Customer Reviews

Nirmala's Edible Diary: A Hungry Traveler's Cookbook with Recipes from 14 Countries

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nirmala Narine mixes her impressions and experiences with recipes true to each country. She shares her personal memories ranging from her childhood home in Guyana to her experiences on a riverboat in Paraguay. Nirmala keeps her stories short enough without forgetting essential details.

Pros:
* Over 75 recipes from a total of 14 countries. Approximately 26 pictures of finished dishes.
* Ingredients for each recipe are kept to a minimum.
* Preparation times were reasonable.
* The book is divided by countries: an introduction to the country followed by a complete menu. In-between each recipe are photos and additional stories to tie your cooking experience together.
* Each menu contains an appetizer and main course. More expanded menus include drinks and dessert.
* As a beginning cook, I found the instructions easy to follow.

Cons:
* Since this book contains dishes that I have not seen before I would have liked more photos of the finished dishes.

Flipping through "Nirmala's Edible Diary: A Hungry Traveler's Cookbook with Recipes From 14 Countries," you can't stop your taste buds from perking up at the sound of exotic South American morsels from Argentina (Jicama, Blue Cheese & Passion Fruit Salad) to Venezuela (Cream of Sweet Potato Soup with Plantain Chips.

Nirmala Narine, a.k.a. "The Indiana Jones of Spices," has traversed the continent many a time in search of inventory for her thriving business, Nirmala's Kitchen, so she's had plenty of opportunity to sample her share of memorable, fragrant dishes from all those countries.

The recipes she recreates here are noteworthy for their simplicity--the ingredient lists are short and the items easily obtainable, while the preparations are unfussy--a testament to their indigenous, and, in many cases peasant, roots.

The problem is, the book is also part travelog, and although there is no shortage of vivid, colorful photos, they often take the place of accompanying recipe photographs. So while, say, the Indonesian Bami Goreng (stir-fry noodles with chicken) from Suriname sound tasty, it would have been preferable to see a picture of the finished product on the opposite page rather than one of a a purposeful-looking rooster.

But the cocktails definitely speak for themselves, especially the Guava Pisco Sou, Papaya Cocktail and Sugarcane, Fig, and Basil Vodka, which set the perfect tropical mood for any outdoor (or indoor) gathering.

Nirmala's Edible Diary: A Hungry Traveler's Cookbook with Recipes from 14 Countries features vignettes about her experiences growing up in South America many of which involve local dishes. She travelled from village to village with her grandfather, an Ayurvedic scholar and Hindu priest, until moving to the Bronx at age 10. As an adult, she has visited more than 125 countries in the past 20 years.

The book is organized by country. Each of the 14 chapters features short personal recollections and recipes. Most chapters feature a menu with recipes native to the region for a beverage, appetizer, main course, side dish and dessert.

The menu for Guyana includes the following recipes:
* Mauby Tisane
* Pan-Fried Green Plantain Cakes
* Short Ribs and Pork Butt Pepper Pot Soup
* Cook-Up Rice with Okra and Curry Powder-Dusted Fried Chicken Livers
* Star Anise and Mango Gourma with Cinnamon Beignets

The menu for Peru includes recipes for:
* Guava Pisco Sour
* Chupe de Camarones (shrimp soup)
* Papas A La Huancaina (Peruvian potato salad)
* Anticuchos (Peruvian skewered beef tenderloin)
* Quinoa Turkey Meatloaf
* Picarones (sweet potato donuts)

The menu for Suriname includes recipes for:
* Feijoa Pineapple Punch
* Javanese Soto Ayam (coconut milk and shrimp soup)
* African-Style Baked Coo-Coo (stuffed okra with shrimp)
* Indonesian Bami Goreng (stir-fry noodles with chicken)
* Coconut-Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding

The menu for French Guiana includes recipes for:
* Ti Rhum Punch
* Taro, Coconut Milk and Cardamom Vichyssoise
* Yucca-Turmeric Souffle
* Sardines Stuffed in French Baguettes
* Croquembouche with Rum and Coconut

The recipes in the Venezuela menu include:
* Papelon con Limon (sugarcane and lime juice drink)
* Cream of Sweet Potato Soup with Plantain Chips
* Pumpkin and String Bean Salad
* Guasacaca con Chifles (green tomato and avocado dip with chips)
* Pasticho (lasagna with red sauce and white coconut milk sauce)
* Cachapas con Frutas (corn cakes with blackberry compote)

The menu from the Falkland Islands includes recipes for:
* Baked Curry Fish and Chips
* Lamb and Rutabaga Cottage Pie

