Secrets of Cooking: Armenian, Lebanese, Persian

My wife is Armenian from Lebanon but it is her mom who is the cook. In turn her mom was from Aleppo, Syria, which Patricia Wells describes as a culinary mecca in the Middle East in one of her travel food writings. This cookbook is the most authentic one for the traditional Armenian recipes of the Middle East diaspora: my mother-in-law has tested a number of them and confirms that they can be trusted. Of course there are as many variations of these recipes as cooks (more, since when I get her to dictate recipes for posterity more than once, they always change), but these simple straightforward ones work and are good. Some of my food tales are at drbobenterprises.com.I have bought about 15 copies of this book to give to relatives and friends over the years. Among all cookbooks in this area (and I have many as an amateur cook with a heavy cookbook habit), it stands out. So if you are interested in this cuisine, buy the book.

...this is the one to get! I've had the real Persian food and the pleasure of those exotic spices and combinations lingered in my memory for many years. I searched and searched for a good cookery book that I, as an American, could understand. And I found it in this book by Linda Chirinian. The variety is excellent, recipes are easy to read and follow, the colour photos (a must for me as I'm a visual person) show the food at it's sumptious best. Some of my Favourites are Morgh Polow (Chicken with Dried Fruits and rice), Kuft Sabzi (Herbed Meatballs), Shawerma (Spiced meat), Khoreshta Loobia-sabz (String bean with meat stew), Kharn Pancharaghen (mixed vegetable bake), Khoreshta Bademjan (Eggplant/aubergine stew), Bagali Shevid Polow (Lima Beans in Dill rice), Sfeha/ Lahm-bil-ajin (Yogurt meat pies). There's just a sampling, are you getting hungry? I have now given this cookbook to a few of my friends who also enjoy the sensual flavours of this type of cooking and they love theirs, too. I have not been disappointed in one thing I've made from this book yet, nor will you be. I definitely recommend this to you if you are serious about Middle Eastern cooking. I'd choose it over several others I've gotten in the past.

This is one of the best cookbooks I own. I've made nearly all the desserts and many of the other dishes. I just love this book. I use it frequently. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. She even gives tips on where to find some of the more unusual ingredients. I have at least 30 cookbooks, this is the one I turn to most often. I only know Middle Eastern cooking from restaurants but these recipes are ususally better than any I've have had from a restaurant.

If you crave your grandmother's cooking and want to try to reproduce those wonderful flavors, then this cookbook is written for you. The old Armenian/Lebanese/Persian recipes that all our grandmothers cooked without any measuring are preserved in this book. Linda Chirinian manages to present even the most complicated recipes with such clarity that I know you will be able to cook any recipe showcased in this book. The pictures are accurate and mouth-watering. This is a cookbook worthy of passing down to your children.

Having grown up in the Mid-East, I cook this kind of food often. I have about two dozen ME cookbooks, but must say this one ranks as one of the best.The recipes are easy to follow with salivating pictures that remind me of my childhood days in Lebanon. The breadth of recipes is incredible. The book contains recipes that I have been unable to find in other cookbooks - the kind my Mom tells me "a little of this, a little of that..." but I know I'll never master without a "real" recipe. Try it - it won't disappoint you.