Taste Of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan, by Naomi Duguid

It is tricky to ponder the structure of a book like this one. Cookbooks in general–as this one is–are often structured based on the dishes that they include. Yet at the same time this book seeks to tell a series of narratives, about the development of local cuisines, the food cultures of a region of the world that is often neglected by tourists but which has a rich tradition of food, and also the author’s own travels in the region. The end result is something that is a bit on the confusing side. The author’s narrative of her travels ends up being extremely fragmentary, with little sense of how many journeys the author has taken to the region or when particular photographs were taken or when dishes were learned about by the author to adapt and share in the book. Similarly, the book contains some gorgeous photographs of the region, but the photos aren’t necessarily placed in the locations of the book where the appropriate dishes are included, and a lot of the dishes have lengthy instructions but no texts. Admittedly, though, these are minor quibbles in a fantastic book.

This book is nearly 400 large pages, divided between some fantastic photography and recipes and travel notes. The book begins with an introduction, a discussion of a supposed new era of less isolation for the region (which has not been the case, sadly), maps, as well as the author’s celebration of cuisine without borders. The book then is organized thematically by food with selections on flavors and condiments, salads and vegetables, soups, stuffed vegetables and dumplings, fish, grilled meat and poultry, stovetop meat and poultry, rice and other grains, flatbread dishes, sweets, and fruit dishes. Throughout the book we hear about food traditions for Lent in Georgia, read about how it is that Kurds deal with home cooking, as well as the difference between Turkish and Persian kebabs. There are dishes relating to New Year festivals, and a thoughtful discussion of soups and stews and the foods that bring ancient and often obscure cultures to light that have had a large influence on others without that influence being recognizing. The book then ends with a closer look at the region, travel notes, a glossary, an annotated bibliography, acknowledgments, and notes.

What is it that makes this book so enjoyable? Well, among the pleasures of this book for me–a pleasure that admittedly might be rare–is that while I was reading the book I was able to ask a dear Persian friend of mine about her own eating and whether certain recipes were foods that she ate and that her mother actually cooked. In at least a couple of times, this proved to be the case, and in other cases (as with fruit leather), the recipes discussed were foods that we had talked about before as being authentic recipes. At least one of the recipes included as also from a book I had previously read: The Temporary Wife, which was a dish taught by the author of that book’s Yazd mother-in-law. This book is truly a great one, with great recipes, almost all of them clean (only one pork recipe is included in the entire book), and also evidence of the small world in which people who write about Iran in the west operate within. Once one writes in such a world and achieves a certain degree of popularity, one becomes part of a small community celebrating the beauties of an isolated part of the world. And that is true even though this book talks about other countries in the region just as much as Iran, including the Kurdish part of Iraq. If you like the thought of Persian cooking and its influences in the food of its neighbors, there is a lot to celebrate here even if the fenugreek and other ingredients are going to be hard to find in the West.