N is for New Food of Life

Title:  New Food of Life: A book of Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies

Author: Najmieh Batmanglij

Original Publication Date: 1992

Date I First Read: 2006

Basic Category: Nonfiction / Cooking / Culture

Basic Summary: This book presents recipes and how they are related to Persian culture (celebrating holidays and weddings in particular.)

What I Remember About the Book: The photos of the food are excellent . . . they make my mouth water.  This is true even the pictures where tree nuts (particularly pistachios) are involved – I am allergic to tree nuts.  This book, for me, is “food porn.” 

The recipes themselves are easy to follow and quite clear. 

What I Took Away From the Book:  I have learned how to cook Persian-style several recipes from this book.  My spouse tells me if they taste good AND correct, or if I was close.  I do alter some recipes sometimes – no nuts, no fenugreek, less oil, etc.   Some of my favorite recipes include the albaloo polo (cherry rice) and esfanaj o portagal (spinach and orange) khoresh.  

Rating (1-5 stars):  5 

2006 Favorite Reads List

(Remember, the criteria includes that I must have read the book for the first time during that year - rereads of favorites don't count! Also, they don't have to be new books. . . just new to me. Year of publication is included. The list is in alphabetical order by title.)

- Cell: A Novel by Stephen King (2006)
- A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (2006)

- Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman (2003)

- Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas (2003)

- Garlic and Sapphire: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl (2005)
- The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther by Rebecca Kohn (2004)

- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: Celebrating Interethnic, Interfaith, and Interracial Relationships by Brenda Lane Richardson (2000)
- The Joy of Doing Things Badly: A Girl's Guide to Love, Life and Foolish Bravery by Veronica Chambers (2006)

- Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2006)

- Ludie's Life by Cynthia Rylant (2006)
- Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (2003)

- Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (2006)

- Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman (2006)

- Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent by Anthony Rapp (2006)

That year, I read more than 100 titles, so to pare it down to this list was difficult. Tomorrow, I'll post the list from 2007.