The Magic Teaspoon
Zak, author of the best-selling 20,000 Secrets of Tea, here provides a guide to adding herbs to cooking, focusing first on the types and qualities of herbs, and ending with a lengthy selection of recipes. Zak describes each herb in poetic detail, traveling across the globe and through time to tell the story of each variety, demonstrating how "thousands of years of tradition come to life in 9your kitchen" when using, say, coriander ("a stimulating spice that is antibacterial and antifungal") to enhance a burger. But Zak's at-times outrageous claims for herbs' healing properties, for which theonly medical evidence presented  is in a general bibliography, are less persuasive. Though it's plausible enough that "one cup of green tea will give you the antioxidants of seven vegetables," the unqualified assurance that garlic is "anticancer, antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, antiseptic, and it kills parasites," could use documentation. Easier to swallow are Zak's delicious recipes: dips, iced teas, poultry, meat, vegetables and desserts are all represented. Regardless of their real-world effects, readers will enjoy using herbs to make their favorite foods tastier, and Zak's primer is a helpful how-to.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.