Egyptian Cooking: A Practical Guide

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding in its variety and amount of recipes!
Review: I have had the pleasure of using this book in my kitchen for two years now. I can honestly say that there is not a week that goes by that I don't find use for it! Although it is a bit difficult to ignore the page numbers and concentrate on the numbers assigned to each recipe, the outcome is well worth it! This book supplies an amazing number of recipes from every imaginable region of Egypt and many of the variations for each. I applaud the writer's insightful inclusion of such items as a spice index at the end of the book, and technoiques for handling foods not commonly used by Westerners. I would have liked some illustrations to assist with presentation, but all in all I am very pleased with the outcomes of my endeavors

Rating:
Summary: A Classic for Egyptian Cooking
Review: This is a must have cookbook for anyone interested in Egyptian cuisine. Samia Abdelnour selected a variety of recipes that are easy to prepare with ingredients that are available locally. She cleverly included a glossary explaining the different foods, spices, kitchen utensils and also some useful hints. This is a value priced book considering the amount of recipes included in it. I have other Mediterranean cookbooks, but I find myself using this one more often. It's size makes it also very handy to use in the kitchen.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Egyptian Cooking sans Pictures
Review: This is an authentic cookbook, it's been around for almost 20 years, and I've happily made a variety of recipes. The instructions are brief, and helpful. The Iman Bayaldi is prepared different than the style I'm used to..and still very good. Most dishes have 6 or less ingredients...pretty easy to gather up! If it had pictures, I'd have rated it higher--it's so helpful to have the right "look" for authenticity. There's over 300 recipes. The recipes are for 4-6 persons, easy to adjust.The table of contents is sparse; the index can have you running around a bit through the book. Chicken gizzards are not under "chicken" but are under "gizzards"! Beans are separate from lentils...logical, but not always intuitive...not a big drawback! some ingredients are, of course, hard to find if not near a Middle Eastern market...the internet should take care of ordering mastic grains, molokhiya (fresh or frozen), etc...Most ingredients are easily available in the USA. It has recipes for the classics, and also for brains, pigeon, rabbit, trotters, tripe, sheeps head etc...this is not a frou-frou book!
If you want a broader taste of Middle Eastern foods, get Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern food.. to get a rich feel for Egytian and other similar cuisines which blend together...