The Arab Table: book review

I was first sent a xeroxed recipe from this cookbook by an online friend.  I'd told them that I had more oregano than I new what to do with, and they sent me recipes for oregano salad and oregano biscuits.  I made both, and they were great.  Next Hanukkah, my sweetie got me a copy of the book.

Far too many of us Americans are used to thinking of Arabic food as Lebanese fast food: felafel, schwarma and hummus.  But the Arab world has a rich and diverse food tradition, going back to the early middle ages when Damascus was the center of civilization and Paris was a huddle of unwashed barbarians.  Ms. Bsisu explores this tradition, giving us dozens of interesting recipes from Syria, Iraq, Arabia, Jordan, and a few other places.

To date, I've made the oregano salad, oregano biscuits, Tbisi-style red snapper, fish kibbeh, and zuchinni-garlic dip meze.  All of them were good, and offered flavors which were distinctively Arabic.  If the recipe book has faults, it's that the recipes assume that the cook is experienced, and has time to make or purchase regional ingredients, spice mixes, and specialty seasonings.  Most recipes calling for hard-to-obtain items like dried limes do not offer substitutes.

This is the fish kibbe:

The book offers an extensive glossary and commentary on Arab cooking in general.  It's full of information and cooking tips in callouts, and colorful reminiscing in the prefaces to many recipes.  Also, the attractive cover and well-designed layout make it a good book for gift-giving.

I have only a few middle eastern cookbooks: Paula Wolfert's Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern Street Food, an Israeli cookbook, and this one.  If you are building out your library of ethnic cookbooks, I think you will find The Arab Table indispensible, as I do.