2 comments about Sufi Cuisine.

1. Can you imagine a cookbook whose every chapter starts with a poem by the greatest Sufi mystic poet Rumi -- and is actually about Food? Read more on Superchefblog at http://superchefbloggered.blogspot.com/2006/02/sufi-cuisine-nevin-halici.html.



2. outstanding, excellent, superb.... this is a wonderland ... you get the recipes and you also get the context of whirling dervishes in the fifteenth century ... sort of knit yourself your very own serail ... out of this world ... an absolute marvel

5 comments about Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters.

1. This "literary cookbook" contains four features, illustrations, fairy tales (20), recipes (24) and what the author calls "marginalia," facts and trivia primarily about the fairy tales and the ingredients of the fairy tale-related recipes (over 100). The illustrations are excellent. The fairy tales, except for Brer Rabbit, (which, of course, includes a sticky character whose name causes me to cringe as I read it) are very good, abbreviated versions of the more food-related stories, common as well as less common classics (with the exception of the final tale, one written and previously-published by Jane Yolen). The "marginalia" (notes in the margins) are excellent and include variations of some of the tales, story origins, unusual vocabulary definitions, and food facts. The weakest part of the book is the collection of recipes. Although porridge is the obvious choice to accompany The Magic Pot of Porridge, the recipe itself (add specified amounts of water, oats and salt and cook) is uninspiring. Others in the same category include fruit salad (choose, wash, cut and combine fruit of your choice), pancakes, french toast, pumpkin tartlets (pumpkin pie with topping) and baked apples. Additionally, Seaweed (spinach) Stuffed Shells, which accompanies The Little Mermaid, chosen over many possible seafood-containing recipes, seems odd. The worst choice of recipes, however, follows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. They all contain mayonnaise, which makes me wonder if the hunter might have been able to save his ammunition by sickening the wolf with salmonella-laced goodies from the picnic basket! On the other hand, Goat Cheese Sandwiches, Carrot Soup, Hodja's Kebabs and Magic Pear Grumble seem both enticing and story-appropriate. In summary, although three of the book's four features were well thought out and put into effect, the fourth and most important, the recipes, could have, in general, been more inventive and story-appropriate.



2. This book has the most beautiful illustrations on each page. One gets the feeling that the recipes will be as wonderful as the pictures!
   The recipes are also very unusual such as Cinderella's "Pumpkin tarts" from her infamous carriage ride with the prince.
   It also has the most unique memorabilia in the index on each page. I learned things I had totally forgotten since my childhood days when the fables were more truth than fiction. It's a book that will be passed onto the children of the children reading it!



3. I have always absolutely loved Jane Yolen and having a cookbook written by her is just a dream come true. My son, six years old, is the perfect age for being engaged in the stories AND cooking the resulting recipes. He loves this book.
   
   Ms. Yolen has written many of our family's favorites, including Sacred Places and Child of Fairie, Child of Earth. Anything that has her name on it, I will carefully consider. She's amazing.



4. Overall I really liked this book. Jane Yolen's versions of 20 fairy tales (many having to do with food) were fun and nicely retold. Some are pretty familiar to us all and other are more obscure. I also liked the offbeat illustrations by Phillippe Beha.
   
   I'm not sure who did the research but what I enjoyed most were the history of the tales and the facts about food in the columns next to the recipes. Did you know that grapes are considered berries and that pumpkins are 90% water? Who knew? Those types of things in the book I found to be really fascinating.
   
   I love the concept of this book but unfortunately, the recipes are not very magical. I'm sure the woman who wrote the recipes was trying to keep things simple so that children could easily participate in the cooking. Simple is fine but a little inspiration would have helped a lot. The twenty or so recipes are very ordinary on the whole.
   
   This could have been a book used to introduce children to new foods (you know--some of that green stuff along with some herbs and spices) but that is not what we end up getting so it's a bit of a disappointment to an otherwise delightful book.



5. This book is the perfect combination of cookbook and fairy tales. Each story is told then a recipe is given which represents the story. Lots of fun for moms and children together!

5 comments about The Essential Mediterranean Cookbook.

1. First off to be fair. I don't know a whole lot about mediterranean cooking. I find southern food and mexican food to be my favorites however i am looking to expand my knowledge of food. I purchased this book knowing from another review that it included alot of pictures. I was hoping to be able to learn something about mediterranean cooking that i didn't know.
   
