfied from everything I have cooked until now! The author also tells a few words about each dish and its origin and characteristics making the book a true journey into the Vietnamese kitchen (and culinary culture) rather than a mere cookbook. I have a much better understanding and appreciation of Vietnamese food now and a lot of it is due to Andrea Nguen's book.

Editorial Review:

When author Andrea Nguyen's family was airlifted out of Saigon in 1975, one of the few belongings that her mother hurriedly packed for the journey was her small orange notebook of recipes. Thirty years later, Nguyen has written her own intimate collection of recipes, INTO THE VIETNAMESE KITCHEN, an ambitious debut cookbook that chronicles the food traditions of her native country. Robustly flavored yet delicate, sophisticated yet simple, the recipes include steamy pho noodle soups infused with the aromas of fresh herbs and lime; rich clay-pot preparations of catfish, chicken, and pork; classic bánh mì sandwiches; and an array of Vietnamese charcuterie. Nguyen helps readers shop for essential ingredients, master core cooking techniques, and prepare and serve satisfying meals, whether for two on a weeknight or 12 on a weekend.

Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes

Nancie McDermott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fun book 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book has been a great introduction to Thai cooking for me. One word of warning: though the title says "quick and easy," the recipes are not usually quick and easy at the same time. The ones I've done so far have been easy, but not quick. I'm sure that there are others that are quick, though. Or maybe I'm just slow. :)

Editorial Review:

Now busy home cooks can bring the fantastic flavors of Thai cuisine into the kitchen with a simple trip to the grocery store. Nancie McDermott, experienced cook, teacher, and author of the best-selling cookbook Real Thai, presents this collection of 70 delicious recipes that focus on easy-to-find ingredients and quick cooking methods to whip up traditional Thai. With recipes like Crying Tiger Grilled Beef, Grilled Shrimp and Scallops with Lemongrass, Sticky Rice with Mangoes, and Thai Iced Tea, along with McDermott's highly practical array of shortcuts, substitutions, and timesaving techniques, anyone can prepare home-cooked authentic Thai meals -- as often as they like.