I paesi che si affacciano sul Mediterraneo sono molto diversi: orientali e occidentali, cristiani e musulmani, con foreste e deserti, montagne e baie, isole e penisole. Tutti, però, hanno molto in comune: un clima simile, con estati calde e secche e aria aromatica, che invita a rilassarsi all'aperto, a mangiare fuori e a godersi il cibo di strada e i mercati. Una storia quasi incestuosa, fatta di stessi imperi, occupanti, coloni, spostamenti di popolazioni. Una storia in cui un intenso traffico marino e un florido commercio fra città portuali hanno creato una cultura culinaria dalla varietà immensa, unica e diversa da qualunque altra al mondo. L'ospitalità è una parte importante di questa cultura, in cui i pasti sono più un momento di interazione che di semplice nutrizione. Ogni luogo ha la sua cucina e piatti inimitabili, che variano dalla città alla campagna e da un paese a un altro, ma sembra anche di avere una sorta di déjà vu con cucine agli estremi opposti dello stesso mare. Nei mercati, le stesse verdure, gli stessi legumi e cereali, la stessa frutta e frutta secca, oltre, ovviamente, a montagne di olive. La carne è di agnello ma anche di capra, lepre e coniglio, con l'aggiunta del maiale nei paesi cristiani. Una lingua comune, insomma, solo divisa in una miriade di dialetti, tanti tasselli che compongono un unico mosaico.

Picnics reveals a world of simply prepared and delicious foods and stimulates the imagination with tales from far and near in Claudia Roden's elegant, discursive style.

In The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden, the James Beard award-winning author of the classics A Book of Middle Eastern Food and The Book of Jewish Food, and one of our foremost authorities on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking, brings her incomparable authenticity, vision, and immense knowledge to bear in this cookbook on the cuisines of Spain.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author Claudia Roden believes that through food a cook can reconstruct an entire world. And in her classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food?eight hundred recipes long, a treasure trove of folk tales, proverbs, stories, poetry, and local history?that's just what she did. Historian and critic Simon Schama has said of her that 'Claudia Roden is no more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker.' The Book of Jewish Food, another classic, is equally magnificent in its span, a cookbook that is also a history of Jewish life and settlement, told through the story of what Jews ate, and where, and why, and how they made it.

Now, in The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden applies that same remarkable insight, scope, and authority to a cuisine marked by its regionalism and suffused with an unusually particular culinary history. In hundreds of exquisite recipes, Roden explores both the little known and the classic dishes of Spain?from Andalusia to Asturias, from Catalonia to Galicia. And whether she's writing about smoky, nutty Catalan Romesco sauce, Cordero a la Miel?sweet and hot tender lamb stew with honey?or the iconic, emblematic national dish of Spain, saffron-perfumed Paella Valenciana, her clear, elegant, humorous, and passionate voice is a reader's delight, a guide not only to delicious food but to the peoples and cultures that produced it.

Both comprehensive and timeless, The Food of Spain is one of the most important books on this tremendous cuisine to appear in the last fifty years. A classic in the making, it is an essential work not only for fans of Spanish and Mediterranean food but for every serious cook as well as discerning armchair travelers.

Whether it's a holiday, or Shabbat dinner, “What's on the menu?” is on everybody's mind. Ranging from the classic Ashkenazic Chicken Fricassee to the definitive Sephardic Chicken Marrakesh, The Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook includes the best of the best traditional recipes from the celebrated cooks of Hadassah, the Jewish women's volunteer organization. In a culinary celebration of tradition, history, dedication, and faith, the more than 250 holiday recipes from great cooks in America and Israel present traditional favorites as well as modern twists on classic dishes. Readers will find nostalgic must-haves—from chicken soup to borscht and kreplach to kishka—along with favorite dishes updated for modern palates. This feast for the eyes and tastebuds is accompanied by the splendid writing of award-winning Jewish authors who offer their historical insights, sage advice, personal reminiscences, and engaging commentaries. Contributor include Susan R. Friedland, Edda Servi Machlin, Joan Nathan, Steven Raichlen, Claudia Roden, and Rabbi Robert Sternberg. History, passion, and tradition—and love—are the essential ingredients to what may become the definitive guide to Jewish holiday cooking.

