Mediterranean Street Food (Hardcover)

by Anissa Helou (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This quirky cookbook features both tasty snacks and more substantial meals, all of them available on the streets of Italy, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries. Helou (CafE Morocco) is a friendly, inquisitive guide who's not afraid to express her own occasional squeamishness about eating on the street, especially in places like Cairo, where diners are expected to use the same spoons, cleaned only with a dunk in questionable water. A fascinating introduction shows a keen understanding of the entire region (Helou herself grew up in Beirut and fondly remembers the Corniche, an area filled with vendors of snacks, sweets and drinks). Recipes are organized by type of food (e.g., soups and sandwiches), and Helou provides a simple formula for arranging them into a traditional meal. Snacks include Farinata, a chickpea flour pancake from Genoa, and Stuffed Mussels from Istanbul, which are filled with rice and then steamed. A chapter on breads and pastries offers Lebanese Thyme Bread and Ramadan Bread with Dates. A few dishes, such as Greek Octopus and Onion Stew, sound like unlikely, albeit delicious, candidates for the eat-and-walk formula. A few more most notably a french fry sandwich from Beirut are just too strange to catch on. But on balance, this covers just the kind of food for which it is often near-impossible to locate a recipe. Desserts (Walnut Pancakes) and drinks (fermented Bulgur Drink) round out this solid collection of both curiosities and serious dining.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Who can resist a chickpea fritter in Nice, a kebab in Athens, an aniseed cookie in Tuscany, hummus in Tel Aviv, stuffed zucchini in Genoa, or a potato omelet in Spain? Cold or hot, sweet or savory, street food is everyone's temptation.

Anissa Helou loves street food. When she travels, she stops at every tea cart, sandwich stand, and candy stall to trade stories with local vendors and learn the recipes that tempt the crowds. Join her on a fascinating adventure around the Mediterranean, where eating on the street is a way of life. Learn the secret ingredients to the perfect Stuffed Mussels sold on the streets of Istanbul. Come along to a Berber woman's Moroccan Bread stall in Marrakech. Buy a sweet, sticky Semolina Cake from a cart in Cairo. From simple salads to fragrant barbecues to irresistible dips and drinks, each dish can be enjoyed on its own, or two or three may be combined to make a meal. With lively black-and-white photographs from Anissa's travels and more than eighty-five fast, flexible, flavorful recipes, Mediterranean Street Food offers home cooks the chance to experience the tastes of distant lands without leaving the kitchen.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (July 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060195967
• ISBN-13: 978-0060195960
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #721,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every recipe I've tried has been delicious, November 9, 2003

By	Sharlan M. Douglas (Royal Oak, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I work in Dearborn, Michigan, home to 30,000 people of Arab origin. I therefore often eat authentic cuisine from that part of the Mediterranean and all the recipes I've tried from this book stand up to what I find on the streets (OK, in the restaurants) here. I'm also lucky that I can go to a local Arab grocery and easily find some of the specialty items she uses, like preserved lemons. You don't need that, though, to succeed with her recipes. You can even buy your spices at the grocery, but, really, wouldn't you rather get the quality stuff from Penzey's?

The Turkish seasoned kabobs (p. 158) are now one of my sumer grilling specialties. I pair them with the feta cheese salad (p. 33) and a crisp rose or sauvignon blanc. Try the garlic sauce ("Thum") on p. 72, but understand that she's right when she says "...it will make you a social leper for a day or two afterward." The garlic exudes from your pores, but oh, it was delicious going in!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure: the complex flavors make extraordinary dishes, July 22, 2002

By A Customer

If you are looking for great tasting dishes and are not afraid to use the exotic combinations of spices you will have fablous kebabs. The salads are fablous the Grilled Pepper and Tomato is so easy to make and the flavors complex. For a real treat try the watermelon pudding with jasmine water. It is so refreshing. I've had 2 dinner parties featuring the recipes from this book. The guests loved the complex and diverse flavors and textures.
Keep this handy for travels and for the barbeque.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recipes, most very easy to make, May 23, 2005

By	KH1 (Middle America) - See all my reviews

All of the recipes that I have made from this book have been excellent. My personal favorite so far has been the lamb and chickpea stew. The recipes are easy to follow and Ms. Helou's accompanying stories are a great addition to the book. I found all of the recipes to be very simple and most make great light meals. There are a few recipes with hard/impossible-to-find ingredients, but for someone who enjoys reading about food they are still interesting, and Ms. Helou does a great job of offering ideas for alternative ingredients. A+