Claudia RodenRecensioni

I wish this had more pictures that would communicate how awesome these dishes are. I was blessed to know what each recipe looks like! Overall, it's a REALLY good cookbook with authentic recipes. I know that it is probably directed to westerns and not middle easterns, but there is no real difference between that and a local cookbook. I actually love accurate universal measurements, so I prefer this one.

Can't wait to attempt Lahma Bel Ajeen and most of the salads. :D

I feel I ought to review this, as nobody else has yet, but honestly, once you have said that it is by Roden, you have more or less said it all. Her recipes are reliably good, but it is the texts around the recipes that always make me hungry. In Med she returns to the food she has researched for so long, but this time not looking for exact 'authenticity' but for food that can be easily presented to family and friends that have the right spirit. In many cases she transforms a flavour she found in one place with a presentation from another.

This is a very personal collection of the food she likes to cook and to serve and to eat.½

This selection includes recipes for tagines from Marocco, Persian rice dishes and Armenian koftas, as well as discussions of spices, market bargaining and the etiquette of tea and coffee drinking, evoking not only a cuisine but a way of life.

vegetarian and seafood recipes

This is a big decorative cook book, lots of fun to read or just browse through, very informative about Spanish and Catalan food, filled with detailed information about culinary history and specialty ingredients, wines, traditions, festivals. The recipe section is preceded by a lengthy series of essays on the various regions of Spain, pointing out unique features and typical dishes. The illustrations are split between food pictures and pictures of Spain, photographed beautifully by Jason Lowe but frustratingly not captioned.

The education provided was paramount for me. The recipes are frequently daunting. The author is very accommodating and inventive with substitutions for difficult ingredients and suggestions for adapting techniques to American kitchens. I did try a few of the recipes and a couple of the easy ones have become standbys for me. One of these is the potato omelet, which Ms. Roden says is difficult. It's now a breakfast staple.

Ms. Roden is an enthusiast about adding alcohol of various kinds to many if not most dishes. Wine, sherry, brandy, and rum are ubiquitous, with even ouzo making an appearance, There are too many of these recipes to make this a useful cookbook for me, but it looks great on my coffee table.

Packed with recipes. Hidden gems of photographs. I prefer Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden to this book mostly because of the photography and history. However, I would come back to this book in a second if I needed/wanted excellent Middle Eastern recipes.

While I wouldn't keep this for my shelves, I would definitely borrow it from the library again. The photos alone are worth browsing the entire book. So are the bits about Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. Found three recipes I want to try: Tomato and Rice Soup, Baba Ghanouj, and Hummus.

So far a totally rivetting and intelligently written book expounding the fullest possible wonders to the would be alfresco cook.

I'm a Claudia Roden fan and this book is the best. Beautiful to look at. Wonderful to dream about. Terrific recipes. Mesmerizing stories about countries and cuisines and history of their food habits..

This is one of my most frequently used cookery books.
I used the original so often that it fell to pieces, and I had to buy this version to replace it.

Just as with another of her books, Arabesque, with The Book of Jewish Food Roden manages to combine food writing with recipes that make this book a delight to both read and cook from. She explores her own Jewish roots and the culture and history of the whole diaspora by writing about the meals, traditions and recipes she uncovers on her search for Jewish food.

The recipes are organised in two broad sections - Ashkenazi and Serphadic - and within different food categories within these two broad distinctions. Some of the recipes are complicated or time consuming, but many are simple and plenty could be made from regular ingredients you have in the kitchen right now (though half the fun is finding out about new ingredients or new ways to use ingredients you thought you already knew about). For this household there is the added bonus that many of the recipes are vegan - especially those of the Bene Israel, the Jews of India - or are easily 'veganised', though this is more true for the Serphadic than Ashkenazi section.

I also found it very interesting to find many recipes my non-Jewish grandmother cooked, obviously influenced by her Prussian roots - much of what is perhaps now considered 'Ashkenazi food' was once just 'poor middle European people food'.

Even if you are not Jewish or even interested in Jewish culture, try and get your hands on this book. The food writing is fantastic and the recipes are worth exploring.

A beautiful and useful addition to any cookbook shelf (it's on my wishlist now), The Food of Spain covers Spanish cuisine in detail. It opens with chapters on how Spain's history and geography influenced the cuisine of its various regions, but recipes aren't neglected, either.

