36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pizzas and Empenadas and Canapes, oh my, November 20, 2003
Clifford Wright is one of the leading writers, along with Elizabeth David, Paula Wolfert and Claudia Roden, on the cuisines of the Mediterranian. This volume complements his monumental, award winning `A Mediterranean Feast' and is, I believe, as accessable, entertaining, and useable as food writing can get.
I confess that this type of writing by a culinary scholar / journalist writing about regional cuisines of the past and present is just about my favorite kind of food writing. Aside from the fact that these people are typically better writers than chefs, I believe this content has a cachet about it similar to what people say of antiques. What has survived from the past is generally better than what is produced today because there is so much more historical product than there is of contemporary product. Things typically survive because they are good.
Wright's book fits this expectation to a tee. For $22 list price, one gets over 500 recipes from all around the Mediterranean. This collection is so good, one could easily retire your Martha Stewart and Ina Garten books on appetizer menus and have this take their place.
In spite of the superficial similarity in the various small dishes in the book, there is a significant difference between antipasti and hors d'oeuvres, which accompany a large meal, tapas, which often consist of a meal in themselves to accompany afternoon drinking and conversation, and meze, which, in several countries comprise a large meal in itself, based on a lot of little dishes. There are family resemblences between the various little dish cuisines of the Mediterranean but, except for the presence of olives and olive oil, there is probably no common heritage to which all can be traced. Meze dishes can be traced to Arab cuisine. The word appears to be originally from Turkey. Hors d'oeuvre and antipasti are much more recent, emerging in French and Italian cuisines over the last 150 years. Tapas may be traceable to the period of the Moorish occupation of Spain, even though both Wright and Diane Kochalis, an authority on Greek cuisine agree that tapas and (Greek) mezes are different things.
All this very interesting historical stuff simply makes the excellent collection of recipes just that much more interesting. The books contents are divided into sixteen (16) types of dishes such as Bread Snacks, Dips, Cheese, Eggy stuff, Saucy Meats, Saucy Veges, Stuffed Vegetables, Salads, Pastries, Pizzas, Fried Turnovers, Fried Tidbits, Wraps, Seafood Salads, Grilled Food, and Pickles and Marinades. This is followed by two chapters of components recipes. One for Sauces and Spice Mixes and one for Doughs and Batters. The book concludes with an extensive list of Party Menus.
As you may expect, there are some requirements for uncommon ingredients, mostly cheeses of Greece and North Africa plus spice mixes, including the ever elusive Aleppo pepper. Substitutions from the world of Italian cheeses are almost always possible, but part of the fun is to get the read deal. Internet sources are, of course, provided.
In this very large book, I found only one questionable item, where the author specifies fresh plum tomatos or tomato puree to build tomato sauces. On the strength of the opinion of Mario Batali, I would change this to always using canned whole tomatoes.
This book will stay in my library long after others have been carted off the the library's book sale.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little Foods Charm us All, March 23, 2005
This review is from: Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors D'Oeuvre, Meze, and More (Non) (Paperback)
Little Foods of the Mediterranean:
500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas,
Hors d'oeuvre, Meze and More
By Clifford A. Wright
Author of A Mediterranean Feast
This is an important food book written by a distinguished research scholar, cook and food writer. Wright makes you feel as if you are on-location in the friendly sunny Med when he teaches you why the foods are available, then how the folks there make little snacks with the fresh foods. Wright gives intense scrutiny to all his projects, so much so he dedicated this 514-page book to his youngest son, "who wondered when we would again eat `big' food."
Here are some of the foods, recipes and color the book is chock full of:
One of Wright's many indexes, "Cheesy Mouthfuls," contains such muchies as Spanish Baked Cheese Marbles, Gruyere Half-Moons, his favorite, Saganaki and an item he calls Provolone and Mortadella Bombs. He feels Saganaki with a squirt of lemon and a glass of oouzo aside the Ionian Sea is pretty close to what a heaven must be.
Under "Frittatas and Other Eggy Delights," he borrows dishes from Andalusia, Cordoba, Tunisia and Egypt, noting there are only four countries where Frittatas are eaten: Italy, Spain, Algeria and Tunisia. One eye-catcher is Poached Eggs in Garlicky Yogurt.
The "Saucy Little Dishes" parts are meant to open the appetite and satisfy the soul. These little dishes, little foods, are ever-popular and Wright keeps changing his mind about his favorite, probably most. Try Pork and Pine Nut Meatballs in Romesco Sauce, Carp Croquettes in Walnut Sauce in the style of the Greek Jews. How about Fresh Anchovy in Orange Sauce.
Another section is "Stuffed Vegetables" ranging from zucchini flowers, olives, potatoes to even onions. The Imam (word for a Muslim prayer leader) Fainted is a stuffed eggplant dish, one of Turkeys' most famous mezes, for it is said the prayer leader fainted when he realized how good the dish was. Few recipes gain such lofty titles.
In his "Filled Pastries, Puffs, Pies and Baked Turnovers" section Wright offers the recipe for Spicy Octopus Pie in a Red Wine Crust from the Port of Sete. He offers a care-filled lesson on cleaning an octopus you have caught yourself.
"Pizzas, Calzones and Empanadas" is a sizeable section. His San Vito's Pizza, comes with its own history and calls for pork shoulder, tomato, Italian sausage, salami, cinnamon, cheeses, fennel seeds and oregano. Calzones and Empanadas are carefully described, all being breadish conveyors of tasty ingredients, baked in very hot ovens.
His section entitled "Fried Tidbits," brings you Fried Kibbe, Mediterranean-Style Fried Small Fish, Fried Stuffed Cabbage Bundles from Catalonia, French Fried Pumpkin with Green Sauce from Naples, Fried Stuffed Olives from Venice and mjuch more.
Wright's "Seafood Salads and Platters" is probably crowned by the Venetian Seafood Antipasto - shrimp, mussels, cockles, little necks, oysters, baby octopus, tuna steak and cod fillets, bearly cooked and served drizzles with olive oil and squirted with fresh lemon.
In closing the book would be incomplete without his recipes for assorted sauces and spice mixes. Find Wright's Allioli, Romesco Sauce, Harissa, Ras al-Hanut, Tabil and more. Doughs and batters are there, suggested menus, too. Wright wisely groups the food for certain groups, i.e. A Summer Grill Party with Arab Meze for 12, Passed Appetizers for a Cocktail Party made for 20 - he pulls together many diverse groups and occasions. Interesting.
On the purely informal, local, U.S. level, my daughter, JoAnn, has a delightful little habit of walking by you and pressing a little crème brulee ramekin in your hand, one containing a little treat she has made up just for you. When you buy this book, you will do well to buy a set of these little cups.
© Marty Martindale, 2005, Largo FL
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