The Stovetop Traveler

Cookbooks take me places. I don’t know how old I was when I began to make the connection between food and identity, but when I was very young I began to understand that the food eaten by people of different cultures connects them with those cultures. I understood, too, that eating those foods myself gave me a sort of glimpse into different communities and countries.

As an adult, I still do much of my exploration through cooking. While I’ve been fortunate to travel from the Arctic to the Antarctic, there’s a lot of in-between I have yet to cover; cooking offers me at least a glimpse through the fence posts.

Joan Nathan’s recent, wonderful “The Foods of Israel Today” examines the myriad of cultures – as well as the politics and history – behind many of the astounding varieties of foods modern Israelis enjoy.

“But favism, an inherited enzymatic deficiency occurring among some Jews—mainly those of Kurdish and Iraqi ancestry, many of who came to Israel during the mid 1900s—proved potentially lethal, so all falafel makers in Israel eventually stopped using fava beans, and chickpea falafel became an Israeli dish.”

Ghillie Basan’s “Vietnamese Food & Cooking” offers this surprising bit:

“And then there is the ice cream sandwich. A popular sweet snack with children in both Vietnam and Cambodia – thick chunks of baguette are halved lengthways and a wedge of ice cream is tucked in between them – a South-east Asian version of an ice cream cone.”

“Classical Southern Cooking” by Damon Lee Fowler offers a pointed editorial on one of its own recipes:

"Though it is made with the most civilized of spirits, champagne, it can in no way be described as genteel. Try it only if you must, and don’t bother to use a good champagne; though I am as devoted a Savannahian as they come, I think this is a hell of a thing to do to good wine and good friends."