Reading and Eating around the world

We're still in town, but I'm doing some culinary travel experiments. It's summer, so vegetables are in great supply, and very fresh at my favorite stores. I've been trying out some recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. I bought it last fall, but have just started trying recipes. I especially liked "Corn with Ginger" which included fresh kernels removed from the ears, hot chile pepper, cumin, fresh ginger, tomatoes, and fresh cilantro leaves.

I've also been experimenting with ready-made, frozen breads (like parathas) from the Indian grocery store. And I tried a new apricot-mango chutney recipe selected from a randomly chosen website because I had apricots and mangos. Put together, these make some very flavorful meals.

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian : More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World

Related reading -- a food book that isn't really a cookbook:

Curry : A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

The author's point is that curry exists around the world, has a long history, and has many meanings to many different groups of people.

And another recent favorite, about a country that I haven't visited recently:




I really loved learning about Julia Child's experiences in France from which she developed into the most famous cookbook author and the inventor of food TV. (No, I don't hold her responsible for its excesses, either.)

And in another food-book-space: I recently finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma -- about eating in America. I also followed the author's several weeks of blogging, recently published as New York Times premium content. I hope he decides to continue a blog somewhere else.