Customer Reviews

Cuisines of the Caucasus Mountains: Recipes, Drinks, and Lore from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia

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What a great looking book. My mouth watered as I looked at the cover.

Kay Shaw Nelson is a student of Russian studies - thereby someone who really did research in the countries that this book covers and not just a compiler of other people's information. She even gives some reviews of places to eat in-country! She did a nice job of including literary references and short stories about some of the dishes. I'm no chef and I was able to make most of the items with ease. The tasks are easy to follow and replacements for some ingredients not easily found outside of the Caucasus are included.

Caucasus food has great flavor and uses herbs and spices masterfully. It is healthy and tasty. There are many vegetarian options as well.

Some of my favorites: page 165 rice-filled tomatoes, page 203 lavash (this actually tasted like lavash!), page 256 tan, page 42 cucumber-yogart dip, page 79 green beans and eggs.

Knowing the region described in the book quite well, as I am from that region, AND reading this book, I was surprised with the way author (who is a historician !!!) puts the outdated information about the certain countries of the region and their cuisines. Seing the map with the wrong names/borders in the book was just shocking!!! The author have not done enough research on INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED facts on the region, it's history and geopolitics, and therefore is misrepresenting the region and may actually be offencive for the people like me, who grew up in that region.

The names of some culinary dishes are misperperented and misclassified, too.

Instead of spending money on this book, I'd recommend searching the information available online, where you can find more truthfull and up-to-date informaiton, and a variety of recipes for free!

The range of recepies offered in the book is great, but a lot of the recepies are misclassified by country/culture. Also, in the introduction part, and the part describing the history of the region, some facts are misrepresented.