Located in the very heart of the eastern Mediterranean, the area comprising Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan has 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 presentation 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, orchards, and markets. Written by an expert in the field and over two decades in the making, "Recipes and Remembrances" 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 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 Caucasian 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 has achieved the status of a classic. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sonia Uvezian was born and brought up in Beirut, Lebanon. A leading authority on Middle Eastern and Caucasian cooking and the winner of a James Beard Award, she is the author of six other highly acclaimed cookbooks, including "The Cuisine of Armenia," "Cooking from the Caucasus," and "The Book of Yogurt." Several of her books have been selections of Book-of-the-Month Club and published internationally. Ms. Uvezian has also contributed articles and recipes to Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Vogue, and numerous other publications."

The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean refers both Paula Wolfert's love of great food and the pioneering spirit that has inspired her to travel across the globe many times over in search of the world's best recipes. In all of her remarkable books, she delves with tireless enthusiasm into her research and writing, ensuring each recipe's authenticity and accessibility. In The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, she brings readers and cooks into the kitchens that produce the healthy home cooking that is the trademark of such lands as Macedonian, Turkey, Syria, and the countries on the Black Sea. Wolfert's food dazzles the palate. Her book begins with recipes for sauces and dips, including two walnut and pomegranate sauces; soups include Anatolian Sour Soup and Macedonian "Green Cream." Meat, poultry, and fish dishes include eleven varities of kibbeh, Duck with Quinces, and Skewered Swordfish. Her sumptuous recipes for vegetables and grains--stuffed eggplants, pilafs, and pomegranate-flavored vegetables, to name a few--reflect the bounty and healthful eating patterns of the Eastern Mediterranean. Wolfert's Middle Eastern grain salads are healthy and rich with flavor. Paula travels into the kitchens of native cooks to ensure that her recipes are as genuine as they are delicious. She takes us into the home of a friend in the Republic of Georgia, whose mother teaches Wolfert how to prepare Chicken Tabaka; to a mountain village in northern Greece where, with a sister food writer, she searches for fine cheese to complete a savory pie; and to a farm in Turkey, where the country's best bread baker tells her secrets of baking unleavened flat griddle bread. These delicious, authentic recipes focus on the healthy eating patterns for which the Eastern Mediterranean is increasingly being recognized. Wolfert's recipes are as delightful to read as they are to use. Armchair cooks and travelers will be moved by the descriptive geography and resonate personal stories Paula Wolfert relates along with her fabulous dishes. Wolfert's expertise is renowned among food lovers, amateur and professional, and her joy of discovering new ways to prepare food is infectious to her many devoted readers.

Melding the rural and the urban with the local, regional, and global, Levantine cuisine is a mélange of ingredients, recipes, and modes of consumption rooted in the Eastern Mediterranean. Making Levantine Cuisine provides much-needed scholarly attention to the region’s culinary cultures while teasing apart the tangled histories and knotted migrations of food. Akin to the region itself, the culinary repertoires that comprise Levantine cuisine endure and transform—are unified but not uniform. This book delves into the production and circulation of sugar, olive oil, and pistachios; examines the social origins of kibbe, Adana kebab, shakshuka, falafel, and shawarma; and offers a sprinkling of family recipes along the way. The histories of these ingredients and dishes, now so emblematic of the Levant, reveal the processes that codified them as national foods, the faulty binaries of Arab or Jewish and traditional or modern, and the global nature of foodways. Making Levantine Cuisine draws from personal archives and public memory to illustrate the diverse past and persistent cultural unity of a politically divided region.

This remarkable and beautifully illustrated book describes over 75 ingredients used in Middle Eastern cooking. The cuisines covered include those of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Influenced by the Persian, Islamic, and Ottoman Empires, these country's common culinary tradition also reveals the legacy of the Byzantine and Roman empires. The insightful texts take readers and cooks into the history and diversity of these ancient cultures, while 150 recipes allow them to put their knowledge of these ingredients to practical use. Each ingredient is broken down in sections on descriptions and tastes of the spices, historical background, and cultivation or manufacture methods. Each is illustrated with specially commissioned photographs.

From a slow-simmered stew to a loaf of bread left overnight to crisp for crostini, Wolfert has arranged a collection of recipes--all Mediterranean in origin--which are perfect for people who like to cook on weekends, with all the warmth and aromas that turn the kitchen into a magnet for friends.

We are what we eat—not just physiologically, but culturally. This collection of cross-cultural, generational essays, and accompanying recipes shows the profound importance of food dishes within American women's lives. For people of every ethnicity, food provides much more than mere fuel for the body—it contains an invisible component that ties families and generations together with the continuity of shared experience. And for the women who are entrusted with the responsibility of keeping that priceless cultural thread intact, family recipes embody tradition, bridge generation gaps, and erase age differences. This book is organized around 50 short essays and recipes presented by women from multicultural backgrounds and dissimilar walks of life. The chapters depict the paths of these individuals in their lives and the details of how they acquired their precious family recipes. The stories document how women universally use inherited family recipes to remember and memorialize key women in their lives and to aid and measure their own growth and development. Included are reminiscences of an Egyptian aunt, a poor mother from Australia, a Katrina-flooded New Orleans family, Turkish relations, Chinese mothers, and Indian grandmothers.