5 comments about Art of Romanian Cooking, The.

1. We recently visited the country and enjoyed the food so much that we wanted to try it at home. This book was a great resource for what we wanted.



2. Personally I am a romanian and as you see from my reviews I only review what I am passionate about or different items regarding Romania. This item in particular is a good thing to buy if you are interested in learning more about Romanian cooking. Romania has several unique meals as well as different ways of cooking some common day things than the US. Any of you ever hear of pork gelatin/pork jello? Well, it's not what you think but actually a mix of pork, gelatin and other spices served during the holidays in Romania and quite tastefull. You might also be surprised about some Romanian appetizers and how good or different they taste. This book is also very good for those of you who have gone out to Romania tasted and liked the cooking but had a hard time getting original recipes for some of the things you tasted. Who better to show you this than someone who had actually lived there as this author.
   Many people I have met personally were very pleasantly surprised at some of the tastes of Romanian food and its appearance while some have it at some special ocassion as.. well something different. If you ever wanted to try Romanian deviled eggs, the Romanian meatballs "mici" or other types of foods then buy this book. Hope you enjoy and I wish you a taste of Romania in every bite.



3. For someone used to American (and western) cooking, it is better than its Romanian counterpart, which I just bought upon a recent visit to Romania.
   Recipes are clear and easy to follow.
   Lya.



4. We are very pleased with the recipes in this cookbook. We are not of Romanian descent, but love Eastern European cooking and have enjoyed working through the delicious recipes in this book. Feels like you're reading (and cooking) from Grandma's notes. :)



5. The recipes are well chosen, they cover everything from appetizers to deserts and the author clearly has a passion for Romanian cooking which makes the reader enjoy it too. Also, they're pretty easy to follow and understand even for beginners like me.

2 comments about The Best of Ukrainian Cuisine (Hippocrene International Cookbook Series).

1. Excited to find the best of Ukrainian cuisine won't work with this book unless you're still on a farm in some other decade. Or you like cooking with lard, grinding meat, and of course removing organs and bones from pigs - oh, yum! The author's translations in the back of the book from English to Ukrainian for ordering meals are worth a laugh. However, I think he's serious. Pass this book up.



2. An American with family members who make regular trips to Ukraine, I have some knowledge of the hearty and delicious cuisine of that wonderful country. I love this book because it presents the cuisine as it actually is in the towns of Ukraine. You are not presented with bastardized, Americanized recipes, but with the authentic cookery you would experience during a visit to a normal, middle class home.

   The book starts with a brief foreword on Ukrainian food traditions. In the back there is an 8-page bilingual dictionary of food terms and phrases to use in restaurants. In between, the book is packed with both traditional and contemporary recipes for everything from appetizers to main dishes to sweets and even a substantial section on beverages both alcoholic and not, and recipes for making several different kinds of beer.

   I highly recomment this book.

5 comments about Hungary (Culinaria).

1. This book is authentic. It is not only a great cookbook but also a colorful introduction to the Hungarian culture. I am a Hungarian living in the US and have always had a hard time explaining our ingredients, dishes and delicacies to my friends and when I saw this book I realized that this was the best solution. That was all I needed in my kitchen, so now whenever I serve a Hungarian dish to my guests, I just show the book as an explanation. We always have a good laugh at the pictures and at the stories and memories they bring up, it is a great way to show where and how I grew up - and what I was eating meanwhile.
   
   The recipes are authentic and they cover the variety of the home-made dishes we eat.
   This book will make you want to cook a tasty gulyas soup and a chicken paprikas with noodles... but be careful! You may soon find yourself sitting in a cafe in Budapest trying one delicious pastry after the other, or getting dizzy on a wine-tasting tour near the Balaton or trying to sneak some sausage and pickled vegetables in your suitcase on the way back. :) Jó étvágyat! Enjoy!



2. I'm very happy with this book. The recipes I've made so far reminded me of home. I especially loved
   the creamed spinach recipe (spenot), which turned out just perfect. (I followed the book's recipe to the
   letter.) Not everyone will like this particular dish, but this is what I grew up with and I always loved it.
   I have numerous Hungarian cookbooks--some from Hungary--but this is by far the best.
   