The menu for Uruguay includes recipes for:
* Sugarcane, Fig and Basil Vodka
* Sopa de Zalallito (stuffed acorn squash soup with bacon)
* German Salad with Lima Beans
* Carne Asada con Salsa Caruso (grilled beef skewers with caruso dipping sauce)
* Pasteles de Carnes con Crusta de Boniato (sweet potato and meat pies)
* Alfajores con Frambuesas y Helado (stuffed cookies with raspberries and ice cream)

Recipes for the Colombia menu include:
* Refano (soda beer)
* Baked Avocado and Crabmeat Salad
* Tamales de Pollo Y Platanos Dulces (chicken and sweet plantain tamales)
* Stuffed Pork Loin with Coconut Milk Gravy
* Espresso Chocolate Cups

The Ecuador menu includes recipes for:
* Naranjilla Spiced Punch
* Llapingachos Bellenos (potato pancakes with Ecuadorian peanut sauce)
* Braised Oxtail with Cranberries
* Caraway Seed Cookies with Dulce de Leche

The Bolivia menu includes recipes for:
* Carica Yungueno (papaya cocktail)
* Conejo de Castilla con Cebada (rabbit soup with barley)
* Soltero de Queso de Cabra (goat cheese salad with chayote)
* Jallpahuaica (tomarillo salsa with yucca fries)
* Paella La Valenciana (quinoa with duck breast paella)
* Helado de Oca Y Canela (purple and sweet potato ice cream)

Recipes for the Argentina menu include:
* Licuado de Mora (mora berry fruit shake)
* White Beans, Crabmeat, Kale and Chardonnay Soup
* Jicama, Blue Cheese, and Passion Fruit Salad
* Empanadas de Chorizo Y Queso de Cabra (chorizo and goat cheese pastry)
* Grilled Veal Chops with Jalapeno and Butternut Squash Gnocchi
* Mango Custard with Sugar Wafers

The Chile menu features recipes for:
* Cola de Mono (monkey's tail)
* Cazuela (Chilean comfort soup)
* Artichoke Heart, Potato and Pine Nut Salad
* Completos (Chilean-style hot dog)
* Pan-Seared Halibut with Tomatillo Pebre and Quinoa-Stuffed Heirloom Tomatoes
* Avocado and Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Recipes for the Brazil menu include:
* Caipirinha
* Feijoada Brasileira (Brazilian black bean stew)
* Black-Eyed Peas and Mango Salad
* Crispy Polenta Chicken Fingers with Coconut Milk and Cheese Dipping Sauce
* Auntie Nevis's Brazilian Holiday Turkey Dinner
o Cachaca and blood orange baked turkey
o Yucca and linguica stuffing
o Garlicky kale
o Brazilian rice
* Passion Fruit Jellies

The menu for Paraguay includes recipes for:
* Terere (yerba mate-spiced tisane)
* Bori-Bori (Paraguayan hearts of palm soup)
* Empanadas Rio Paraguay-Style
* Cornmeal-Encrusted Baked Catfish
* Roasted Tamarillos and Purple Potatoes

There are beautiful color photos throughout the book. Some are of the finished dishes but many are what you might see in a guidebook - mountains, buildings, people, and plants. They are unfortunately not labeled. I would have liked to have known where many of the photos of scenery were taken - which mountain range, which food market, what type of plant and where it grows, etc. I would have also liked to have seen more photos of the finished dishes.

I was surprised that more of the recipes didn't call for exotic ingredients but some do require ingredients not likely to be in the average supermarket. A few of the items that I am not sure where to find include oxtail, naranjilla, ground annatto, sugarcane juice and green plantains. There is no appendix with suggested sources for these items, and the only tip I recall seeing is to check Latin American stores and the internet.

The type font for the dishes is very difficult to read (especially since many of the dishes have names that are unfamiliar).

As a vegetarian, I didn't see many dishes that I am able to eat. Hopefully the list of recipes by chapter will help you decide whether you are adventurous to partake in enough of the dishes to make buying the book worthwhile.

I adore food diaries and have several, thus I hoped for something along the lines of Elisabeth Luard's Classic Spanish Cooking: Recipes for Mastering the Spanish kitchen, a lovely volume full of stories, notes, recipes and her own hand-drawn illustrations. That was, unfortunately, not to be.

I don't know what has happened to cookbook editors lately, but this is the second cookbook I've had in the last few months that looks and feels like it was produced as a brochure using the clip-art that comes with Microsoft Word. This book is so busy that the words and recipes simply get lost. Full of empty pages, pointless un-captioned graphics (many out of focus or with an odd gray cast) and fine black type on yellow pages (never a good combination for older eyes) Nirmala's Edible Diary: A Hungry Traveler's Cookbook with Recipes from 14 Countries sent me running for my reading glasses and a couple of aspirin. With pages bordered with a variety of colored designs (Intended to look like peasant embroidery?), headlines set in odd type - purple no less - and country names that appear every other letter in a different color, this "diary" makes one wonder if the graphic artist that produced this masterpiece wasn't having a bad acid trip that day.

If you can get around the graphics & layout, the recipes seem OK, sometimes interesting, though I do question the number of eggs in the Pate a Choux and the combinations presented in the menus for various countries seem oddly chosen & very heavy - combinations I would never in a million years choose to serve at the same meal.

One other little point. Nirmala seems to use the word "palate" quite often - something that seems a bit superscilious to me. Your "palate" is the roof of your mouth. All in all, not exactly "bad" but nothing I would rush right out to buy, one that I would put straight back on the shelf in the bookstore - and not one I would recommend. Take a look at Latin American Cooking Across the U.S.A. instead. The Tortilla Soup is the best I've ever had!

Nirmala describes this book as a "culinary journey", and that's exactly what it is. This lovely cookbook is not only for those who love food, but love to learn about food. Nirmala's Edible Diary takes you throughout her native South America, tells you stories about the people she encountered in her youth and later as an adult and introduces you to their recipes. Many center around her own family, her grandparents, mother and aunts, but some recipes come from people like poor Laxmi, a seventeen year old abused wife who only knew how to prepare one dish, called "cookup". Some of the recipes include exotic ingredients that may be hard to locate, but most are made with common ingredients that are easy to find in the U.S. Some recipes will look familiar, but are put together in a different way, like the cream puff wedding cake...made with a filling of coconut milk and rum pastry cream instead of the usual dairy cream filling. A bread pudding recipe has raspberries, coconut and Cointreau added, and a donut recipe is made from sweet potatoes and drizzled with honey. The book itself is beautiful, with many color photos of the people, the landscapes and the dishes of South America. Would make a nice gift for anyone who loves to cook.

This is a good book to consult. The recipes are unique and full of flavor. If you like to eat AND travel you will most likely enjoy this book.

I loved this book.

I thought the author was captivating - easy to read and very interesting. I enjoyed her stories and explanations.

The book is lovely - a true delight to hold in your hands. I liked the design, the colors, the layout - everything about it.

The recipes are interesting. Most of them contained ingredients I was able to find here in the US [though a few had ingredients I was not able to obtain].

This book was a joy and a delight to read.

I've had this book for a few months now. I've picked it up and had a meal or two from the recipes and always came back saying the next one will be a little bit better no doubt to find myself disappointed at each turn. I later discovered the likely culprit from another reviewer here: at times the ingredients seem a bit off and excessive.

Either way forgetting the recipes for a second (I mean it's an edible diary, remember?) and overlooking the book you quickly can see what sort of crazy editing was done on it. Things just don't seem all that right. While some images seem to show off the meals fabulously at times I'm left wondering what happened during the other occurrences? Did our Indiana Jones of spice leave home without her camera?

In general I think the book is ok but nothing too great. If you're looking to try some Latin American recipes I'm sure you can find better. If you're in the mood to take a path down a cultural tour and can put up with some oddities in the design and some recipes not tasting just right then go for it.

This book was fun and very enjoyable. If you enjoy spices and travels, your time will be pleasantly spent. The book isn't perfect, but I thought it was interesting and I found her narrative colorful and interesting, and I enjoyed reading about her travels. I would have liked for the book to contain more pictures, but then you can't have everything. It was fun traveling with Nirmala, and I have some new ideas for what to make the next time I run out of ideas and want something interesting and different. I love spices, so anything spicy is fun for me to read about. I liked the way the book was laid out and I would definitely read another book by her. I found it a nice balance of cookbook and travel diary. Some of the recipes and dishes were familiar, and some were new to me, so it was like an adventure through food with an experienced guide. I read all cookbooks like novels so this was not as disappointing for me as it might be for others. Whether you want to use it or keep it on your coffee table, I think it's a nice addition to your kitchen and/or travel library.

I know this is supposed to be both an "arm chair traveler" book and recipe book in one, however I had hoped the emphasis would be on the recipes. Turns out, the emphasis was more on the travels as the pictures and diary of the author's journey seem disproportionately large.

For example, as many reviewers have noted already, there are too many pictures of things other than the results of the recipes. On page 37 is a picture of some colorful chickens sitting on the ground. On page 227 are those same chickens, in the same positions except this time the picture is larger. There is also another chicken picture on pg.71. What a waste! Yes, I know what a chicken looks like now! There are also many pictures of exotic fruits and vegetables, however there are no captions to explain what they are.

The recipes themselves are very unique. That seems to be what saves the book for me. I've never seen or encountered anything like the Avocado coconut milk ice cream on pg. 215 before. The Completos were also interesting.

I think this book would be great for adventurous cooks and those who want something very different from ordinary, however the average cook will not use this often.