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Learn to COOK - The Arab Table: Recipes and Culinary Traditions
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List Price: $34.95
Our Price: $23.07
Your Save: $ 11.88 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.592927
EAN: 9780060586140
ISBN: 0060586141
Label: William Morrow Cookbooks
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2005-09-01
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks
Release Date: 2005-09-06
Studio: William Morrow Cookbooks
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Editorial Reviews:
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It is one of the world's oldest and most intriguing cuisines, yet few have explored the diverse dishes and enchanting flavors of Arab cookery beyond hummus and tabouleh. In 188 recipes, The Arab Table introduces home cooks to the fresh foods, exquisite tastes, and generous spirit of the Arab table. May S. Bsisu, who has lived and cooked in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, England, and now the United States, takes you along a reassuringly down-to-earth and warmly personal path through exciting culinary territory. The Arab Table focuses intimately on the foods of Arab countries such as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. The book offers a bountiful range of appealing dishes: cold and hot mezza, or little dishes; vibrant salads and fresh vegetable preparations; savory soups, stews, and hearty casseroles; baked and grilled meats, poultry, and fish; cooling drinks; and ambrosial desserts. There are recipes for familiar dishes including Falafel, Chicken and Lamb Kebabs, and Baklava, as well as a diverse selection of lesser known delights greatly enjoyed around the world, such as Eggplant Pomegranate Salad, Zucchini with Bread and Mint, Grilled Halloumi Cheese Triangles, and Arab Flatbread. Celebration dishes, the cornerstone of Arab cuisine, include Moroccan and Lebanese Couscous, Baked Lamb with Rice and Chickpeas, and Baked Sea Bass with Rice and Caramelized Onions. No Arab cookbook would be complete without an ample selection of soups and stews, the customary way to break the fast at the end of each day during Ramadan. The Arab table is also well known for its sweets: Semolina Pistachio Layer Cake, Milk Pudding, and, of course, date-, nut-, and cream-filled pastries perfumed with rose and orange-blossom water are just a sampling of the desserts included here. Along with these treasured recipes collected from May's extended family, friends, neighbors, and her own discoveries, The Arab Table is also a resource for learning about the traditions and customs associated with this time-honored cuisine. Throughout, essays on Arab holidays, from Eid Al Adha, the feast celebrating the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, to Ramadan and Mubarakeh, the celebration for the birth of a baby, are explained and menus are provided for each. May enlightens readers as to customary greetings (How do you say Happy Ramadan?), gifts (What do you bring to an Arab home during Ramadan?), and wishes (How do you acknowledge the birth of a baby?) that are traditionally extended during these special occasions. Now you can bring the abundance and flavors of The Arab Table to your table.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Virtually no illustrations ...
Comment: I found this book to be a turn-off mainly because it lacks illustrations. I hope the next edition will take care of this major flaw of otherwise a decent effort.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cream of the Crop, a MUST HAVE!
Comment: The Arab Table by Mary Bsisu is a must have for anyone interested in Middle Eastern cooking.
I have read the other reviews and agree that it is a 5 star book.
One thing of note---one of the other reviewers criticized Bsisu for citing too many contributors to her book. Why? She had her own recipes and if she collected recipes from others that indicates only that she knows a good recipe when she finds it and if she felt that it belonged in her book than good for her for adding it, it can only benefit us the readers.
I used to live in the caribbean and made perfect baklava there many times. When I came back to the States all my batches of baklava were ruined by sugar syrup that had crystallized by the next day. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on and wondered if it had something to do with the humidity?!?! My sister in law cooks her sugar syrup for 10 minutes, my mother in law for an hour, so I knew it had to be something scientific, maybe due to temperature not length of time cooked. Neither my MIL or SIL could explain it.