   I'm also impressed that on one of the first few pages there's a picture of carp soup. I'm originally from Baja,
   Hungary, where this soup is served at Christmas at many family's tables. There's nothing I've ever tasted in
   the 50 years of my life that compares to a properly made carp soup--absolutely nothing. I'm so impressed
   that this book gives this dish the attention it deserves.
   
   If you think that carp soup is a joke, do a Google search using the following key words:
   baja hungary fish soup festival
   
   However, don't bother trying to make the soup...
   
   Update: If you feel adventurous, I put together a web page which has the Engish version of the recipe: web.mac.com/ferencho/halaszle/recept.html



3. I love this book and give it 5 stars and I do alot of shopping here on Amazon. But I am outraged at the sellers that have posted their new/used books at ridiculous prices! I unfortunately had to purchase this book at Barnes and Noble because Amazon did not have it and I just happened to look at the "available from these sellers" list.... there is a person selling this book for over $300! The book cost $22 retail! I paid $19.95 for it. I hope that Amazon customers stay loyal to this website but please be careful of "these other sellers" who are just looking to rip you off!



4. Item has been produced in hardcover and softcover editions. The Recipes are basically the same but flexi cover format used in reproducing the original hardcover in softcover format gives a very poor reproduction. There is no comparison in quality between the original hardcover and the later cheaper Flexi=cover format. If you want a real good coffee table book buy the hardcover edition if you can find it. If you cannot find it do what most of of the uncivilised ones do - fake it!!!!You might even be invited to Hungary...



5. This book is a real hungarian book. The food is how my mom makes hungarian food and she was born and raised there. It gives information about where the ingredients come from and about the regions of Hungary. If you want a cookbook that is truly Hungarian with recipes that are authentic this book is for you. I have the hardcover version and it's great!

5 comments about The Medieval Cookbook.

1. If you are looking for good tasting period recipes, this book is for you. Sometimes cookbooks that have recipes that are from times past offer recipes that taste quite differently than what our modern expectations are. This book will deliver you good recipes. Two of the favorite ones I have tried from this book were the Almond Chicken and the Golden Leeks and Onions. The instructions are very clear, and easy to read. The book does offer lovely art work as well. My only complaint about this book while the recipe that it has are very good, I just with their were more of them. This is a good book to start or even add to a Medieval recipe collection.



2. This is the perfect gift book for those interested in the Middle Ages. It is beautifully presented, and organisation of recipes with references to historical incidents or literary works is clever and winning. The recipes are easy enough to prepare, and I assumed the variations from the originals were intended to make obtaining ingredients simple.

   There were several reasons I withheld a 'five star' rating. First, though the author makes reference to how a particular dish would have been prepared in several different ways, only one variation is offered, in some cases markedly unlike the original. Secondly, and to a greater degree, there are not many recipes included. Those provided are illustrations of a category, not collections of, for example, varied main dishes, desserts, or savouries.




3. `The Medieval Cookbook' by Maggie Black is very similar to the slightly older book, `Pleyn Delit' by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. It even cites this book and other works by these authors as references. Aside from the fact that the two books deal with almost exactly the same subject, English and French recipes from the late Middle Ages, and both are serious, scholarly works, there are two important differences.
   
   The positive differences in Ms. Black's book is that it is organized by source and that it has many more pictures, both black and white and color photographs of scenes from medieval sources, and line drawings or etchings of food plants and other botanicals. `Pleyn Delit' has virtually no pictures.
   
   The two books share several major sources. Dominating the sources and background of both books is Geoffrey Chaucer's `Canterbury Tales'. While this work contains no recipes itself, if has numerous references to food and beverages, and Ms. Black devotes an entire chapter to recipes cited in this great literary work. The second major work cited in Ms. Black's volume is a pedagogical volume by an upper middle class member of the gentry identified as `The Goodman of Paris'. The narrative identifies him as probably a civil servant, with houses in both the city and the country. After chapters on proper moral deportment, the author gives both menus and recipes for the training of his staff of servants. The book also gives several directions to wife and staff on proper kitchen economics and the care of domestic and captured animals. The third primary source is documents associated with the very sybaritic court of the English king Richard II, whose death started the War of the Roses. I am green with envy at my image of the author's working on this book among the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library and at the British Museum, two shrines of English language scholarship for sure. I have seen both as a tourist and my most persistent fantasy career is one of a scholar.
   
