REVIEW: Around the World in 450 Recipes

Ainley, Sarah ed. Around the World in 450 Recipes. Hermes House: London, 2009

A pocket-sized book that has a sampling of global cuisine from around the world.

When I first spotted this book, I was intrigued by the claim that 450 recipes would fit into such a miniature book. I was doubtful that this would be another cliche cookbook that tells you that Chicken Parmigiana is an Italian dish (when it’s clearly not…coming up in a later post) and that Sesame Chicken is a Chinese dish (anybody that’s been to China can tell you it’s also not a typical dish.) So, I opened up the table of contents and was pleasantly surprised. Most “global” cookbooks stick to European-centered cuisines with a splash of Asian mixed in. This book has chapters on Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and North America (sadly, not Native American but early Euro-America food…Shaker Pudding anyone?) The Asian chapters range from Thailand to India to Japan. Which is great, because I feel that so many cookbooks put them all together as if they are so similar, when any open-minded person knows that they are not!

As you may know, I look for pictures first. Step-by-step instructions with coordinating pictures is a major plus for this book. Many cuisines require cooking methods not traditionally used in Westernized cooking, such as using a tagine for Middle Eastern dishes. The pictures offer alternatives for cooking in the traditional way but with contemporary utensils found in a modern kitchen. A tagine may not be necessary if you have a deep-bottom pot. Though nothing can replace the original, I appreciate how the recipes cater to us cooks that may not have a clay tagine in our back pocket.

I do need to comment on the selections that were made to represent each region. I automatically flipped to the Italian section to see if, yet again, some author would try to pass off Italian-American dishes as authentic Italian food. I was quite impressed. Though it had the usual mainstays, such as Tuscan Bean Soup and Pizza Margherita, I smiled to myself when I saw recipes like Pan-Fried Chicken Liver Salad, Monkfish with Tomato and Olive Sauce, and Fennel, Orange, and Rocket Salad. These dishes were right on. Though I have a collection of my own backwards-recipes from my family in Italy, I could very well see many of these dishes on my cousin’s table.

For cuisines that require massive amounts of prep time with spices and such, such as Indian or Thai dishes, I found the recipes to be reasonably short without skimping on the real essence of the dish. A well-stocked cupboard of spices and sauces would be useful when making these dishes. There’s no real substitute for fish sauce or cardamon, so see if you can find them before attempting these recipes. If you have a local ethnic store near you, try to find your ingredients there first rather than the supermarket. Usually, they have good (and authentic) ingredients that can be cheaper than the prices you might find in the supermarkets. And they can be quite helpful when trying to locate which kind of curry paste to use in your Chicken Tikka Masala or what a terasi or lengkuas is for your Indonesian dish.

The part I’m most excited about is the Africa section. There is such a lack of cookbooks that highlight sub-Saharan African cuisine that I think I bought this book mainly for this section. Tanzanian Fish Curry, Cameroon Coconut Rice, and Nigerian Lobster Piri Piri are a few of the recipes that I am excited to try out. This book is great for anyone that wants a good selection of worldly cuisine.