Darra Goldstein

A beautiful book of illustrative Nordic/Scandinavian landscapes and various dishes. The author is a Russian trained specialist but she samples Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish cooking practices. Because I'm old my tastes in cooking are set in stone but these photos look really good for things I probably could never eat. There are recipes of course. This smaller publisher (Ten Speed Press, Berkeley) makes really good books. I got this at a book sale because I have books on Viking show more history and I wanted to see what they might have eaten. The book title Fire+Ice is probably lifted from the popularity of the Game of Thrones series. In truth the first person to use Fire and Ice as a literary themes was Dante in The Divine Comedy. show less

Part culinary history and part cookbook, this volume highlights the cuisine of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. The narrative sections were a bit dry, but they did give you a sense of the culture and the history of the people and how their cuisine developed. While I'm not likely to incorporate most of these recipes into my regular cooking, there are a few ideas that I may take away that will influence my twists on recipes. Recommended for persons interested in Eastern European cuisine.

Even if you don't try any of the recipes, the photos and background info are worth the read.

This book is the place to go when you want to know ANYTHING about sugar and sweets... their history, usage, and definition of what a sugar/sweet is is all encompassing. When I got this book, I flipped through and found a page where the history of hot chocolate was discussed.... It made me feel that I have been missing out on the true thing all my life! This book also has great pictures/illustrations of advertisements that make one wonder "how did that ever get pass the edit room?"

This show more companion is definitely worth keeping and referring too... it would be fun for all ages, kids to adults. It is a large book and I will definitely be learning new things for a long time.

***I received this book through GoodReads Member Giveaway. The opinion is solely my own. *** show less