   The pictures in the book are very well chosen to illustrate the literary sources. Pictures of medieval life are taken largely from tapestries such as the famous Bayeux tapestry and similar sources. They are very well selected and, unlike so many other incidental pictures in books on cookery, they are actually given meaningful captions.
   
   Ms. Black and the authors of `Pleyn Delit' take almost exactly the same approach to translating their recipes from old English and identifying the sources of the original text. The recipe translations are equally fine in both books while the scholarly method of citing sources is equally dismal. I simply do not understand these authors use of a plainly obscure method for connecting source in the bibliography to the text in the main part of the book. I am certain these Brits and Canadians use the same scholarly conventions as we Yanks as codified in things like the `Chicago Manual of Style'. This little quibble is for the scholars among us.
   
   The most serious lapse in Ms. Black's book compared to `Pleyn Delit' is in the fact that the latter book has a much more interesting collection of recipes that a modern amateur cook would really find interesting. The very first recipe in `The Medieval Cookbook' is for Frumenty, a simple porridge of cracked wheat, water, stock, and salt with an optional addition of eggs and saffron. The second is Girdle `Breads' which is an unleavened, saffron coloured biscuit of flower, lard, and salt with no leavening. The third recipe is for grilled steaks brushed with either verjuice (an ur-vinegar made from specially grown grapes) or juice from Seville oranges. The fourth recipe is for rabbit. While these four recipes, taking up seven pages of the book are all very interesting from an historical point of view, it makes the book less valuable as a source for modern cooks who may want a good source for a medieval theme menu. To be sure, there are recipes in this book that are worth making today, but `Pleyn Delit' is a better source for actual cooking.
   
   I am very happy to see that the two books agree almost exactly on the use of ingredients and techniques. If you have an interest in history in general and culinary scholarship in particular, get both books. If you are only interested in a source for recipes, get `Pleyn Delit'. It is authentic and a richer source of interesting recipes.



4. Not only is The Medieval Cookbook a beautifully illustrated resource on the eating habits of Medieval folk, but the recipes are easy to follow with scrumptious results.I could hardly put this book down. [...] Very useful for hands-on projects when teaching children about medieval history. Wholeheartedly recommended.



5. As a medieval historian and living history enthusiast, this book was everything I'd hoped it would be. Not only are there authentic recipes, but actual recipes reprinted from the original sources. It's great to read a 14th century Italian recipe for soup in the chef's origianl recipe. It also contains general info about types of dishes and other things like that for the non-historians out there. It's a lot of fun, and is organized just as any modern cookbook is, which is one of the best things about it.

5 comments about The Basque Kitchen: Tempting Food from the Pyrenees.

1. This book is full of gorgeous pictures and inviting, unusual recipes. Most of the recipes are relatively simple, although some hard-to-find ingredients are used. Its a great book; it could have used some more careful editing. Some of the directions seem puzzling or incomplete. A good book for an experienced cook, but probably a poor choice for a novice.



2. i HAVE OFTEN ENJOYED THE EXCELLENT BASQUE FOOD AT SAN FRANCISCO'S BASQUE HOTEL, SO I WAS QUITE FAMILIAR WITH THE EASY TO FOLLOW AND REALLY AUTHENTIC DISHES IN THIS TRULY FIRST CLASS BOOK. THE VERY WELL WRITTEN PREFACE TRACING THE HISTORY OF THE UNIQUE BASQUE PEOPLE WAS AN ADDED BENEFIT. HAVING NOW PREPARED MANY OF THE RECIPES FROM THIS BOOK, I CAN ONLY SAY IT IS REMARKABLE HOW WONDERFUL UNCOMPLICATED COOKING CAN BE.WHETRHER YOU ARE A NOVICE OR EXPERIENCED, YOU WILL BE REALLY SATISFIED WITH THESE RECIPES.



