[Sca-cooks] The Sweets of Araby...

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Mon Oct 3 17:41:48 PDT 2011


Ok my copy of The Sweets of Araby: Enchanting Recipes from the Tales  
of the 1,001  Arabian Nights by  Leila Salloum Elias and Muna Salloum  
arrived today. I ordered  a used  hardback which with shipping cost  
$4.07. It seems to be a brand new book, so this was a bargain at only  
eight cents! So I am perfectly happy with the volume given its little  
cost. It's a pretty volume with colorful illustrations and I could see  
a parent or grandparent reading the tales and then making the recipes  
with their children or with grandchildren.

For anyone who wants a scholarly volume, ok the book does not include  
a list of sources or a reading list. There are original recipes given  
with some of the recipes. They don't indicate who translated them.  
Sometimes the authors note that they are substituting or using  
ingredients like phyllo so the pastries will need to be baked.
Also recipes use ingredients like corn starch, but I suspect corn  
starch is used in modern versions of the sweets.  Anyway I am sure  
that it won't meet your standards Urtatim. Sorry.

***
One thing I think is important to mention is that the authors' father  
is the Canadian author Habeeb Salloum. He has written such cookbooks  
as: The Arabian Nights Cookbook: From Lamb Kebabs to Baba Ghanouj,  
Delicious Homestyle Arabian Cooking and From the Lands of Figs and  
Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes from the Middle East  
and North Africa. His other works include: Arab Cooking on  
Saskatchewan Homesteads: Recipes And Recollection and Bison Delights:  
Middle Eastern Cuisine, Western Style. I suspect in fact that recipes  
in The Sweets of Araby have been adapted or suggested from some of  
their father's books.

The back flap of the book which talks about the authors mentions that  
they along with their father are the author of a work called Medieval  
Arab Cookery! I searched this title and didn't locate it. So I looked  
him up in Wikipedia and came across this note: under currently in press

Medieval Arab Cooking. Co-authored with Leila Salloum Elias and Muna  
Salloum - [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press]  I can't  
find a expected publication date for this book.

  (Let's just hope that the title is changed so it doesn't confuse new  
readers with the classic Prospect Press by Rodinson, Arberry & Perry  
work of the same name!)

Amazon mentions that he is at work on two medieval cookbooks so there  
should be or might be another title too.

I also will note that Habeeb Salloum is the author of the chapter:   
"Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Sicily", in Regional Cuisines of  
Medieval Europe (ed. Melitta W. Adamson), New York: Routledge, 2002,  
pp. 113–123.

Oh by the way I did discover a Wall Street Journal online review  of  
The Sweets of Araby at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450604576417901323224780.html
also see http://countrymanblog.wordpress.com/

Hope this helps

Johnnae
  On Sep 26, 2011, at 10:50 PM, Urtatim inquired about the book

>>> Are there any *real* reviews of the following book?
>>> The Sweets of Araby: Enchanting Recipes from the Tales of the 1,001
>>> Arabian Nights
>>> by Muna Salloum and Leila Salloum Elias



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