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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016
Parsi cuisine not only has its distinctive roots in and around the Indian subcontinent but is also renowned for its uniqueness in that region. Though very different to other local foods, it is still much savoured by other indigenous palates. For example, the traditional ‘Dhansak’ - a Sunday lunch feast (where the appetite is often built to the level of famish with chilled shandy or G and T) is the flagship culinary delight where it is not uncommon for many non-Zoroastrians flock to Parsi homes for the sheer gluttonous experience.
I was fortunate to browse through one of the earliest published copies of Niloufer Mavalvala’s ‘The Art of Parsi Cooking: Reviving an Ancient Cuisine.’ It is an easy-to-follow array of Parsi recipes. And in its comprehensiveness, similar to what ‘Larousse Gastronomique’ is for French food. This user friendly guide can be of tremendous utility to both the extremely finicky cooking nerds as well as amateurs who enjoy the therapeutic experience of puttering in their kitchen.
With so many Parsis whose thousand plus year migration has taken them from the fertile plains of Persia to the costal hamlets of Gujrat and then to metropolitans like Bombay and Karachi, have within the last half century settled in major centres of Europe, North America and Australia. Now thinly spread, “The Art of Parsi Cooking…” will undoubtedly be much in need to follow the traditional Parsi concoctions of “centuries-old ingredients like saffron, jaggery, cider vinegar, ginger, cinnamon and turmeric…” to satisfy those palates that crave Parsi food.
I was fortunate to browse through one of the earliest published copies of Niloufer Mavalvala’s ‘The Art of Parsi Cooking: Reviving an Ancient Cuisine.’ It is an easy-to-follow array of Parsi recipes. And in its comprehensiveness, similar to what ‘Larousse Gastronomique’ is for French food. This user friendly guide can be of tremendous utility to both the extremely finicky cooking nerds as well as amateurs who enjoy the therapeutic experience of puttering in their kitchen.
With so many Parsis whose thousand plus year migration has taken them from the fertile plains of Persia to the costal hamlets of Gujrat and then to metropolitans like Bombay and Karachi, have within the last half century settled in major centres of Europe, North America and Australia. Now thinly spread, “The Art of Parsi Cooking…” will undoubtedly be much in need to follow the traditional Parsi concoctions of “centuries-old ingredients like saffron, jaggery, cider vinegar, ginger, cinnamon and turmeric…” to satisfy those palates that crave Parsi food.