   As i started to leaf through this book i was impressed by the clarity of all the color photo's of gorgeous food throughout the book. Every few pages, in the margin of the page there is a picture and an explination or a little comment on an ingrediant used. I think this is great however the flaws show up when the picture doesn't match the item that is listed. For instance when giving a little history on "aioli" (garlic mayo) there is a picture of some asparagus. When talking about "Salad Nicoise" (named Nicoise because of the olive's) there is a picture of bell peppers. "Tuna" you get a picture of lemons. "Anchovies" you get a picture of garlic. It's a little irritating at most.
   
   The other problem i have with this book is that alot of the recipe's also show up in "The Essential Seafood Cookbook" so now i have duplicates of certain recipe's.
   
   Now don't let my complaining scare you away from this book. It's still a good book despite it's flaws. the pictures really are awesome. (you can see the little eyes clearly on the picture of fried baitfish). As for the authenticity of the food presented here? From what i know any book that includes a recipe for Miala Tiganita (fried lamb brains) has probably got to be pretty authentic even if i know nothing about the cuisine of Greece.



2. 
   The wonderful trend of "coffee-table cookbooks" was probably inspired by people like me who sometimes cook vicariously...who enjoy seeing a photo with every recipe, for all the times when we're just looking. Yes, almost every recipe has a top-quality color photo!
   
   Getting to the point.....I'm almost drooling over the photos and recipes in this beautiful book that's divided into chapters of different Mediterranean countries...Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East. Also included are chapters of "special features"...meze, antipasto, making pasta, making pizza, olive oil, dressings and sauces, tapas, and preparing olives.
   
   This book is well planned and well executed. The food stylists and photographers did an outstanding job, and the assortment of recipes is organized, balanced and appealing. The instructions are carefully written and are suited to any level of cooking ability.
   
   The "Honey and Pine Nut Tart" looks like a Mediterranean version of Southern Pecan Pie. I see a beautiful pistachio biscotti..... artichokes in aromatic vinaigrette..... Tunisian brik..... gnocchi Romana (from scratch!)..... kalamaria yemista (stuffed squid)..... flatbread with za'atar (huh?)..... pollo a la chilindron..... caponata with tuna.....orange and date salad.....oh, my!



3. My wife, kids and myself enjoy trying different foods and we also enjoy a healthy diet. After a taking a few business trips to various Mediterranean countries I took a keen interest in the cuisine. My wife gave me this book for xmas a few years ago and it is now one of my favorite cookbooks. It's simple to understand, the recipe's are easy, delicious and fun to make. We have prepared most the recipes in the book for family and friends and a few of them have become staples of our diet. I highly recommend this book.



4. First off, this book has beautiful photos for almost every recipe. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of common Mediterranean ingredients, from anchovies to za'atar, that can be found in the beginning. I really liked the grouping of recipes by countries/regions, and most country/region sections has its own article on a specific food tradition. For example, pizza and antipasti for Italy, tapas for Spain, dressings for France, etc. This book would be great for your personal cookbook collection or your coffee table. Measurements come in both metric and customary units, but some conversion may still be necessary.
   I wouldn't purchase this book if you are looking for cheap or simple recipes. I made the baklava (even a simplified recipe is relatively expensive), which was very delicious and fun to make, but it required expensive ingredients, such as orange flower water. Some recipes call for rabbit, squid, or brains, which I have never seen in my local grocery. I found that you can find most of the ingredients required for the recipes, but like I said before, they can get pricey. The majority of the recipes are time consuming, but they are delicious. Do not buy this book if you are looking for quick and cheap meals. These recipes are all about the joy of cooking and ingredients, and if that is what you are looking for, this book is for you.



5. My husband and I love this book. We have tried several of the recipes - and each one has been exceptional. Many of the recipes have become standards for our household. We have also given this book, as a gift, to many others who love to cook. I think there are several recipes that are quite easy - and there are others that require more effort. It is definitely a cookbook that you can grow with and can meet the needs of all types of cooks. I can also say that the Greek recipes are fairly authentic - given my heritage. Bottom line, I cannot say enough good things about this book - and its pretty to look at, too!

5 comments about Eat Smart in Turkey: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure, Second Edition (Eat Smart, 3).

