| Crossroads Cooking: The Meeting and Mating of Ethnic Cuisines-From Burma to Texas in 200 Recipes
Elisabeth Rozin
This is an interesting book that slips a little food history in with the recipes. Rozin defines crossroads cooking as recipes and techniques from one area that were altered due to the movement of peoples around the globe. For example, the cuisine of Israel is influenced by the cuisines of Alsace, Poland, Morocco, and Italy - all places Jews settled during the Diaspora. The author differentiates this evolution from fusion cuisine, which is the self-concious melding of ingredients to create something new. Crossroads cuisine is more the story of home cooking adapting to new ingredients, like African slaves in the American South.
The book has 3 or 4 chapters a piece on each of the following areas: Africa, Asia, The Middle East, Europe, and The Americas. The author is a cookbook writer, not just a food historian, so the recipes are simple to follow and intriguing. Although I've talked most about the history text, recipes make up the bulk of the book.
Recommendation: At least check it out from the library, it's a good read. I bought a used copy.
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