WHile reading BSISU's cookbook (it makes fine reading even when you don't have anything particular you want to look up), i came across a recipe for Kunafa bi Jibin, or Shredded Pastry with Cheese. In this recipe, she gave instructions on making the sugar syrup, including " Let the syrup boil until it has reached the thread stage (about 225 on a candy thermometer)". HELLO! this was my mistake and this is the ONLY cookbook i have seen this mentioned in out of many, many middle eastern/greek cookbooks. So I applaud her (and THANK her because imagine making a whole pan of baklava only to have it ruined by the next day---heartbreak). BUT, to the subject of the other reviewers comments about her book being a collaboration of recipes from many people, I have to point out that the ONLY place this temperature is mentioned is in the Kunafa with cheese recipe, not the Sugar syrup recipe (which is on the page before), or the baklava recipe, or the regular konafa recipe. I do think that this is an omission because such a simple instruction should have definitely been in the sugar syrup recipe, and the fact that it is not leads me to believe that the recipes came from different people or sources.
Anyhow, the price of the book definitely pays for itself just for saving my baklava.
The explanations of customs and holy days are interesting and entertaining, and nowadays any book that can shed light (in a positive way) on how arab/middle eastern people live can only help to broaden the understanding between people which will benefit us all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Arab table cookbook
Comment: Very comprehensive, representing the best of Arab culinary traditions. Explains ingredients and methods well, makes it easy for people in the U.S. to find ingredients or get the same result using "western" ingredients. Would recommend to friends who have never made Arabic dishes before.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A definite must!
Comment: This is one of the best books on Arab cuisine that I own. Bsisu is an excellent cook - the recipes are wonderful and easy to follow. The end results are great and very authentic - perhaps because Bsisu book is more of a book on recipes passed down from family and friends than a cultural anthology (home recipes taste the best after all!) The book concentrates mostly on cooking from the levant (where Bsisu is from) but it also has several recipes from other regions, especially the gulf region where Bsisu lived. It includes most of the popular arab recipes as well as lesser known ones, such as those from Gaza, where Bsisu's husband hails. The book is also filled with wonderful cultural ancedotes from Bsisu's family life as well as a thorough explanation of many arab (both christian and muslim) cultural traditions. One thing the books lacks is many stew recipes (she has several of the popular ones but just not as many as I expected). However, what the book lacks in stews is compensated by the huge reportaire of main course dishes -all which are excellent.
The only caveat I have with this book is the introduction section, where Bsisu lists all the arab countries. She lumps all the gulf arab countries in one category despite listing all the other countries seperately. While the cooking of the Gulf states is similar, it is no more similar than the cooking of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. I would understand lumping Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar in one category. Oman and Saudi however deserves categories of their own. Oman lies on the Arabian sea and has a very different culture than the rest of the gulf as it is influenced by trade with Africa and India. As for Saudi Arabia, only the eastern coast has a cuisine similar to the rest of the Gulf. The rest of saudi arabia borders egypt (through the red sea), the levant and Iraq, so its cuisine is vast and distinctive. Of course, Bsisu is probably just not familiar with the various styles of Saudi cooking since the book is really based on her experience of the Arab world - nothing is wrong with that but I just wanted to point it out. Another strange thing is that Bsisu doesn't include Libya Algeria and Sudab among her list of Arab countries and I find this omission really strange as they are very important and it doesn't make sense to include every other arab country except these three! Anyhow, NONE of this detracts from the book, as like I said before it is a book of family recipes and recipes passed down from friends and not a cultural anthology. The recipes are excellent, authentic and hail from all over the arab world - so if you want a cook book on arab cooking, buy this one. I bought this book from my sister who learnt how to cook from it and my cousin bought herself a copy too - they both love it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: May Shakhashir Bsisu's Book is also Good for Vegans
Comment: There are recipes such as Spinach Triangles, Onion Rice, Fava Bean Salad, and many others that are purely vegan. The good thing with most middleastern recipes (Arab & Iranian) is that you can omit the meat (or replace the broth with water) and still have a great-tasting food (soy ground meat is also an amazing substitute for real ground beef). This book is also good for families who want to alternate between foods with meat and without meat.
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