1. The authors have written a series of Eat Smart books that no traveler to foreign countries should be without. Each book covers a separate country--Eat Smart in Turkey, Eat Smart in Brazil, Eat Smart in Indonesia and Eat Smart in Mexico--and is chock full of information that you won't find elsewhere within the covers of one easy-to-carry paperback. Individual chapters cover such topics as the history of the country's cuisine, regional foods, how to shop in the local markets, mail-order sources for suppliers of ingredients, and a collection of recipes for typical dishes found in that country. Especially useful is each book's extensive menu guide, listing menu terms alphabetically in the language of the foreign country, with a description of the dish in English. That section is followed by a chapter titled "Foods & Flavors"--listing the foreign terms for foods, spices, kitchen utensils and cooking techniques, with an English translation/description. These books are well researched, accurate and very informative. Highly recommended. --Sharon Hudgins, editor, Chile Pepper magazine



2. I bought this book partly because I know that Turkish food features a lot of meat, and I'll be visiting with my wife who is a vegetarian. Can you believe that a book that is *ALL* about food, does not even mention vegetarianism, nor when they list "handy phrases for restaurants" do they list any phrases that deal with the topic? For that matter, they don't deal with any topic having to deal with food allergies, being on a diet, etc. Essentially this is a book about helping people make smart choices when eating in Turkey, but the only people they want to help are people who will eat anything. I should have saved my money.



3. The long title of this book does not even say it all. It's undoubtedly the best guide to Turkish cuisine *by far*.
   
   I've written best-selling guidebooks on Turkey for nearly 40 years (first for Frommer's, then for Lonely Planet for 20 years), traveled (and eaten) in Turkey almost every year since 1967, and Peterson's book still taught me lots of new and interesting things about Turkish cuisine. I'm still learning from it.
   
   This was not a contract job done on assignment for a big publisher in a hurry. The authors are obviously heart-and-soul foodies who started publishing their own culinary guides because they couldn't help but do it. It shows.
   
   And they're not gourmands, but gourmets: they are truly fascinated by the subtleties in the art of delighting the palate. To most writers, food is necessary and fun. To the authors of this guide, food is tradition, art, innovation, achievement, delight.
   
   And Turkey is a great place to be a foodie. Once the center of a vast, agriculturally rich empire home to hundreds of peoples and cultures, it developed an elaborate and subtle cuisine based on careful preparation of fresh ingredients. It's the perfect country to travel through with a food guide, and this is the guide to take.



4. This is a fine look at turkish cuisine and culture. It goes into the history and the different regions and includes a selection of recipes that can be tried at home. The turkish language section is particularly useful as an aid to learning appropriate words and phrases to be able to order food and drinks in restaurants, bars and markets.
   
   I find when I travel that trying local and regional food is one of the highlights of the trip. This book will be an invaluable aid to my next trip. Strongly recommended



5. This book was sooo helpful for our week stay in Istanbul.
   
   I could see some other jealous tourists on other tables, they'd kind of be trying to see what book I was furiously pondering over when I had our menu in front of us as they sat on their table wondering what the heck they should order. I did mention the book to a few other people and am happy to give it a 5 star rating here.
   
   The book was a perfect size for us because the pages of the book are a decent size so the book is thinner (rather than being small pages and a thick book). It fit easily into one of our bags and didn't bulk it up. Very light and easy to carry around on our travels.
   
   If you're going to Turkey, buy this book. Not a lot of menus are in english and many servers don't speak english so this book will at least get you most if not all the way in figuring out exactly or close to what you're ordering.

No comments about Turkish Meze: The Little Dishes of the Eastern Mediterranean.

5 comments about Classical Turkish Cooking: Traditional Turkish Food for the American Kitchen.

1. 
   I would like to give a great wow for her work , super cooker friendly way to get uniqe recipies and technics, the Book covers almost all of the main Original Turkish daily HEALTY home and restaurant kitchen examples and uniqe Ottoman Palace dishes
   
   Suggest that to try make your own Turkish Sesami Bagels < called by Turks as Simit>!!! u`ll love it
   
   Its realy one of a kind kitchen and her rarest way to get into it



2. I am American and my husband is from Turkey, so I wanted to get some good books on how to cook him the foods from his childhood. These had to be authentic...no mediocre recipes would suffice. I reach for this book all the time and have marked a great number of recipes because I turn to them time and again. There hasn't been a single one I've tried that my husband hasn't loved, which is all the proof I need! Some criticisms are that the book has no pictures, which would help to visualize how the finished dish should look, and there are some recipe omissions that even I as a layperson would have liked to see. All in all though, one of the best Turkish cookbooks around.



3. Turkish cuisine is appreciated all the over world. I know our friends the Americans like Shish Kebab bd Shish Tawook. In this book, you will find many recipes about our traditional Turkish cuisine. If you have a restaurant in America and you want very much to add to your meny some good Turkish dishes, this book will help you. And don't forget to visit our country. You are always welcome.



4. Love this cookbook, have only had Turkish food in America, but had some visuals and wasn't hindered by the lack of photos...have prepared multiple meals for family & dinner parties and always recieve rave reviews from 5 year old American children to adults who have actually lived in Turkey...Have made the Kofte w/ Lamb, Beef, Veal or even ground turkey (no pun intended)...all are delicious!



5. This is by far the best Turkish cookbook written in English that i have come across. i have been using it for years with great results. i have recently ordered a second copy for my daughter who will soon be leaving for college.i wholeheartedly recommend it to all who are looking for a good source book on Turkish cuisine.

5 comments about Binnur's Turkish Cookbook: Turkishcookbook.Com - Delicious, Healthy And Easy-To-Make Ottoman & Turkish Recipes.

1. Love it, love it, love it! I recently went to Istanbul, Turkey on a trip and loved the food there. When I came home I ordered the cookbook to try to recreate some of the cuisine. I was so excited to find so many of the same foods I had there...it's going to be fun cooking these meals!



2. I have bought this book because I review Turkish cooking books for publishers and magazines. My mom is from Turkey. I am very familiar with Turkish cuisine, I grew up on it. There is no real care or basic understanding of Turkish cuisine on the part of the cook or the author. I think she doesn't understand the healthy aspect of Turkish cuisine. Homestyle cooking doesn't mean that you should use unhealthy processed foods (like canned beans, etc). You can still cook healthy Turkish food with little effort by using quality and healthy ingredients in a short period of time. You just have to be organized in your cooking steps. Don't spend any money on this book. If you like Turkish cuisine, try Ozcan Ozan's book, at least he is not oblivious to what he is doing unlike Binnur!
   By the way, the comment from Beryl is actually from the author of the book (Check the answer to the review by JohnVos titled a total rip off). She has commented on her own book saying that she and her husband lives off of the recipes from this book, it is pretty funny, another way of ripping people off I guess.



3. I bought this book for my mom because she loves Turkish food and there aren't many simple Turkish cookbooks out there, nor are there any Armenian. Well, the cookbook is frustrating because the measurements are in european measure and it's just too time consuming to try and figure out grams and milliliters in English. If you know your European measurement equivalents, fine, but if not, I wouldn't recommend this book.



4. Having tried a good number of the recipes from Binnur's website:
   [...]/ I thought I would buy the book to have an easy resource in the kitchen. Most kitchens don't have internet terminals in them. And, I was creating an unruly stack of loose pages, printed recipes from the website. The book is not meant to replace the website (it is noted that for further details see the website) but be a companion to it. In the future, I hope she will print a Turkish Cookbook II.



5. extremely good cook book. instructions clear and easy to follow, I look foward to trying some of the interesting recipes.

5 comments about Turquoise: A Chef's Travels in Turkey.

1. I like these kind of books in general and this book is another fantastic journey. The pictures capture some authentic "cook" and "food" moments, not just sentimentality, but more wordless-timeless deeper stuff.
   
   I expected more kofte recipes which made me wonder if it is as popular there as other in adjacent countries. Maybe not.
   
   I shop at a variety of grocery stores, but rely on AJs Fine Foods for the more esoteric. If they don't have it, I have to online, but they usually do. So, a couple years back I was on the hunt for pomegranate molasses, which, if anyone is interested, is pretty fabulous and very pretty as a dip or sauce with kuftas and more. And, they scowled and wondered what I was talking about, but I'm there picking up unusual things pretty often and sometimes they ask me questions about stuff they don't know about, but on this one they were really thinking I was getting eccentric, and not in a good way. I figured I'd just boil down pommegranate juice to the consistency of molasses. I mean, what else could it be, right? Well, it is that easy. Same goes for making grape molasses, of course, another ingredient used in this book.
   
   Pretty book. Completely as represented.



2. This is a wonderful book. The photos alone make it a worthwhile buy, but the recipes are wonderful. It truly does justice to the wonder that is Turkey, a country that I fell madly in love with a few years ago. The cuisine is absolutely exquisite, and this book truly does justice to the place, its people and the food! This makes a great gift for a lover of Turkey or just a lover of travel and good food!



3. This book is worth every penny and then some. It has beautiful pictures and dellicious recepies. It is an inspired version of Turkish cooking. There are certainly authentic recepies but these recepies are accompanied by new ones created by the two chefs inspired by their travels trough Turkey. It is a coffee table style book. I almost want two, one to use and one to display.



