Customer Reviews

The Food of India: A Journey for Food Lovers

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

 

 

I have lived in Andhra(South East), Bangalore(South Central), Delhi(North) and Uttar Pradesh(North West) provinces of India for extensive periods of time. I have also lived in United Kingdom Germany United States and Canada. My perspective of this book comes both as a foreigner and an Indian. This book looks very closely at the culture of the Indian people in trying to bring out the recipes. The authors have done their research in terms of the background on Indian food and culture. Also the photographs are just beautiful, picturising the Indian cusine and the culture around making food. The photographs also capture the Indian life since a large population of Indians live on microeconomic means such as selling one or two of these dishes, vegetables, or such, to make their living. From the chat shops on Bombay Chaupati, to the south Indian dosa's I got lost in the color and flavours depicted in the book. I have the hardcover version of this book, and over the last year or so I have used the book on a regular basis whenever our family invites friends for dinner, which we do on a monthly basis. All our friends love the book and its recipes.

This book about cooking Indian food is a work of art. Not only are there comprehensive detailed instructions about cooking the curries but some historical information and beautiful colored pictures on how the food should look while being ready for serving!
What is most important is that the end result has given me the best tasting curries that I have ever cooked and has solved for me the mystery of Indian Food. I have the soft cover edition which is beautifully bound together with a table of contents,bibliography,index and a glossary of Indian food and cooking. One of the best purchases that I have ever made. I can't wait to cook some more curries!

There are, as far as I know, seven volumes in this nice little "Food of" series,each subtitled 'A Journey for Food lovers.' I bought the hardcover edition of the Indian volume first and only afterward learned it was part of a series. Since then I have bought three others. As I like all of these books for the same reasons, it would be easiest to do a general review and then add a few comments concerning the individual volumes.

Mostly, the real pleasure from these books is the tremendous photography. The recipes are fine - I don't wish to suggest otherwise - but I wouldn't be as fond of these books if the recipes were the sole basis by which one could judge them. There is a picture for every recipe (some of them whole page photographs) and occasionally there are supplementary shots detailing some part of the cooking process. There are also all sorts of other pictures, some of which are directly or indirectly related to food, some of which are scenic shots, or pictures of people engaged in everyday life in the region in question. All are beautifully executed.

The book is divided into recipe sections based on the type of food (snacks, main meat dishes, seafood etc) and each book has half a dozen 'Food Journey' sections which deal with some aspect of the cuisine at hand. The Chinese book for example has a section on 'dim sum', and the Indian volume has one on spices. In the hardcover Indian book, these sections are fold-out pages with lots of photographs whilst in the paperback editions I own each section is just a brief two page spread. All the books introduce the region in question with a descriptive culinary overview and the final recipe chapter in each book is entitled 'Basics' and provides tips and recipes on making various essentials in the cuisine.

The Food of India: A Journey for Food Lovers - This, along with the Chinese volume' counts at the top of my 'favourite' list in this series. The 'dal' recipes are excellent and the recipes in the 'Basics' section for Coconut milk and Paneer were nice to see.

The Food of China: A Journey for Food Lovers - The most beautiful recipe pictures of all the books, I think. The Turnip Cake recipe is on of the best I have tried and the 'Basics' section is excellent.

The Food of Spain: A Journey for Food Lovers - Great textual introduction to Spanish cuisine in the first chapter. I *especially* love the Tapas section... I just wish this part could have been longer.

The Food of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers - This is my least favorite of the books I currently own but that comment should not scare away potential purchasers. The book is has the same excellent qualities as the others, I just personally am more interested in Indian, Chinese and Spanish cuisine than I am Italian.

The remaining books in this series, as far as I know, are The Food of France: A Journey for Food Lovers, The Food of Thailand: A Journey for Food Loversand The Food of Morocco: A Journey for Food Lovers. I will certainly review any that I subsequently purchase. I will probably buy the French volume some time... I find Thai cuisine fascinating, although I don't like it very much, while Morrocan food doesn't particularly interest me very much. Still, I may just buy them for the terrific visual appeal!

This book is both gorgeous and useful. The many delicious recipes are interspersed with mini-photo essays on the geography and culture of the subcontinent. Every recipe I've tried from this book has been successful and delicious. (Try the Kasmiri chicken, cooked with yogurt, almonds, and pistachios!) However, I am lucky enough to live in a city (Houston) with a large ethnic Indian population and several sources of supply for some of the more unusual spices called for in these recipes without which it would be difficult to tackle these recipes.

I have gotten so much pleasure from this cookbook.....almost every recipe has been very satisfying and there is a tremendous variety for each type of meat and many vegetable recipes too. Wonderful!

This gorgeous oversized hardcover (yes amazon has the wrong picture . . .) first gave me the impression that the authors' priority would be pretty pictures and recipes would come second. I was very pleased to find that I was wrong. The book has lovely and accurate recipes for everything an Indian Kitchen should have including how to make panner (indian home made cheese) chenna (cheese used to make desserts) yoghurt, obscure indian vegetables and the main staple recipes of most indian cookbooks. I do have two complaints - the recipes are given without possible western substitutions for indian ingredients . . E.G wrapping things in bananna leaves and cooking them. Sounds great but my indian store doesn't tend to carry bananna leaves. Would foil work?? I don't know. It usually helps if a recipe is tweaked to accomodate a western supermarket. Julie Sahni's book Savoring India does that wonderfully.
Also, ocassionally there are fold out pages with little blurbs and pictures of things like street foods or snacks without a recipe for them. Nice to see but no way to cook them is provided.
I would also like to make a comment about the growing size of the cookbooks nowadays. I hated the teensy weensy pocket paperbacks but these huge SUV's of the kitchen take up the entire counter space above a cabinet and are way to long and heavy for a standard cook book holder. about six inches shorter would have worked fine although some of the pretty decor would have had to go.
All in all, a nice book for indian cooking

though the cover picture is wrong but the recepies aren't- i am a professional chef with quite a good expertise in indian cuisine and in pursue to sharpen my skills in south indian- i find the recipes easy and also authentic in every aspect- the author may be a srilankan national( a wild guess by her name) but the work and the dedication has made her a authentic indian to her work. It is very appreciable hats off to the author priya. I have tried a few reciepes which are perfect and the pictures in the book are extrodinary to the western eyes bringing the streets of indian market to them..
I with no doubt give 5 star rating to this book

For those wondering why no bookstore sells this book, (the title is very common) the picture shown is incorrect. The picture should be of chili peppers in a red sauce held in a metallic rimmed bowl.