Inside its pages you'll find interesting information on a huge variety of fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and oils, and herbs, spices, and other foods. The text includes information on the plant's botanical name, as well as the food's history, folklore, culinary use, and nutritional data. This book would be extremely handy for any cook wanting to learn about all the new products appearing in our marketplace. Its only limitation is that color photos or color drawings of the various foods are not included. Reviewed by Debra Wasserman.
Nutritional information is given for all recipes, and most are low in fat.
Sprinkled liberally among the recipes are helpful cooking and informational tidbits on ingredients and kitchen techniques. Included among these are a discussion of the merits of saffron, why one should peel tomatoes, making a quicker risotto, and the difference between grunts, bettys, and fools. Sample menus for special occasions are suggested within the sections for each region. Just leafing through this book you'll likely get the urge to stop at the grocery store and pick up the needed ingredients to create some of the dishes at home. It's also fun to mix and match flavors and textures from the various sections to create a unique menu.