4. I am avid cookbook collector and user, but am rarely moved to write reviews. I have also had the pleasure of visiting Istanbul and experiencing first hand the wonderful cuisine. Turquoise far surpassed my expectations. It is hard to know what pleases me more - the excellent collection of recipes presented with clear, easy to follow instructions or the amazing photographs and descriptions that place the recipes in their colorful contexts. It is definitely one of the gems of my collection, one which I would recommend highly both to someone looking for a gift or to treat themselves.



5. I gave this book as a present to several of my collegues and they all loved it. I think a book about Turkish cuisine will be insufficient as long as you do not tell something about the culture behind it. I think this book does that nicely.
   The quality of the print and the way the photos were picked is appropriate for a book of this price.

5 comments about Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon.

1. Arabesque by Claudia Roden is a fantastic cookbook covering Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. It's filled with wonderful, mouth-watering recipes and it should be a must have any serious cook!



2. Wonderful recipes. I've made only one so far - Zucchine Fritters - which were quite good. However - after visiting a local Middle Eastern market I plan to make more! A beautiful book.



3. Though I haven't had the time to cook from this book as much as I would have liked yet, I have been extremely pleased by the dishes I have been able to prepare. The dishes are varied, delicious, well seasoned and straightforwardly explained. I have been to Turkey and Morocco in the past few years. Reading and preparing the recipes in this book is like taking a mini vacation back to these wonderful countries and delectable cuisines.



4. Haven't made every recipe yet, but most of the ones I've tried have been good. The pumpkin soup recipe was pretty tasteless. I love the spinach, beans and caramelized onions recipe. Very tasty. The book itself is beautiful, and it's full of lots of interesting information. I look forward to making more things out of it.



5. I'll start by saying this absolutely should have been a 5 star book.
   
   Full of gorgeously-photographed recipes from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, this book should keep an adventurous chef busy for years and introduce a slew of favorites to any family's meal rotation. The recipes range from extremely quick and simple, quick appetizers and desserts that require little to no cooking, fish dinners with simple sauces that can be prepared in < 10 minutes, to long afternoon culinary undertakings like the delectable Moroccan bastilla.
   
   I got the book three years ago and have made perhaps half the recipes in it. Most have turned out great. A few have required some tweaking but have since become mainstays. The reason I deducted a star, though, is that a few recipes are potential disasters that should have been caught by testers or a sharp-eyed editor.
   
   The main problem I ran into was with cooking times. Several braising recipes consistently take 50% longer than Ms. Roden suggests they will, while other recipes are intentionally vague on the cooking time and may result in a very late dinner. Others, such as the Moroccan lamb patties, result in blackened chunks of charcoal and probably a grease fire if you follow the book's instructions.
   
   So while the book is excellent and I heartily recommend it to any cook, think about the cooking times carefully, compare them to similar dishes you have made in the past, and be ready to tweak seasonings on a few recipes to get them up to par with the rest.

5 comments about Sultan's Kitchen: A Turkish Cookbook.

1. Going over the pages of this book brought back many memories and the wonderful aromas that always came from my grandfathers stove top!



2. I have purchased many middle eastern cookbooks and I still return to this one. Fabulous recipes and not difficult for the novice cook. I would highly recommend to all interested in Turkish cooking.



3. Turkish cuisine is one of the healthiest and most delicious of the Mediterranean region.
   Ozcan's recipes bring the magic of Turkish food to our own kitchen. The recipes are easy to follow, the ingredients are easy to obtain, and the results are amazing. Thanks to Ozcan, I can recreate the wonderful dishes I remember from my life there. The photographs in the book do great justice to the recipes. I can almost smell the aromas just looking at them. What a great way to eat!



4. I bought this cook book after having learned a few Turkish dishes to expand what I know and make. The Boreks are great and I have made them for friends and they loved them. The price can not be beat. Easy to follow instructions and the photos help as well.



5. I am Turkish and by profession, am involved in culinary. I am not a chef though so I do need to look up and follow recipes when I miss my favorite foods from homeland. Over the years, I have bought many Turkish cookbooks and examined a lot more in book stores. Due to the Author's familiarity with working and living in the USA, this book does two things wonderfully: One; its written like an American cookbook, which makes following instructions, finding ingredients and measuring a bliss. Two: possibly due to feedback he receives daily, running a restaurant in NY, the Author picked the dishes that are most appealing to the American taste, which makes having company over for a dinner a bliss since I don't have to wonder if the items I picked for cooking would be well received.
   
   I have cooked most of the recipes in the book, first time I try one, I follow the instructions and ingredients exactly and it always turns out great, later, I adjust the seasonings and ingredients to my liking if I feel like more spicy or garlicky for example. I highly recommend buying this book.