REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY – The World On A Plate

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The World on a Plate: 40 Cuisines, 100 Recipes, and the Stories Behind Them

• Author: Mina Holland
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (May 26, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143127659
• ISBN-13: 978-0143127659
• Cover price $20.00

“When we eat, we travel.” So begins this irresistible tour of the cuisines of the world, revealing what people eat and why in forty cultures. What’s the origin of kimchi in Korea? Why do we associate Argentina with steak? Why do people in Marseille eat bouillabaisse? What spices make a dish taste North African versus North Indian? What is the story behind the curries of India? And how do you know whether to drink a wine from Bourdeaux or one from Burgundy?

Bubbling over with anecdotes, trivia, and lore—from the role of a priest in the genesis of Camembert to the Mayan origins of the word chocolate—The World on a Plate serves up a delicious mélange of recipes, history, and culinary wisdom to be savored by food lovers and armchair travelers alike.

About the Author

MINA HOLLAND lives in London, where she is the editor of Guardian Cook. Traveling and living (and eating) abroad—including in the United States, where she spent a year of college, at the University of California, Berkeley—inspired her to journey the globe exploring people’s eating habits. And lusting after cookbooks but not wanting to spend all her money on them inspired her to create one book that condenses information about many cuisines. The World on a Plate is the result; it’s her first book.

This book is divided into sections. Europe contains chapters for France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Easter Europe, Germany, Scandinavia, and United Kingdom. The Middle East contains chapters for Turkey, The Levant, Israel, and Iran. Asia contains chapters for India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Korea, and Japan. Africs contains chapters for Ethiopia, West Africa, and Morocco. The Americas contains chapters for California, Louisiana, Mexico, Caribbean (Jamaica), Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.

This is a book intended to be read. It contains a lot more than just recipes. Each chapter contains background on the cuisine there, as well as information on foods and ingredients found there. The recipes are woven into each chapter, sort of like part of a story. Once you do get to them, the recipes are easy to understand. I wasn’t surprised to find a number of ingredients I wasn’t familiar with, but am guessing you could find them at really large grocery stores or smaller specialty stores, as well as online. Prep time is not included, and you need to read through the entire recipe to find the cooking time. It’s important to know that this book contains no photos of the dishes. If the reader has traveled to a region they might have an idea of how a dish looks or should look. But for someone that hasn’t traveled I think if it had photos it’d be easier to draw a reader in.

This cookbook would be great for someone who has traveled a lot. It’d also be a good fit for someone who enjoys trying different types of cuisine, provided they don’t mind reading.

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