Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen: A Culinary Journey through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan FROM THE PUBLISHER
This culinary milestone has been hailed as a masterpiece, a classic, and the first and last word on eastern Mediterranean cooking. A welcome blend of scholarship and entertaining reading, this revelatory work features a wide range of authentic, clearly written recipes, many personal reminiscences, impressive culinary history, valuable information on ingredients, meals, and traditions, stunning period illustrations, and much more.
SYNOPSIS
Located in the very heart of the eastern Mediterranean, Syria, Lebanon,and Jordan have provided the world with what is considered by many to be Arab
food at its best. In this landmark, one-of-a-kind volume Sonia Uvezian gives this time-honored cuisine the kind of treatment it truly deserves. Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen is a revelatory work rich in personal reminiscences, insightful quotations, anecdotes, and proverbs, valuable information on ingredients, utensils, daily meals, and traditions, and evocative period illustrations.
Sonia Uvezian's many memories and associations establish a sense of place
and emotional pull rarely encountered in Middle Eastern culinary literature. The "eastern Mediterranean kitchen" in the title is actually that of her family's summer home in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon's fertile agricultural and winemaking region, as well as the one in their Beirut apartment. It is where the Uvezians prepared the food they grew themselves or bought from nearby farms, orchanrds, and markets.
Written by a leading authority on Middle Eastern and Caucasian cooking and
over two decades in the making, this is a fascinating and highly original book imbued with a keen historical perspective and a deep respect for the region's cultural heritage. Few cookbook authors have approached their subjects with the thorough, painstaking research reflected in this work. A profound understanding of eastern Mediterranean food shines through in its hundreds of superb, clearly written recipes, which are often preceded by illuminating introductory remarks. From the definitive and much-needed section on pomegranates and pomegranate molasses through the fabulous chapters on desserts and beverages, this book provides indispensable reading for anyone interested in the cookery and culture of Syria, Lebanon,and Jordan. Like the author's groundbreaking classics, The Cuisine of Armenia and Cooking from the Caucasus, which were among the first to bring Middle Eastern and Caucasuan cooking to America, it is long on such traditional dishes as tabbuleh and baklava but also includes innovations, among them Damascus-Style Cheese Dip with Toasted Sesame Seeds and Nigella and Grilled Quail with Sour Cherry Sauce.
Timeless and timely, Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen is a welcome blend of outstanding scholarship and
entertaining reading. A genuine contribution to culinary literature, it
will be a treasured addition to the library of anyone interested in Middle
Eastern cooking and is destined to become a classic.
FROM THE CRITICS
Alan Davidson - author of The Oxford Companion to Food, in Petits Propos Culinaires, April, 2000
The author, originally from Lebanon, has already acquired an enviable reputation for good writing on food (for example The Cuisine of Armenia...). With this new book...she has climbed several rungs higher on the ladder of excellence. Drawing on her recollections of food in the Eastern Mediterranean, and digging deep into the extensive literature of travellers in the region, she has produced a book which I have found quite irresistible. There is a wealth of recipes, skillfully embedded in their historical contexts. The illustrations (many of the 19th century) are evocative and the quotations from a wide variety of sources constitute one of the best collections I have ever seen in a book about food. The sub-title is "A Journey through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan": an exciting journey and one for which one could wish no better guide.
Aramco World - March/April, 2000
This is an important and valuable addition to the Middle Eastern cooking shelf, full of informative short essays on such topics as "hospitality" and "pomegranate molasses" as well as hundreds of recipes that readers have praised very highly. But it is the anecdotes, proverbs, quotations from old travel accounts and, above all, the author's commentary that account for the nostalgic charm that may be this book's greatest virtue.
Rosemary Butler-Cole - The Times Literary Supplement (London), March
16, 2001
A leisurely feel prevails throughout this evocative book, which puts the
cuisine in the context of the culture, and at the same time
gives...simple and straightforward...recipes demonstrating the variety
and richness of the ingredients...Handsomely produced and well
illustrated...lyrical...practical...covers every aspect of the cuisine.
Ginger Johnston - The Portland Oregonian, December 11, 2001
The incredible research that has gone into his book by well-known author
Sonia Uvezian makes it as much a history book as a cookbook. Of her six
other major books, "The Cuisine of Armenia" is my favorite, and I have
cooked many recipes from it. This new one...is a wondrous addition to
any cook's library....But if you don't cook a single dish...the stories
behind the dishes, their variations, food history, explanations, little
sayings and black-and-white images...make this a wonderful gift as well
as adding to your personal knowledge of world cuisines.
Austin Chronicle
Recipes and Remembrances could very well be the seminal book on the cooking of the eastern Mediterranean and fills a longstanding void of scholarly works on the subject in English....The amount of research and labor that went into the production of this cookbook is astounding...The hundreds of recipes are clearly written, easy to follow, and produce incredibly delicious results....Recipes and Remembrances is as entertaining and informative to read as it is a joy to cook from....It is a title that should reside in the collection of every serious cook and culinary historian.
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