Regional & International Books - Page 26

Its Disgusting And We Ate It: True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History

James Solheim

List Price: $17.95 By: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $2.64

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

Just Eat It! 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

An excellent little book with sensational illustrations. This book explores some of the foods from around the world which different cultures enjoy, but which may seem disgusting to us. Everything thing eaten is not in here but there is a good selection. What was eaten throughout history around the world is also included.

My favourite section is part three - Strange Stories from your own Kitchen which explains what cows eat and how that food gets turned into the milk which we drink. There is also similar information on how bees make honey.

There's also a few recipes and 19 poems as well. I am not really into poems so they didn't do much for me but if you are into poetry then this may well be a bonus for you. The illustrations in this book are sensational though, and worth the price alone.

Editorial Review:

This book explores every continent's wildest food traditions -- from modern Americans eating raw oysters to ancient Romans eating rose pie. This full-color volume of zany information, poetry, and humor covers thousands of years and circles the globe to bring children on a tour of the fun side of food.

The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook: A Collection of Our Favorite Recipes for the Home Chef

The Culinary Institute of America

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Photograhy, Great Recipes, and a Very Good Cookbook 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Culinary Institute of America (or "The CIA") is a prestigious, not-for-profit, culinary college founded in 1946 in New Haven, CT. When it comes to preparing aspiring chefs for careers in some of the best restaurants across the globe, the CIA is among the top schools in the country. With that reputation in hand this cookbook celebrates another side of the CIA, one that is dedicated to bringing advanced kitchen skills and easily executable recipes to the home chef.

After a brief introduction to the school itself the book starts with a section entitled "Prior To Cooking" which offers tips on the buying and storing of ingredients, the use of seasonings and marinades as well as various other best practices that the home cook will find useful. However, this section is surprisingly short at eight pages including four pages of charts. Although I would have liked to see it longer and better organized there are other books better suited for this type of instruction and this book does not pretend to be one of them.

The remainder of the book is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter is augmented with instructions, information and techniques designed to aid the reader in acquiring the skills necessary to produce professional and predictable results.

The chapters are:

1. Beverages and Snacks
Here one will find 17 recipes for beverages (including Kir Royale, Bubble tea and Mango Lassi) and 17 recipes for cocktail party snacks like Lobster and Prosciutto Crostini and Blackened Tomato Salsa (I really loved that one).

2. Appetizers and Salads
Over 50 recipes that include classic pre-dinner dishes such as Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes and Spanakopita as well as some creative items like Fennel and Chorizo Strudels. Some of the salads are really interesting, such as the Baked Goat Cheese with Mesclun, Pears and Toasted Almonds offering. Incredible!

3. Broths and Soups
The over 40 soups in this chapter come from around the world. I am impressed with the diversity of cuisines that the recipes are drawn from. White Grape Gazpacho with Toasted Almonds and Dill from Spain; Vichyssoise, Onion Soup and Potage Au Pistou from France; Hot and Sour Soup and Fresh Pea Soup from Thailand; New England Clam Chowder and others from the U.S. and many more. I have prepared several of the soups in this chapter and so far my favorite is the Posole-Poblano Soup with Smoked Pork and Jalapeno Jack Cheese. I have made it three times and it has never failed to please.

4. Pasta, Casseroles and Light Fare
In this chapter you will find about 40 recipes that are well suited to casual, informal dinning. Try the Lamb and Eggplant Moussaka or the Bibimbap for a treat.

5. Main Dishes
There are more recipes in this chapter than any other in this book. Over 60 dishes show the depth of the international influence in this cookbook. Even though I love many of the offerings I was expecting some that would knock my socks off and, to be honest, none did. Still there were some real winners, like the Jerked Game Hens with Rice, Beans and Grilled Pineapple-Jicama Salsa.

6. Vegetables and Side Dishes
It has been my experience that no matter how wonderful your main dish is, people will remember your side dishes. This chapter has some recipes that are worthy of recollection. It is my opinion that this section is the best of the book. Roasted Carrots and Parsnips with Herbs, Roasted Corn Succotash, Zucchini Pancakes & Wild Mushroom Saute are among the dishes that I enjoyed in this section.

7. Egg Dishes and Griddle Cakes
Recipes include those for Huevos Rancheros, Scrambled Eggs, Eggs Benedict, Buttermilk Pancakes with Grand Marnier-Infused Strawberries, etc.

