Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh & Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen
Tom Verde
Maureen Abood
2015, Running Press, 978-0-76245-486-0, $15.99 hb.
Za'taar is one of those ubiquitous, Middle Eastern spice mixtures (typically a combination of dried thyme, sesame seeds and citrusy sumac) that many cultures in the region claim as their own. This is especially true in Lebanon, where no home cook would be without the heady mixture—any more than an American table would be bereft of salt and pepper. Smeared with olive oil across the warm, dimpled surface of a piece of flatbread, it is the defining ingredient of mana'esh, the country’s “quintessential breakfast food,” as author Maureen Abood lovingly declares. With such humble dishes as her launching point, she explores the deliciously dizzying heights to which Lebanese-based cuisine has aspired as a geographic crossroads of borrowed ingredients such as rose water or pomegranates (from Ottoman Persia) or oranges and nougat (from the Western Mediterranean). Hence the title of this proud ode to Abood’s culinary heritage.
You may also be interested in...
Noorjahan Bose: A Life of Learning
Taking inspiration from her now-deceased mother, Noorjahan Bose, a daughter of the Agunmukha, Bangladesh, now shifts her energy toward empowering other daughters.
British Library’s 500-Year-Old Nizami Manuscripts Shed Light on Power of Art and Poetry in 12th-Century Herat
Persian and Mughal scholar and specialist Barbara Brend presents a comprehensive study of one of the most highly esteemed works of Persian Literature.
Drawing New Conclusions About the Status of Women in Ancient Egypt
Egyptologist Mariam F. Ayad that gender bias among historians accounts for an underrepresentation of women’s lives in historical studies of Egypt.