A Taste of Gaza: Food & Traditions from Home

To write about food is to write about culture. This especially rings true in this celebration of Gaza’s cuisine by opening with a lengthy introduction on how Gazans celebrate weddings, feasts and holidays. The 80 recipes that follow are as diverse as they are local, with some ingredients difficult to find outside the region or season. Along with falafel, lentil soup, fattah (braised pieces of lamb with a lemon sauce over rice and bread) and other familiar classics are dishes for the more adventurous cook: hamasses (wild sorrel with red lentils); rice-and-meat-stuffed purple carrots with tamarind sauce; and spicy, stuffed blue crabs. The book showcases Gaza’s distinctive cuisine within the Middle East while allowing the Jordan-based author to generously share her culinary memories of growing up in Gaza. These are recipes meant to be shared, and those who cook from the book will surely create their own tasty remembrances.
—Jeff Koehler