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Title: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon
ISBN: 030726498X
Author:
Claudia Roden
Publicate Date: 2006-10-31
Publish: 2006-10-31
List Price: $35.00
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $21.01
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $21.61
Amazon Merchant Price: $23.10
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Outstanding recipes and loved the history presented
Extremely impressed with this book, after I received my own copy I purchased a copy for my son who is a foodie. The recipes are exotic enough to make them interesting and I loved the history presented for each region.
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2: Wonderful!
Such a joy to read and pure pleasure to prepare the dishes. While the recipes are grouped by country, an American will likely mix across cuisines to produce a meal.
The mezza recipes are incredible. Perfect party food.
Well researched and written. Beautiful photographs. Cinnamon and spice and everything nice!
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3: Some good, some bad
This is a beautiful book full of gorgeous photos and tasty dishes. However, I bought it expecting to find recipes with directions and techniques and it is lacking in this area. When a dish requires "2 eggplants," please specify: large, small, maybe a weight? There are a lot of different ideas of what the "average" eggplant looks like. Especially when there's no photo of the dish, and I've never cooked or eaten it before. Then there were some rather impractical dishes; I usually don't cook two whole chickens or several pounds of fish at a time, for example. I understand that some recipes are better for entertaining, but I bought this cookbook (as I buy all my cookbooks) as a way to try EVERYDAY recipes for my family, and I feel it failed in that respect. I am by no means a bad or inexperienced cook, and I've eaten some authentic (home-cooked) versions of these foods while traveling in areas mentioned in the book, but I still need more direction. Even after reading through the entire book (all the info about ingredients, history), I still felt lost at times. Say what you will, I am disappointed.
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4: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon
What a beautiful, well laid out, and enjoyable read this cooking book is.
It brings the feel and culture of the countries into the recipe sections. The meals that I have tried are excellent, very easy to follow.
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5: Like exploring the world without leaving your kitchen
"Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon" shares a delightful collection of recipes, each of which makes you feel as if you are experiencing a vibrant part of another culture. From Tala?? B??re??i, which takes you into the kitchens of Turkey, to Moroccan Briwat Bi Tamr (Dates Rolls in Honey Syrup), spending time with this book is akin to taking a culinary trip around the Middle East. Each chapter includes an introduction to the cuisine & history of the part of the world it seeks to represent. It is in sections like these that we learn, for example, about Lebanon's history as a feudal state and how interactions between Sunni Muslim, Greek Orthodox and Ottoman culture influenced the cooking we recognize as Lebanese today. Such socio-historical tidbits are sprinkled throughout the book, while chapters are organized into sections about "starters & meze," "main courses," and "desserts." Many recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering color photographs, so that this well-bound, artistically presented book would make a lovely coffee table book when you're not using it in the kitchen. Most of the dishes I tried were truly delicious, opening my eyes to new spice combinations and flavors. It was not until this book, for instance, that I would have thought to add cinnamon, pine nuts and currants to a meat dish (vegetarian meat dish in our kitchen, but the principle is the same), nor would I have thought to add pomegranate molasses and cumin to a salad. On one or two occasions I wasn't thrilled by the final result, but one cannot expect to fall in love with every recipe in a cookbook, especially one that is composed of meals so dissimilar from what you eat on an everyday basis. Recipes do assume that you have a firm grasp of basic cooking principles but at no point is this a hindrance. With internet access just a step away it is an easy thing, after all, to verify what "stiff egg whites" look like (Alton Brown did an entire show about this) or what greek-style yogurt is. Overall this book is a worthy addition to any collection - if you buy it and want my advice, make the Briwat Bi Loz (Almond Pastries in Honey Syrup) first. Not only are they easy to make, but the combination of crispy fillo, crunchy almonds and sweet syrup is hard to resist. Variations with confectioners sugar & orange blossom water are included for even more delightful exploration of this Moroccan dessert.
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