8. Baked Goods and Desserts
Muffins, scones, biscuits, , pastry, loafs and buns abide here. For those with a sweet tooth this is a chapter to remember.

The final section includes an appendix of charts and tables of cooking times, best temperatures for specific types of meat, etc.

In addition to the recipes each chapter includes "green" instructional sections that give information on the selection of the ingredients needed and tutelage on the techniques required to complete the various dishes. These sections include "The Basic Steps for a Cream Soup", "Selecting and Preparing Legumes", "Vegetable Cooking Primer" and others.

The quality of the photography in this book is beyond reproach. Ben Fink is one of the top food photographers in the U.S. and his work here ranks among his best. The only problem is that the editors have chosen to group his photos into four major inserts scattered throughout the book. I am aware that this is a cheaper way to produce a cookbook but I personally do not like this style. I prefer a book that has the photos on the pages opposite the recipe. I also would pay more for a cookbook with more photos. This book has over 350 recipes and a little over 100 full page color photographs plus a few dozen, smaller black & white "instructional" photos on the actual recipe pages.

This is a good cookbook for the home chef that would like to become better rooted in the basics, both in technique and in variety of recipes. I find the recipes to be good but a little on the elementary side, which might be perfect for some. I own better reference books but they are either much bigger, much more expensive, or no longer in print. Altogether I recommend this book for those who are looking to gain some basic skills and techniques. However, if you have been a student of fine culinary instruction for more than a few years, you might want to look for a more advanced book.

Editorial Review:

The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook is complete with our favorite recipes for morning meals, baked goods, appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, soups, light meals, main courses, side dishes, and scrumptious desserts.

Nobu West

Nobu Matsuhisa, Mark Edwards

Amazon Price: $26.37 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Andrews McMeel Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $12.71

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Nobu West 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

We all knew that Nobu Matsuhisa is a great cook, but the way he combined the west cooking with the east and his influences from Peru is just grandious.

I would consider the best book I bought in years. Simple to follow, extremely well documented and the pictures are just marvelous.

For an amateur like me, an excellent purchase to explore further the pleasures of life.

Editorial Review:

Nobu draws upon his extensive training in Tokyo and his life abroad in Peru, Argentina, and Alaska, as well as his own Michelin-rated, award-winning restaurants worldwide, to create unusual and ingenious East-meets-West dishes like Chilled Pea Shoot Soup with Caviar, Oysters with Pancetta, Iberian Pork Shabu Shabu, and the Japanese Mojito, which herald his ability to explore a confluence of cultures and tastes.

Nobu style is synonymous with flexibility, freshness, quality, and above all, simplicity. Nobu West is for cooks of all experience levels, providing advice; descriptions of unfamiliar flavorings, ingredients, and techniques; and helpful step-by-step illustrations along with tantalizing, full-color photographs.

Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages

Anne Mendelson

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Editorial Review:

Part cookbook—with more than 120 enticing recipes—part culinary history, part inquiry into the evolution of an industry, Milk is a one-of-a-kind book that will forever change the way we think about dairy products.

Anne Mendelson, author of Stand Facing the Stove, first explores the earliest Old World homes of yogurt and kindred fermented products made primarily from sheep’s and goats’ milk and soured as a natural consequence of climate. Out of this ancient heritage from lands that include Greece, Bosnia, Turkey, Israel, Persia, Afghanistan, and India, she mines a rich source of culinary traditions.

Mendelson then takes us on a journey through the lands that traditionally only consumed milk fresh from the cow—what she calls the Northwestern Cow Belt (northern Europe, Great Britain, North America). She shows us how milk reached such prominence in our diet in the nineteenth century that it led to the current practice of overbreeding cows and overprocessing dairy products. Her lucid explanation of the chemical intricacies of milk and the simple home experiments she encourages us to try are a revelation of how pure milk products should really taste.

The delightfully wide-ranging recipes that follow are grouped according to the main dairy ingredient: fresh milk and cream, yogurt, cultured milk and cream, butter and true buttermilk, fresh cheeses. We learn how to make luscious Clotted Cream, magical Lemon Curd, that beautiful quasi-cheese Mascarpone, as well as homemade yogurt, sour cream, true buttermilk, and homemade butter. She gives us comfort foods such as Milk Toast and Cream of Tomato Soup alongside Panir and Chhenna from India. Here, too, are old favorites like Herring with Sour Cream Sauce, Beef Stroganoff, a New Englandish Clam Chowder, and the elegant Russian Easter dessert, Paskha. And there are drinks for every season, from Turkish Ayran and Indian Lassis to Batidos (Latin American milkshakes) and an authentic hot chocolate.

