SC - In a Caliph's Kitchen

[Lilinah biti-Anat]

I *finally* got a copy of Waines' "In a Caliph's Kitchen" through ILL 
(bless my neighborhood library). I'm in the SF Bay Area. A copy of 
the book was apparently difficult to locate. The librarian said he 
could only locate about 6 copies, and many were unavailable. This one 
came from the University of Minnesota (!!!). I get to have it until 
Dec 11.

I've merely glanced through it. To my inexperienced eye, it looks very good.

The book begins with several chapters of background on Medieval 
Middle Eastern cookbooks, food, history, etc. And there are some 
footnotes and a bibliography. Then, for each recipe, there is:
1) a modern redaction
2) a paragraph or more of commentary about the source, the original 
recipe and its history.
3) a color photo of the modern dish (drool)
4) a translation of the recipe
The author takes some liberties with his redactions, as other 
redactors of Medieval recipes do, and often comments on them, as 
other redactors of Medieval recipes do.

But i noticed that some folks (in webbed commentaries) said this was 
not a very good book. Will those who are knowledgeable please comment 
on this book. Is it good or is it not useful? What are its bad 
points? its good points? Are there *lots* of errors in the recipe 
translations? Other issues?

I'm less interested in discussing the author's redactions, since i 
prefer to do my own redactions, although i like seeing someone else's 
to compare with mine.

I really want to own a copy, but have had no luck through abebooks, 
bookfinder, bibliofind, etc. for 4 months or more. I will photocopy 
this one, but i'm frustrated that color photo copies are too 
expensive to copy all those yummy food pictures :-(  I may end up 
scanning them. I'd still rather have a real bound book. I'll keep 
searching...

I look forward to remarks from this list.

Have a good turkey day, all (whether or not you eat turkey :-) I'm 
leaving town tomorrow morning early and won't be back until late 
Monday night, and my mom doesn't have a computer, so i won't see all 
your wonderful posts until i'm home.

Anahita
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