The Book of Jewish Food
An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
A monumental work that traces the story of Jewish people through Jewish cooking
Every cuisine tells a story. Jewish food tells of an uprooted, migrating people and their vanished worlds. It lives in people's minds and has been kept alive because of what it evokes and represents.
From the Jewish quarter of Cairo where Claudia Roden spent her childhood to the kitchens of Europe, Asia and the Americas, The Book of Jewish Food traces the fascinating story of Jewish cooking and its people. The over 800 recipes - from tabbouleh and falafel to the Yemeni wedding soup Ftut - are the treasures garnered by Roden during almost fifteen years of travelling around the world, tasting, watching, talking and gathering stories.
A celebration of roots, of generations past, of vanished worlds and identity, The Book of Jewish Food is a beautiful book for the reader and the cook.
'No-one will ever produce a richer, or more satisfying feast of the Jewish experience' Simon Schama
'The Book of Jewish Food has done more than simply compile a cookbook of Jewish recipes--she has produced a history of the Diaspora, told through its cuisine' Kyle Dean
'One can't imagine a better food book than this, ever' Nigella Lawson, Vogue
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As the biblical echo of the title indicates, this collection is as instructive and comprehensive as a textbook. Roden (Mediterranean Cookery, etc.) divides the territory in two parts: "The Ashkenazi World" and "The Sephardi World." She chronicles the lives of Jews all over the world in short segments on unusual Jewish communities past and present, such as those of Salonika, Greece, and China. These sections, and the many other notes on subjects ranging from the New York Deli to salt herring are gems. Recipes are numerous and diverse: Yellow Split Pea Soup with Frankfurters, Pumpkin Tzimmes, Small Red Kidney Beans with Sour Plum Sauce, Cold Stuffed Vine Leaves, and Fish Balls in Tomato Sauce. Some highlights include the chapter on Sephardic breads (Algerian Anise Bread, North African Sweet Breads with Nuts and Raisins) and the one on Ashkenazic desserts (Mandelbrot, Hanukah Jam Doughnuts). All of this can be a little overwhelming at times (and, as Roden acknowledges in the introduction, many Jewish foods simply reflected the cuisines of the places where Jews were living rather than their own specific culture). Yet with few omissions (e.g., the instructions for making pasta specify rolling out the dough "as thin as possible" but don't explain how), Roden proves a practiced, reliable guide.
