A True Taste of Palestine
This is an excellent bit of storytelling with the added flavor for those who have never tasted food from Palestine to try. What is wonderful about this book, it gives a little bit of a look of what pre-war Palestine was like in the perspective of a Palestinian. Even though he later came to the USA like so many do, returning now and again for visit's with family and friends; he let people in on the one thing that a lot of people can not understand, "the pain of a Palestinian heart during US occupation."
Great Stories, Great Recipes...A Hidden Treasure
I found this book hidden among the cookbooks of my local bookstore. (I'm here at Amazon to purchase some more copies for my friends.) It is an intoxicating book--filled with stories, recipes, and hope...for it takes you back to a time when, as the author stated, "Arabs and Jews found it easier to live as friends." I was particularly touched by the foreward by Yaagob Yehoshua which spoke of Jews and Muslims being cousins. As for the recipes, they are all delicous! . All in all, this is a success on many levels. If you're looking for more Middle Eastern Recipes, I highly recommend Tess Mallos's "The Complete Middle East Cookbook"...but please don't let this book escape your purchases today.
Ever so much more than a simple cookbook...
...this is rather a semi-ethnographic account; the author Aziz Shahab prefaces each set of recipes by providing a story of situation/event (often plural) in his childhood during which or after which the various foods were made. Particularly for those who are looking for an obtainable English-language ethnography of the Palestinain people, this book is an invaluable resource. Shahab paints a most sympathetic picture of his people; though flavoured heavily by nostalgia (as one ought expect, given the background of this work), this account nonetheless meshes ever-so-neatly with the dry, scholarly analyses more broadly available to the American audience.
In addition to its value as an ethnographic supplement (if you are interested in ethnographies, "Before the Mountains Disappear"---Bevor die Berge Verschwinden--- by Ali Qleibo is invaluable...), what of the recipes I have tried are outstanding. The one provided for muhallabia, a sweetened scalded-milk dessert...delightful, I find...imagine almost a hybrid between yoghurt and gulab jamun, the Indian dessert...is particularly excellent. This is a remarkable book...many cookbooks I have come acroos purport to deal with the culture from which the recipes are derived..."A Taste of Palestine" truly does...
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