Cooking Around the World: Romanian, Bulgarian & Balkan

Odd to serve up a review on an out-of-print item, but I have relied on this book for so long that I owe it to the author... wherever they may be. This is a tour of South-Eastern and Eastern European cuisine, and each chapter covers a different country. A few pages introduce the reader to the place -- history, influences, geography, people, as well as to how that cuisine relates to its neighbors. The recipes are concise, easy to create, and surprisingly well captured. The chapters are inherently short (maybe 10-15 recipes each), but check out the neighboring countries, and most times the image is complete. I am Romanian, and I scoop up recipes from the Bulgarian, Hungarian and even Polish chapters when I'm looking for something specific. What's even better, is getting a sense of place for each country, and correlating food with history... When I was a newcomer to the US, a university colleague's wife copied of this book for me, to remind me of home. I have accumulated by now a number of cookbooks, in both English *and* Romanian, yet 20 years later, I still prefer to use this copy, and I've been looking for ways to buy it and recommend it to others. Now I have it here! Highly recommended for anyone interested in exploring their Southern or Eastern European roots!