Flatbreads & Flavors

Rating:
Summary: Bread Anthropology 101
Review: As a travel log and exposition on the anthropological significance of flatbreads, this book is endlessly fascinating; as a bread book, it is less sucessful. Note that this book has both yeasted and non-yeasted varieties.

There are some things that are very good. The explanation for making bread in a home kitchen for the beginner is one of the better ones I have seen: it is thoroughly and simply laid out. Many of the flatbreads were rather problematic, and either tasted like cardboard or were hard to form and roll out; plus, some of the recipes do not give a clear indication of when the baking time is done. The non-bread recipes are the authentic peasant dishes that come from market places, food stalls, street vendors, and homes in third world countries, rather than the Michelin-rated hotel in the capitol city of that country. As such, the Asian chapters constitute one of the best oriental food cookbooks I have seen in recent years.

On the other hand, there is much here to criticize. For every bread recipe, there are at least two (and often more) non-bread recipes that are suppose to be served with that bread. In some chapters, the bread recipes are hard to find. Many of the recipes are inedible herbed chutneys or salsas. Some of the tools and ingredients are hard to get, even in a large city with a substantial ethnic population, and there is often no equivalent listed. Some of the dough make-up techniques are not easy and require practice. The authors have only done a fair job translating the peasant recipes for the Amercan kitchen.

Basically, this book is a fascinating account of Eurasian travel by the authors, eating and baking their way through several foreign countries. Their passion and dedication to their subject come through every page. There are many interesting accounts of eating flatbreads in different and diverse cultures. It is a reasonably valuable collection of hard to find flatbread recipes. It has chapters on basics, Steppes, Indochina, Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Caucasus, old Europe, and north America.

Rating:
Summary: Flatbreads and Flavors
Review: I love this book. I have had it for nearly a year and I use it several times a week. I made Afghan Homestyle Naan and the Uigher bread with cumin and onions yesterday, and have the recipe for injera souring now to try for the first time. I was first introduced to flatbreads while studying Arabic in the Middle East 5 years ago, and I was delighted to find this book that has so many of my favorites, plus many new ones to try. There are a wide variety of breads in this book, along with plenty of delicious accompaniments. I personally use a baking stone to replicate the tannur breads and have found it to work pretty well, although nothing can compare with a flatbread hot off a saj or out of a tannur. I agree with the authors that bread are a fast food- I have a one-year-old and a two-year-old, and I find flatbreads are one of the most convenient things to make. My boys love the breads. I highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Flatbreads and Flavors
Review: I love this book. I have had it for nearly a year and I use it several times a week. I made Afghan Homestyle Naan and the Uigher bread with cumin and onions yesterday, and have the recipe for injera souring now to try for the first time. I was first introduced to flatbreads while studying Arabic in the Middle East 5 years ago, and I was delighted to find this book that has so many of my favorites, plus many new ones to try. There are a wide variety of breads in this book, along with plenty of delicious accompaniments. I personally use a baking stone to replicate the tannur breads and have found it to work pretty well, although nothing can compare with a flatbread hot off a saj or out of a tannur. I agree with the authors that bread are a fast food- I have a one-year-old and a two-year-old, and I find flatbreads are one of the most convenient things to make. My boys love the breads. I highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Not Flat on Flavor
Review: I was lucky enough to meet the authors, while living in Laramie, Wyoming. (We could smell something terrific cooking in the bookstore nextdoor and had to find out what it was!) They baked up several breads, and I had to have this amazing cookbook and cultural journey. Travel the world while remaining in your own kitchen.
Authentic recipes of not only bread but many ethnic dishes, offering fabulous variety, proving that perhaps man could live on bread alone, if he had this cookbook.

Rating:
Summary: A cookbook and travelogue in one
Review: These recipes are so clearly written and easy to follow that I have not had a failure yet and I've tried nearly two thirds of the recipes in the book to date. This book opened a whole new world of baking and cooking for me. Peasant breads I had never heard of are now part of my family's daily diet and are met with rave reviews from even the pickiest eater. The food in this book is not only simple it is certaily healthy eating as well. I've had many cookbooks, this is the one I've had to get a second copy of, because I wore the first one out. It sits on my counter for daily use and hasn't seen a bookshelf yet. Please, Jeffrey and Naomi, more cookbooks like this one. Love their travel tales almost as much as recipes. Bon appetit!

Rating:
Summary: The only cookbook I'd grab in case of fire!
Review: These recipes are so clearly written and easy to follow that I have not had a failure yet and I've tried nearly two thirds of the recipes in the book to date. This book opened a whole new world of baking and cooking for me. Peasant breads I had never heard of are now part of my family's daily diet and are met with rave reviews from even the pickiest eater. The food in this book is not only simple it is certaily healthy eating as well. I've had many cookbooks, this is the one I've had to get a second copy of, because I wore the first one out. It sits on my counter for daily use and hasn't seen a bookshelf yet. Please, Jeffrey and Naomi, more cookbooks like this one. Love their travel tales almost as much as recipes. Bon appetit!

Rating:
Summary: Mmmm, Pita, I mean Pizza
Review: This book has many exotic recipes from the authors' travels in Asia, Arabia, Africa and the Americas. When I lived in Africa, I fell in love with chapatis and mandazi, but I always considered them too hard to make myself. Same for pita bread, which I eat every day. I'm not an expert bread maker, but I just made the Baladi Breads (Middle Eastern whole wheat pitas) from this book. They came out exceptionally soft and delicious on my first try. Some didn't puff up completely, but as the authors suggest, practice makes perfect. I had so much dough left over after making 8 pitas that I decided to make pizzas with whole wheat crust. They came out delicious, too! I can't wait to try some of the obscure dishes from far reaches of the globe like Armenia and Hunza.

I highly recommend this book. If a few more recipes turn out just as great, I'll come back and give it 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: A cookbook and travelogue in one
Review: This cookbook features recipes for a wide range of flatbreads from many regions of the globe along with meat and vegetable accompaniments. The authors provide nonintimidating instructions, and most of the ingredients called for are not difficult to find. The book is attractively designed, and the many photographs add their own interest to the engaging and informative text. "Flatbreads and Flavors" would make a thoughtful gift for someone who enjoys baking bread.

Also recommended: "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen," by Sonia Uvezian. This is by far the best volume in its subject area and one of the greatest ethnic cookbooks ever written, offering fascinating text and hundreds of splendid recipes. The illuminating essays on the region's flatbreads as well as recipes for flavor-packed dishes that utilize them are reason enough to purchase this book.

Rating:
Summary: The recipes are fantastic and it reads like a novel!
Review: Traveling around the world with the authors is only a small part of the joy this book brings. The detailed recipes are described step by step, enabling even novice bread makers to create a marvelous array of flat breads that are both delicious and appealing to the eye. It is the bible of flatbreads and should be part of every bakers library.