[Sca-cooks] Delights From The Garden of Eden

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Juana Isabella wrote:
> I received a mailer the other day regarding a book called "Delights From the Garden of 
> Eden" by Nawal Nasrallah. It purports to be a cookbook and history of Iraqi cuisine.
>
> Is anyone here familiar with it? Is it a useful source?

Glad to hear the new edition is finally out! To the best of my knowledge, this was her first book published in the US, in 2003.

Nawal Nasrallah is actually Iraqi and a food historian, so she knows the subject. She is the translator of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh, an early 10th c. compendium of recipes from 9th and 10th c. cookbooks, with chapters on proper table manners, appropriate conversation, the humors, hand cleansing before and after meals, etc. Nasrallah added an expansive glossary as well as information about everyone mentioned in the original text. It was published by Brill, scholarly publishers, as "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al- Warraq's Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook" in 2007.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita