Customer Reviews

Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was fascinated by all the earlier books by Mrs. Batmanglij but her latest book has a special place in my heart. I cannot do enough to highlight this book's difference from the majority of other cookbooks that are out there.

This is not only a flawless book with a vegetarian approach, but its approach is one of great originality: The beautiful recipes are accompanied by even more beautiful pictures and stories of the land and its people. It leaves us with so many great choices to try, designed to fit any situation: Georgian Stuffed Tomatoes for a warm a fall evening, and Sweet and Sour soup for a cold winter night.

Unlike many other cookbooks, this book takes us to the world it is borrowing its recipes from: the Silk Road, a world where different culinary cultures are and have been connected to each other, crossing the mountains and deserts of Central Asia to connect East Asia and the Mediterranean. In a way not known to many of us, the Silk Road was an important cultural crossroads and this book celebrates that.

Get this book, and you will not only have gotten a great cookbook with recipes of wonderful tasting recipes covering a great part of the world, but you will also be exposed to a beautiful culture - more so a mix of many cultures- that you will be able to see through the beautifully placed stories and pictures.

This book is simply magical and quite unique. It carries you on a timeless culinary journey from Genoa to Shanghai, weaving in the mystical writings of Rumi, beautiful pictures of local people, anecdotes that make the rich heritage of the Silk Road come to life, and recipes with pictures that -- well, you just might start smelling the pages.

This is my third cook book by Mrs Batmanglij and I'm so happy to finally have a vegetarian approach to some Middle Eastern and oriental recipes. Not only will you learn about wonderful and creative dishes, you are guaranteed a flawless recipe, uncomplicated and easy to follow.

Get ready to take a long and wonderful journey with every bite. You'll be under the spell the second you open the book...

Najmieh Batmanglij's Silk Road Cooking is a valuable addition to the great treasure house of Silk Road culture. With remarkable insight, a wealth of facinating information combined with beautifully nuanced stories of the land and its people, the author takes us along with her on this most rewarding journey of culinary discovery.

I have the pleasure of collecting all of Najmieh's cook books over the years, and I have tried many of her recipes in this and other books with joy and pride. In this book, the Silk Road is not a fabled tale of exchanges of wealth between the East and the West, but something we can see, we can touch and we can taste! In a cool night, make yourself a bowl of that simple and cozy Beijing Hot& sour noodle soup; or try Persian noodle soup garnished with garlic, onion, mint and yogurt, my favourate winter treat. To your perfect lunch/dinner party, complete it with Najemieh's Georgian rice salad with tart cherries or Amoli rice salad with barberries. They are easy to make, pretty to look at, taste wonderful, and they are absolutely great crowd-pleasers at any parties.

Get the book, try the recipes yourself and you will get that I-can-do-it-too joy and pride.

The author obviously spent a great deal of time researching the book, as it is full of not only fascinating recipes, but descriptions of their history, legends of the Silk Road, and a great array of photos of the dishes and of various culinary practices of the highlighted cultures. Great fun to skim through even when you're not prepared to cook anything.

Everything I've made from the book has been delicious. That being said, there are numerous recipes with ingredients that are either difficult to find outside of the region the dish is from (such as unripe grapes), or ones that will take up space in your pantry forever because you only use them for one or two recipes (pomegranate paste, ground angelica petals, and so on). A free hand with substitutions is vital and fortunately the author has provided details about this in the glossary in the back.

This book is a great accompaniment to the first CD in The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan

This book is delicious! There are excellent photos of both the dishes and the different areas and peoples of the Silk Road, The text is interesting, with information about history, cultures, cooking techniques, and food items. I appreciate that the recipes are not complicated or particularly labor-intensive. I have tried three so far, and all three were hits. I have a large collection of cookbooks, but if I had to start all over again, this one would be one of my first buys.

I am grateful to this book and its author. First, it offers seductive and splendid recipes which are clear and have resulted in wonderful meals. Additionally, it is an introduction to the food cultures of these many regions, and clarifies to some extent the distinctions and also the ways culinary approaches and ingredients have moved through cultures.

So far I have been most intrigued by the Persian dishes and had a VERY successful dinner party featuring the cauliflower kuku (a spicy fritata-sort of dish), the Shirazi saffron polow with spinach(a baked dish with layers of rice and spinach with prunes and pine nuts, held together with a fragrant saffron custard that has bits of candied orange peel). I served these with the pomegranate and cucumber salad, and followed up with the wonderful pistachio cake (subtly flavored with rose water and orange zest). Everyone was very happy and well-fed.

I have tried other recipes in the book, too, and always been pleased. Enjoy. And begin to feel more connected to the great big world.

Najmieh Batmanglij's book on Silk Road Cooking is not only a very good cookbook, with wonderful recipes, many of which I've tried , but also a beautiful book with many colored pictures. This is not only a cookbook, but a also a pictorial essay of another culture, a very exotic culture.

I highly reccomend getting this book!

I work for a large metro area public library system, have access to tons of books, and as a result, don't often buy them. My personal purchasing guideline: if I've checked out a book at least three times, am reluctant to return it, and find myself copying large sections of it, it's time to buy. Silk Road Cooking was one of those books. Avid foodies (vegetarian or not) will love it for its recipes based on the cuisines of countries along the old Silk Road, such as Persia, India and China. The recipes include spice mixtures, coffess & teas. Travel nuts will enjoy the essays on people and places. Beautifully photographed. Worth every penny.

This beautiful and highly readable cookbook contains delicious, if somewhat complex, recipes for dishes from Italy to China. All of them are vegetarian, but many could be adapted to meat eaters, or used as an accompaniment. If used as an accompaniment, bear in mind that the cookbook is targeted to vegetarians who plan to make th main dish the bulk of their meal; double the number served if used as an accompaniment. If you love to cook, this book will inspire you and add variety to your repetoire.

this is a beautiful book with somewhat complex recipes but educational. my friend borrowed it to use it in her geography class covering the silk road topic. the pictures are spectacular. it is classified as paperback but the quality of paper and print make it as durable and beautiful as a hardback. i strongly recommend this book not just for the wonderful recipes also to amuse your eyes. let your imaginations travel!!