3. Three years ago my son gave me a copy of The Basque Kitchen, written by his good friend Gerald Hirogoyen. The book has sat on my coffee table ever since, and whenever I am in the mood for something challenging and different, I have been trying out some of its recipes.
   Then, a few days ago, my son treated me to a memorable dinner at Gerald's restaurant in San Francisco, "Piperade," which features many of the delectable dishes described in his book, and I had a chance not only to meet this kind and gentle chef but to sample firsthand his culinary skill with genuine
   Basque cuisine.
   The restaurant itself is a delightful place, its decor simple and rustic yet warm and friendly -- like the Basque people and countryside itself. We were treated like royalty and feasted on various Basque specialties: lamb chops with roasted Macheco cheese and potatoes, steak with mushrooms, fish with asparagus, and white wine from Gerald's own vineyards in Penedes, Catalunya.
   Because my son and I lived in Spain for 13 years, we have visited all four of the Basque provinces, enjoying the beautiful Pyrenees mountains, the local culture, and their native foods. Lamb barbequed over an open hearth oven and bacalao (codfish) were special favorites.
   Having worked my way through college as a part-time cook, I thoroughly relished reading about and then experimenting with many of the recipes. I found the directions easy to follow and, while my results may not have reached the perfection of Gerald's restaurant offerings, everything I prepared was tantalizingly tasty. A true gourmet delight! My personal favorites are stuffed squid in its ink, lamb chops, steak, steamed red snapper, and honey-glazed spare ribs, to mention only a few.
   Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit the Basque region will enjoy recreating some of its culinary specialties, and anyone willing to experiment with new tastes and techniques will consider The Basque Kitchen a real find.



4. Try the marmitako. This is to the Basque country as clam chowder to New England. The version in this book is excellent and can serve as a springboard for you to create your own version.



5. Excellent cook book, very authentic with a touch of refinement illustrated by many pictures and cultural background. Many recipes have been in my family for generations but the book gave me more information about where to purchase some of the needed ingredients.
   Eskerik'asko Gerald !

4 comments about Lulu's Provencal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from the Domaine Tempier Vineyard.

1. `Lulu's Provencal Table' by renowned culinary writer and editor, Richard Olney is one of the best works in the very select genre of what might be called `culinary anthropology'. The works I know in this field are few in number but very high in quality and in the rewards for interested readers.
   
   The leading work in this field is certainly `Honey from a Weed' by Patience Gray. Other notable titles are `The Cook and the Gardener' by Amanda Hesser and `The Tuscan Year' by Elizabeth Romer. Befitting Olney's influence, almost all of John Thorne's essays also belong to this tribe of writing. Also befitting this influence, it is Thorne who writes the new introduction to this very substantial work. In this piece, Thorne cites Madeleine Kamman's `When French Women Cook' as another member of this select tribe. I cite this in deference to Thorne's expertise in the area and I hope to review it very soon.
   
   Like my reviewing of `Honey from a Weed', I owned the book for almost a year before I opened it up and I deeply regret my delay, as this is a vicarious culinary pleasure of the first order. The subject / cook / interviewee of the book is Lucie Tempier Peyraud, known to all as `Lulu', the wife of the important French vintner, Lucian Peyraud and co-owner of Domaine Tempier, a vineyard and dwelling `nestled in the hillsides outside the neighboring fishing ports of Bandol and Sanary, some ten miles from Toulon and thirty miles from Marseilles.' Author Olney became friends with the Peyrauds shortly after purchasing a very run-down cottage near Domaine Tempier, before he was the renowned culinary writer he was to become with his books on French cuisine and his editorship of the Time-Life series of books on world cuisines.
   
   Olney was talked into doing this book by another Peyraud friend, Alice Waters, whose Chez Panisse has been a buyer of Peyraud wines for many years. The inspiration for the book is Lulu's great cooking experienced by Olney for decades, and experienced by Waters during frequent trips to Provence on wine testing and purchasing expeditions. In fact, according to Thorne, it was Waters who initiated the project and talked Olney into carrying it to publication.
   
   On the surface, the book may appear to be just another Provencal cookbook, similar to several titles from the likes of Patricia Wells and Lydie Marshall. And, it can be used in this way, but it is much, much more.
   The book was built out of interviews by Olney of Lulu as she prepared her various dishes. As Lulu was the consummately instinctive cook, she rarely knew on a conscious level exactly how much of a particular ingredient she uses for most recipes. As one reads Olney's asides on this archeological aspect of the interviews, one senses they are reading the captured essences of an ephemeral form of cooking which arises out of a great love of the art and the ingredients to the cooking.
   