I tried two recipes from this book, a Castilian spinach and chickpea soup, and samfaina, a Catalonian dish similar to a ratatouille, but with more garlic. Both choices were influenced by the produce I had on hand, and by the fact that it's been too hot to try something more elaborate. They were both delicious.

There are a few dishes that might be difficult to reproduce (quail and woodcock aren't staples in any supermarket I visit), but most of the recipes call for ordinary ingredients that are readily available. A few other recipes I plan to photocopy and try later include Meatballs in Almond Sauce, Duck with Pears and one of the seafood paellas.½

Kein schlechtes Kochbuch, die Autorin weiß, wovon sie schreibt. Nur wirft sie sich selbst einen Knüppel zwischen die Beine, indem sie nur vegetarische (d.h. fleischlose) Rezepte aufführt - dadurch reduziert und verarmt sie die von ihr ansonsten sehr schön behandelten Küchen aus ideologischen Gründen.

My favourite type of cook book - a reading book with recipes, and every one a gem. It's a book you can pick up at any time, fall into reading it and become inspired to cook.

I have known for some time about the updated version but didn't become curious about it until recently. For one thing, I wasn't cooking from this book, which is perhaps all to the good as many of the Amazon reviews of this older edition are not very happy with recipe quality.

After reading the updated book I am sure that the recipes probably are more accurate and better written. However, much of the charm is gone. Roden herself admits that, upon rereading the original, she was embarrassed at the youth and passion which poured out of it. It is all too obvious where her prosaic, modern voice is inserted and many of the stories that flowed naturally in the original are now broken out into boxes which I thought broke up the book in a choppy manner.

I am happy enough to go to local restaurants for Middle Eastern food. If you want to make it yourself I am sure the new book is the best bet. I will stick with the original, however, and the passionate voice of Roden's youth.

I always have loved A Book of Middle Eastern Food even though I have never cooked anything out of it. My affection stemmed from the fact that it has qualities no long found in most cook books. Roden is passionate about the food of the Middle East and writes with a charm and enthusiasm that is infectious. Throughout are stories of her life growing up and old folk tales from the region. Although the writing styles are very different, this book makes me think of M.F.K. Fisher's which have a connection to times past and human experience.

A fantastic cookbook as well as compendium of Middle
Eastern folklore and stories. A lot of recipes from my childhood. I love it.

Good reading. Good eating. What more could you want?

This is more narrative than most of Roden's cookbooks. Which only serves to make you want to cook every recipe she describes.

A Cookbook for cooks. many of the recipes end with variations, telling you how the same basic dish varies across the region, or just from cook to cook.

This is a wonderful cookbook. Claudia Roden not only compiled recipes - she also compiled stories and anecdotes and historical descriptions of various Jewish communities around the world. Her book has become an essential part of my cooking routine during every major Jewish holiday, to the point that when the book was lost in my move to DC I immediately rushed to a bookstore to get a replacement... Indispensable.

Far more than a cookery book, this is a beautifully presented history of Jewish life and culture, with lots of wonderful recipes thrown in.

Arabesque covers Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. I still think Moroccan will be the new Thai and I have two tagines waiting to be used. I also have preserved lemons in the refrigerator. My husband is half Lebanese so we are well acquainted with Lebanese food. It is amazing how much variation in food preparation occurs even in a small area of the world. Arabesque has many juicy photographs to whet the appetite and a bit of cultural history to go with each country. Another wonderful thing about cookbooks is you cannot gain weight just looking at them.

I have been a devoted follower of Roden ever since my first successful attempt to make tabouleh, and I’ve bought every book of hers since—relishing not only the way her recipes tend to open up new possibilities in the most minimal of kitchens, but her steadfast belief that to really appreciate the taste of a dish, you should understand the culture that created it. Roden’s own interest in cooking came from just this impulse—a painter by profession, she wrote her first book in an attempt to evoke a lost childhood in Cairo. In her approach to food, people are as important as ingredients. Thus, in The Book of Jewish Food recipes are accompanied by historical anecdotes, personal memories, photographs, letters and diary excerpts; it has become one of the treasures of my cookbook library. The publication of a new Roden book is an occasion for celebration and a trip to the grocery store. And Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon (Knopf; $35) is definitely cause for celebration. . .read full review

The original book 'Middle Eastern Food' was one of the first cookery books I ever bought. I moved onto this as soon as it came out and it is still one of my favourite books. As well as having great recipes it also a good read with history and folk tales in between the recipes.½