Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely to look at, but don't take it into the kitchen!, October 24, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
In this culinary love letter to and about Venice, Tessa Kiros has gathered traditional Veneziani recipes for your delectation. Obviously, it's heavy on seafood, with many recipes for sardines, octopus, scampi, etc. The recipes are easy to follow, and before each she gives a little description of the dish or the process, or gives a serving suggestion. Her language is delightful; instead of telling you to cook the radicchio until it is soft, she says "until it surrenders its hardness".
Equal time must be given to the photographer and the book designer. The book is chockful of gorgeous color and black-and-white photographs of Venice and of the food. And, as an object, the book itself must be described. Heavy, with gilded edges and a wide black velvet book marker, it will definitely not be used in my kitchen. And that's one of the drawbacks. It's one thing to drip some oil or chocolate on my battered copy of Joy of Cooking or Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but this one is far to elaborate to expose to the vicissitudes of la cucina. In addition, the American cook will likely find it difficult to locate some of the ingredients. Even in Chicago, with a good produce store down the street, I can't recall ever having seen radicchio di Treviso.
But never mind. I shall curl up with this book and a glass of Prosecco from time to time, and dream of returning to Venice, and the best sea bass I've ever had.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Venice, November 9, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Like her other cook/travel/memoir books, "Venezia" contains Tessa Kiros' impressions of Venice. The amazingly gorgeous color photographs on nearly every page bring the city and its oddities alive, as do her written memories of her time there (I especially enjoyed her reminiscences about trying to coax authentic Venetian recipes out of the trattoria owners). There are quite a few recipes in the book, divided into sections as though you were ordering off an Italian menu. The recipes consist of Venetian variations of traditional Italian dishes and quite a few specialty dishes which are unique to Venice. Unfortunately (for me), many of the appetizer, pasta, and main course recipes contain seafood (as Venice is so closely tied with the sea) which I do not cook; therefore they held no interest. However, I found many other recipes interesting, especially most of the desserts (3 or 4 versions of tiramisu! and lots of amaretti used).
However, overall, I found this book to be somewhat less compelling than her others...less descriptive, less compelling reading (I kept wanting her to tell more of the story...it was like I was only getting teasers): it is more of an appetizer, whereas her other cookbooks seem like full meals. The photography is still amazing, however, and cookbook does have a good number of unusual recipes.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
There's something fishy about this book, November 4, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is an excellent coffee table book. The photographs and overall presentation of the book is excellent.
However, the majority of the book is seafood recipes. I am not a seafood fan therefore I was disappointed.
If fish balls, monkfish lasagna, squid ink spaghetti, squid stew with ink are up your ally, this is the book for you.
However, I was able to make something called Bussola cookies, and they were one of the best cookies I have
ever had. Very mild and rich and super easy to make. There are a few other dessert recipes that I would love to try as well, such as the
crumbler cake and the amaretti tart.
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