This illuminating book will be an essential part of any food lover’s collection and is bound to win converts determined to restore the purity of flavor to our First Food.

Sultan's Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook

Ozcan Ozan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Turkish Delight 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful cookbook for beginners or more experienced cooks of Turkish food. The ingredients are all in customary American style (no liters, ounces, or "Turkish coffee spoonfuls"). Instructions are clear and concise. Best of all there are closeup photos of many of the finished products - very helpful for those who don't know how the dish should look when served up. I like the Turkish serving utensils and other kitchenware (pepper grinder, wooden spoon) that add to the local scene. I also like the way the book gives the Turkish name of the food and then the American version in each recipe heading. Ozan has done an excellent job of giving all the information one needs to make these delicious dishes.

Editorial Review:

Enticing, exotic recipes fit for a Sultan's table - and your own discerning palates * Offers over 130 recipes, complete menu suggestions, and stunning full-colour photography throughout * Includes recipes for tangy egg-lemon soup, vegetable stuffed aubergines sauteed in fragrant olive oil, and richly stewed lamb on a bed of pllaf With an amazing array of recipes from exotic egg-lemon soup to stewed lamb, Turkish style, The Sultan's Kitchen offers over 130 tantalizing recipes, complete menu suggestions and wonderful photography. Both recipes and imagery will inspire any cook to create dishes fit for a sultan.

Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans

Susan Spicer, Paula Disbrowe

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of New Orleans’s brightest culinary stars, Susan Spicer has been indulging Crescent City diners at her highly acclaimed restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint, for years. Now, in her long-awaited cookbook, Spicer—an expert at knocking cuisine off its pedestal with a healthy dash of hot sauce, and at elevating comfort food to the level of the sublime—brings her signature dishes to the home cook’s table.

Crescent City Cooking includes all the recipes that have made Susan Spicer, and her restaurants, famous. Spicer marries traditional Southern cooking with culinary influences from around the world, and the result is New Orleans cooking with gusto and flair. Each of her familiar yet unique recipes is easy to make and wonderfully memorable.

Inside you’ll find :
• More than 170 recipes, ranging from traditional New Orleans dishes (Cornmeal-Crusted Crayfish Pies and Cajun-Spiced Pecans) to Susan’s very own twists on down-home cuisine (Smoked Duck Hash in Puff Pastry with Apple Cider Sauce; Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Cakes and Coriander Sauce) and, of course, a recipe for the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted

• Over 90 photographs by Times-Picayune photographer Chris Granger, which display the vibrant city of New Orleans as much as Spicer’s wonderfully offbeat yet classy way of presenting her dishes

• Instructions that make Spicer’s down-to-earth but extraordinarily creative recipes easy to prepare. Spicer, who cooks for two picky preteens and packs lunch every day for her husband, knows how precious time can be and understands just how much is enough

There is something else of New Orleans—its spirit—that imbues this book’s every useful tip and anecdote. The strong culinary traditions of New Orleans are revived in Crescent City Cooking, with recipes that are guaranteed to comfort and surprise. This is some of the best food you’ll ever taste, in what is certain to become the essential New Orleans cookbook.

Mama Dip's Kitchen

Mildred Council

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For nearly twenty-five years, Mildred Council—better known by her nickname, Mama Dip—has nourished thousands of hungry folks in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her restaurant, Mama Dip's Kitchen, is a much-loved community institution that has gained loyal fans and customers from all walks of life, from New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne to former Tar Heel basketball player Michael Jordan.

Mama Dip's Kitchen showcases the same down-home, wholesome, everyday Southern cooking for which its namesake restaurant is celebrated. The book features more than 250 recipes for such favorites as old-fashioned chicken pie, country-style pork chops, sweet potatoes, fresh corn casserole, poundcake, and banana pudding. Chapters cover breads and breakfast dishes; poultry, fish, and seafood; beef, pork, and lamb; vegetables and salads; and desserts, beverages, and party dishes.

The book opens with a charming introductory essay, a savory reflection on a life in cooking that also reveals the story behind Council's nickname. It is both a graceful reminiscence of a country childhood and the inspiring story of a woman determined to make her own way in the larger world.

Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages

Mario Batali

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Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Perfectly pristine ingredients, combined sensibly and cooked properly, are the unmistakable hallmarks of the best Italian food. Chef Mario Batali, known to fans far and wide as "Molto Mario" from his appearances on television's Food Network and as chef of New York's much-loved Pó restaurant, has elevated these simple principles to fine art, creating innovative new fare that pays tribute to traditional Italian home cooking in a distinctly modern way. Now, for the first time, more than 200 of his irresistible recipes for fresh pastas, sprightly salads, grilled dishes, savory ragus, and many others are gathered in Simple Italian Food, a celebration of the flavors and spirit of Italy.
        
Mario draws inspiration for his distinctive dishes from the two "villages" that have left their stamps on his cuisine: Borgo Capanne, the tiny hillside village in Northern Italy where he lived and cooked for several years, and New York's Greenwich Village, where he has ready access to bountiful produce and outstanding artisan-made products; his full-flavored, smartly presented fare combines the best of both worlds. Chapters covering antipasti, pasta and risotto, fish, meat and poultry, contorni (side dishes), and cheese and sweets offer classic dishes such as Baked Lasagne with Asparagus and Pesto and pork loin cooked in caramelized onions and milk alongside Batali's own enticing improvisations--Penne with Spicy Goat Cheese and Hazelnut Pesto or Tuna Carpaccio with Cucumbers, Sweet Potatoes, and Saffron Vinaigrette. And because his recipes succeed on the strength of their ingredients rather than on virtuoso techniques, home cooks can easily duplicate the clear, clean flavors and lively presentations that are Mario's signature. Thirty-two pages of color photographs showcase Chef Batali's colorful and approachable recipes.
        
Traditionalists as well as those who thrill to the new will want to make dozens of these crowd-pleasing dishes a permanent part of their repertoire and embrace Mario Batali'sphilosophy of Simple Italian Food.

Simple Chinese Cooking

Kylie Kwong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Cooking Chinese food at home has truly never been easier--all you need is this book, a wok, and a quick trip to the supermarket

Simple Chinese Cooking offers Kylie Kwong’s philosophy of marrying the freshest ingredients and the simplest techniques to create amazing flavor. Kylie grew up devouring the mouthwatering heartiness of her mother’s traditional Cantonese cuisine. Armed with the fundamental techniques, she set out to give ancient tradition a modern twist and bring the joys of Chinese cooking to all. Now, people from all over the globe flock to her popular restaurant in Sydney, billy kwong. But in this book, she brings her delicious recipes to Chinese food lovers everywhere.

Simple Chinese Cooking demystifies the preparation of Chinese cuisine—with ingredients that are readily available in any grocery store, and recipes that are friendly and easy-to-follow. From soy sauce chicken and steamed fish fillets with ginger and spring onions, to prawn wonton soup, this book offers delicious everyday meals, as well as dishes that are perfect for entertaining. With succulent 4-color photographs throughout and step-by-step instructional pictures, Simple Chinese Cooking will guide anyone to create a delectable feast.

Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont (Shelburne Farms Books)

Shelburne Farms, Melissa Pasanen, Rick Gencarelli

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A New York Times Notable cookbook of 2007
A long-awaited cookbook from the beloved Shelburne Farms

For the growing number of people who want to feel a stronger connection to their food, Shelburne Farms has become an inspiration. Each year, visitors flock to Shelburne Farms for its educational programs and delicious food made from sustainable ingredients as well as for its incredible landscape. Now, readers everywhere can experience the spirit, wonderful flavors, and authentic cooking inspired by this very special place.

Cooking with Shelburne Farms is a celebration of food from the land. With one hundred recipes featuring ten basic Vermont ingredients—milk and cheese, maple syrup, early season greens, lamb, mushrooms, game, fish, pork, root cellar vegetables, and apples—the dishes deliver rustic flavors with a fresh, comfortable, country-style cooking approach. There are recipes for low-fuss weeknight dinners, such as maple-black pepper roast chicken as well as dishes that will impress guests, such as roast duck legs with sour cherry sauce. With classics like hash, shepherd’s pie, and tomato soup, and New England desserts like hot milk sponge cake and maple syrup pie, Cooking with Shelburne Farms brings a new twist to traditional favorites and pairs native ingredients with newer world flavors.

In addition to the mouthwatering recipes, this book brings to life the succulent scenery and beauty of a working farm. From the smoky scent of a steaming sugarhouse to the treasure hunt for the first wild green shoots or prized mushrooms of the season, Cooking with Shelburne Farms will encourage readers to think about the origins of their food and to treasure the land and people who have brought it to them. It is a feast for all the senses.