   This is also what makes this such a great `reading' cookbook, yet it is not a culinary memoir with recipes added in here and there, which always play second fiddle to the narrative. Every other recipe offers important hints on general cooking technique such as the suggestion to leave the outer membrane on squid to add to the flavor and to search out the leafy bible tripe from the cow's third stomach, a very delicate addition to the traditional honeycombed tripe from the second stomach. While this is a relatively simple form of cooking, it is not primitive, as many recipes especially the famous French daubes take many hours to prepare, even with the addition of major modern kitchen equipment such as the blender and the food processor, which Lulu and Olney use frequently.
   
   Waters describes Lulu's cuisine as `la cuisine de bonne femme', which may be loosely translated into what Emeril Lagasse labels as `a food of love thing'. This is part of the reason this is both simple, but requiring a great amount of attention. This style of cooking will fail if it gets only half your attention, the other half being spent with Opra, the Knicks and Lakers basketball game, or an errant adolescent not quite old enough to be counted on to stay out of trouble on its own. This means that this book jumps to the top of the list of books I recommend to people who like to read cookbooks. It also jumps to the top of my list as a source for Provencal cooking. Since both author and subject are true to the terroir of coastal Provence, there may be a few recipes, such as the classic nine page long recipe for Bouillabaisse which you will not be able to duplicate as you may simply not be able to get whole rascasses, wrasses, combers, and John Dory's. Scribe Olney is true to his mission of describing how Lulu actually cooks, but he does transpose an aside here and there for us New World suburbanites so we may approximate the classic dishes.
   
   I heartily agree with Thorne when he says that the first sixty pages of the book can easily be left to a later time, as it is largely a `pro forma' recitation of the history of Lulu, Lucian, and their Bandol vineyard. The real action starts on page 61 with `Lulu's Kitchen: Recipes'. This recipe by recipe table of contents demonstrates that this is a really serious cookbook that just happens to be a great culinary read as well. The recipes cover all standard courses and food ingredients, with each and every recipe being a part of Lulu's real cuisine. There are no fillers here, so you will find no bread baking recipes, as it is apparent that Lulu did not bake her own bread.
   
   This is an important culinary book, a superb mix of cookbook and memoir of the Provencal terroir and style. Very highly recommended.



2. Richard Olney probably came closer to perfection as a cookbook author than any other American. His books are exquisite models of focus, structure, warmth, and practicality, and his treatment of food and wine somehow manages to be simultaneously perfectly balanced and highly personal. Next to Olney's cookbooks and vinyard monographs, the oevres of James Beard and Julia Child, for example, feel overblown, oversold, and downright sloppy.
   
   Olney's warmhearted incision is the perfect match for the home cooking of Lulu Peyraud. Mm Peyraud is the Marseille native, mother of seven, keystone of the Bandol food and wine community, renowned home cook, and owner-operator of Domaine Tempier, widely considered the finest vinyard of France's Mediterranean coast. Most famously, she is gratefully credited by Alice Waters, Kermit Lynch, Jeremiah Tower, Paul Bertolli, and a host of other American food heirarchs with being their inspiration and touchstone. But for years before America found the simple pleasures of expertly-prepared, highly-local, regional foods, Lulu and Richard were cooking lunches for each other under their respective grape arbors. This book is a broad sample of those meals. In it, Olney documents the preparation, from farm and fish-market to plate, of Mm Peyraud's favorite family meals. Each recipe is presented with notes on ingredients, irregularities and seasonal adjustments in Mm Peyraud's preparations, lucid explanations of techniques, and reminders to keep things loose. The result is a highly-informative glimpse into the regional cuisine that forms the culinary hunge between France and Piedmont-Liguria. This cuisine is one of the world's most satisfying, and I believe that this book is its greatest Testament.
   
   I won't single out any recipes this time. The book is full of stunners from salad to desert. Buy this book and a couple of bottles of Domaine Tempier [a rose and a red, for starters], and serve those wines, chilled Provence-style, with a sampling of these magical dishes. Serve them, if at all possible, under a grape arbor on a hot, sunny day in an ocean breeze. And raise a glass to Lulu and Richard for their generous hospitality.



3. It tells the story about a truly inspirational family and their famous vineyard that spans virtually the entire twentieth century. It tells a story about the history of the Bandol apellation. It tells a story about each of the seasons living life in and around the vineyard; the food, the vineyard, the weather, the wine and the types of meals and celebrations that accompany them.
   
   And then it is a cookbook. And then the recipes have context and you then know why you want to cook them and you imagine sitting down to dinner with Lulu and her family just one time (and speaking french) and even helping out in the kitchen.
   
   So it is not just a cookbook... it is a really great dream about living and loving and cooking and eating in an amazing place surrounded by amazing people who grow grapes and make terrific wine and celebrate life each and every day.



4. The reviewers above are eloquent and complete in their opinions of this cookbook. I will add that this is my favorite of all my well-loved cookbooks. I have never been to Provence - maybe someday.
   
   My life is not the same as Lulu's. I have three very young children and live outside of New York City, but I, too, like to cook because I like to eat! Richard Olney has written this book for those of us who cook without recipes, who like to change a dish according to what is on hand or what mood strikes us, and who still find that the simplest recipes can taste divine. Lulu's chicken with apples is a case in point. She turns off the oven after a half hour (if I remember correctly) to have time to spend outside; I set the oven-timer to turn off so that the recipe is done when I return with the kids after my daughter's gymnastics class. The day-to-day life is different, but the desire to have lovingly prepared food for our family and friends is not. I hope that you will buy this cookbook and treasure it as I have.

2 comments about Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789.

1. You know, I just finished this book last night. It's a good book. Not a great book, but definately a good book.
   
   The subject matter is French cooking and techniques (duh!), with the greatest emphasis on cookbooks throughout the ages that were published in or for France.
   
   The author really knows her stuff and is a good writer. Yes, there are recipes. Not too many, 25 or so, I would guess, most of which would be orphans in today's kitchen. They would be considered too cumberson; too labor intensive (avoid any recipe whose preperations begins with "Day 1"); too expensive (As one can see from some of the ingredients for "Everyday Boullon": 4 pounds beef, a 6 pound chicken, 5 pounds boneless veal...); or maybe just too, er, "unique" i.e. Iced Cheese (sort of a cheese flavored slushy, without the cheese), or Strained Eggs in Wine Syrup.
   
   But heck yeah, of you like reading books on cookery, if you like history, if you like bits and pieces of odd knowledge but all means, treat yourself to this book.



2. If you are obsessed with cooking and want a sense of the history of French cooking and cookbooks, this is the book for you. Don't buy it if you are looking for a fun dramatic read. I give it 4 stars, mostly for not contextualizing the cooking enough within the times; it's more a scholarly paper on cookbooks. She is more focused on recipes, origins of recipes, and history of recipes. However it is fun and very cool to have the 25 transcribed recipes in the back. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

2 comments about Polish Holiday Cookery.

1. If anyone is at all seriously interested in Polish/Eastern European cooking, then this is your book. Rob Strybel is also known as "the Polish chef" because of his profound knowledge of Polish cuisine and cultural history. This book is not just another cookbook about regional foods but it is an insight to a great cultural Polish heritage throughout European history. One can experience the influence of various countries such as Germany, Italy, Russia and France on Polish cuisine just by reading this fascinating book, this is not simply a compilation of recipes but rather an historical summary of Polish society seen through the eyes of an accomplished chef..



2. "Polish Holiday Cookery" is an excellent cookbook for Polish Holiday food. Whether you are an American cook searching for some new dishes or a Polish-American cook who wants to connect to your Polish heritage, this book is for you.
   
   I have two (minor) quibbles. 1. The Polish-American cook will want to find another book to give more information on Polish traditions and customs for the major holidays. 2. There are no photos of the final dishes.
   
   If you are new to Polish food, try the Clear Beet Soup, Easy, or the Sauerkraut Soup, Fast-Day, or Honey-Spice Hearts, as a start. There are many easy dishes presented. However, some of the dishes are not easy and may take quite some time (days) to prepare properly. If you have never had the dish before, try to find an experienced Polish-American cook for advice on achieving the best results. Also, there are internet sites that are very helpful on some signature dishes.
   
   I recommend this book.

No comments about The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in Food & Freedom.

No comments about Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It Is Made, and the People Who Make It.