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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intricately Researched Culinary Guide, May 26, 2006
This review is from: Eat Smart in Peru : How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure (Paperback)
"...picarones, a doughnut-like snack or dessert made from a yeasty pumpkin dough. The rings of dough are formed by hand, deep-fried and served with raw-sugar syrup flavored with orange, aniseed, cinnamon and cloves." ~ pg. 14
The Eat Smart guides are an exploration of cuisine itself and are interesting even if you never reach the desired destination. You can order ingredients online for the recipes featured. There are pictures of delicious cultural favorites, food markets and unique ingredients. Some of the main sections include:
Early History through Pre-Inca Civilizations
The Regions of Peru
Tastes of Peru
Shopping in Peru's Food Markets
Resources
Helpful Phrases
Menu Guide
Food and Flavors Guide
Restaurants
Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt also show how various cultures influenced Peru's culinary world and the first part of this book contains a lot of culinary history that may appeal to food writers. Maps and pictures of the food make it easier to understand the cultural significance of food choices.
"Rare is the Peruvian dish that does not include chile pepper. Each river valley oasis along the western slopes of the Andes has a microclimate that produces unique varieties of chile peppers, which are, in turn, completely different from the peppers native to the jungle." ~ pg. 19
Recipes for Rice Pudding look familiar and if you can find gooseberries, you can make the gooseberry marmalade to serve with quinoa crepes.
Other highlights include a section on helpful phrases you can use in restaurants. List of foods like "nuez moscada" have translations, nutmeg. If you order a tortilla, you will get an omelet.
Eat Smart in Peru will appeal to anyone who is curious about new culinary discoveries and wants to either travel to Peru or incorporate new recipes into their cooking repertoire.
~The Rebecca Review
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cutting-edge information for us foodies!, July 6, 2006
This review is from: Eat Smart in Peru : How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure (Paperback)
People who love combining great food and travel make pilgrimages to Italy's Po Valley, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hanoi, Singapore, France's Lyon, San Francisco, Charleston, New Orleans and other shrines to fine cooking.
Add Peru to the list.
If you aren't aware that Peru has its very own fusion cuisine -- very approximately like that of New Orleans with a blend of Indian, Spanish and African styles -- plus contributions by Chinese and Japanese settlers, Eat Smart in Peru will open your eyes to yet another fine gourmet destination.
Authors Joan Peterson and Brook Soltvedt are way ahead of the curve in discovering Peruvian cuisine. I was only aware of Peruvian chicken, based on a carryout in my neighborhood that serves this dish, cooked on a rotating spit over charcoal, with a rosemary-based spice shoved under the chicken skin, and a fine salsa verde on the side. Peterson and Soltvedt found a vast variety of other dishes, including curries, desserts and appetizers. A section on recipes includes Aji de Gallina, a chicken stew that I plan to try.
In addition to the recipes, Eat Smart in Peru contains a history of the development of Peru's cuisine, a regional specialties chapter, a glossary of ingredients and menu guide.
Finally, Eat Smart in Peru tells you how to shop in a Peruvian market and how to locate rare ingredients stateside. It's an easy read, with nice illustrations and a logical organization.
By the way, the author has done other "Eat Smart" guides to Brazil, Mexico, India, Turkey, Poland and other destinations.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buen viaje y buen provecho!, January 16, 2008
This review is from: Eat Smart in Peru : How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure (Paperback)
This is a handy, travel sized guide to eating in Peru that greatly enhanced our trip to Peru. There are two excellent glossaries, one for menus with the names of foods in Spanish and in English, and the second listing a number of markets. There are recipes for some typical dishes from different regions in Peru. I especially liked the history of dishes.
Our tour arranged for Sunday dinner at the home of a penal judge and an office manager; the family prepared the meal using many foods grown on their their own farm, and the judge and his law student son ate with us. The menu included guinea pig fried in deep fat served with large kernel white corn on the cob and sweet potato. The second course was braised beef served with carrots, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes. Dessert was strawberry gelatin. Except for the guinea pig, the meal sounds quite American, but this book added interesting information which helped us understand the seasonings and enjoy the meal more fully.
My son and I are greatly addicted to street food, and the book was helpful on street dining as well. The steamed white corn at the railroad station on the way to Machu Picchu was superb; roasted beef heart at a greasy spoon in Miraflores was excellent; and we were delighted to learn more about the fusion of Chinese and Peruvian foods at the many chifa restaurants.
There are a couple of useful websites that make this book even more useful. The publisher, Gingko Press, maintains a website with news about the authors and other books in the Series. ginkgopress The site announced recently that this book received the 2006 Gourmand Award for Best in the World Award for a culinary travel guidebook. There is also the helpful perufood.blogspot devoted to the foods of Peru; Joan Peterson contributes suggestions on how to find ingredients, and suggests alternatives for those that aren't available in the US.
As a portable guide book on the foods of Peru, this one can't be beat. But,if you are really serious about Peruvian food, consider obtaining the beautiful and encyclopedic The Art of Peruvian Cuisine by Tony Custer. The Reviews on Amazon and elsewhere (including my own) are glowing.
Robert C. Ross 2008
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