In the 1960s Claudia Roden introduced Americans to a new world of tastes in her classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food. Now, in her enchanting new book, Arabesque, she revisits the three countries with the most exciting cuisines today—Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. Interweaving history, stories, and her own observations, she gives us 150 of the most delectable recipes: some of them new discoveries, some reworkings of classic dishes—all of them made even more accessible and delicious for today's home cook.

From Morocco, the most exquisite and refined cuisine of North Africa: couscous dishes; multilayered pies; delicately flavored tagines; ways of marrying meat, poultry, or fish with fruit to create extraordinary combinations of spicy, savory, and sweet.

From Turkey, a highly sophisticated cuisine that dates back to the Ottoman Empire yet reflects many new influences today: a delicious array of kebabs, fillo pies, eggplant dishes in many guises, bulgur and chickpea salads, stuffed grape leaves and peppers, and sweet puddings.

From Lebanon, a cuisine of great diversity: a wide variety of mezze (those tempting appetizers that can make a meal all on their own); dishes featuring sun-drenched Middle Eastern vegetables and dried legumes; and national specialties such as kibbeh, meatballs with pine nuts, and lamb shanks with yogurt.

Claudia Roden knows this part of the world so intimately that we delight in being in such good hands as she translates the subtle play of flavors and simple cooking techniques to our own home kitchens.

A sumptuous collection of delicious recipes chosen by the doyenne of Middle Eastern cuisine. Includes luxurious food from Turkey, Lebanon and Morocco with full colour photos throughout.

In this updated and greatly enlarged edition of her Book of Middle Eastern Food, Claudia Roden re-creates a classic. The book was originally published here in 1972 and was hailed by James Beard as 'a landmark in the field of cookery'; this new version represents the accumulation of the author's thirty years of further extensive travel throughout the ever-changing landscape of the Middle East, gathering recipes and stories.

Now Ms. Roden gives us more than 800 recipes, including the aromatic variations that accent a dish and define the country of origin: fried garlic and cumin and coriander from Egypt, cinnamon and allspice from Turkey, sumac and tamarind from Syria and Lebanon, pomegranate syrup from Iran, preserved lemon and harissa from North Africa. She has worked out simpler approaches to traditional dishes, using healthier ingredients and time-saving methods without ever sacrificing any of the extraordinary flavor, freshness, and texture that distinguish the cooking of this part of the world.

Throughout these pages she draws on all four of the region's major cooking styles:
        -        The refined haute cuisine of Iran, based on rice exquisitely prepared and embellished with a range of meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts
        -        Arab cooking from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan--at its finest today, and a good source for vegetable and bulgur wheat dishes
        -        The legendary Turkish cuisine, with its kebabs, wheat and rice dishes, yogurt salads, savory pies, and syrupy pastries
        -        North African cooking, particularly the splendid fare of Morocco, with its heady mix of hot and sweet, orchestrated to perfection in its couscous dishes and tagines

From the tantalizing mezze--those succulent bites of filled fillo crescents and cigars, chopped salads, and stuffed morsels, as well as tahina, chickpeas, and eggplant in their many guises--to the skewered meats and savory stews and hearty grain and vegetable dishes, here is a rich array of the cooking that Americans embrace today. No longer considered exotic--all the essential ingredients are now available in supermarkets, and the more rare can be obtained through mail order sources (readily available on the Internet)--the foods of the Middle East are a boon to the home cook looking for healthy, inexpensive, flavorful, and wonderfully satisfying dishes, both for everyday eating and for special occasions.

Reissue of a classic cookbook, new to the Vintage imprint.

A monumental work--the story of the Jewish people told through the story of Jewish cooking--The Book of Jewish Food traces the development of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish communities and their cuisine over the centuries. The 800 magnificent recipes, many never before documented, represent treasures garnered bu Roden through nearly 15 years of traveling around the world. 50 photos & illustrations.