Culinaria European Specialties invites the reader on a culinary journey through Europe with many stopovers: from Ireland in the west to Russia in the east, from Finland in the north to Turkey in the south. The full richness of every country, its traditions and regional characteristics, which are reflected in the skills of its bakers and chefs, cheese makers and butchers, distillers and winegrowers are captured in detailed photo-reportage and atmospheric, lard format photographs. Carefully selected recipes, which represent the typical character of the cuisine of each country at its most refined and delicious, also make it possible to reconstruct this culinary journey through Europe in practical terms thus enabling readers to savor it for themselves. This book offers an insight into the kitchens of famous head chefs, the realms of the oyster farmer, the cellars of great cheese experts, the drying halls used to produce world famous hams, or catching of fish, farming salmon and raising reindeer. Whether in bustling market halls, lively tapas bars of the most distinguished delicatessens ? in all corners of Europe the contributors to this book have tracked down typical as well as obscure, ordinary and heavenly, subtle and hearty delicacies for presentations. The handy appendix contains a glossary with explanations of all important culinary terms, a comprehensive index as well as suggestions for furher reading. Read more
V**G
Five Stars
Great book.
P**O
Beautiful but recipes weren't useful to me.
I love the Culinaria series and was excited to buy this particular volume. That said, I was impressed by this book but donated it because I just didn't find the recipes useful and it weighed a ton.I think when a Culinaria book concentrates on a particular country's or region's cuisine, there's a large selection of recipes covering various menu categories so it's easy to find some you can make. But when it covers all of Europe, it tends to just cover the dishes truly unique or exceptional to the individual country. Traditional dishes still eaten today in a typical home meal weren't consistently covered.I found the book very informative from a cultural cuisine and historical point of view and it was beautiful. But there seemed to be a preponderance of main course dishes containing ingredients I can't easily procure like wild game meats. I don't care too much for fish so all the pages devoted to the local waters didn't help me. I also don't drink alcohol because I dislike it. But if you do, this book is great. It covers the local wines and specialty drinks from each country with excellent explanations. If you want a lot of European dessert recipes, skip this book. It had very few.Maybe I'm just too low brow for this book, but I'm giving it a 3-star grade on my personal scale. That's not to say that this isn't a 5-star book for other people with a more sophisticated palate. But I recommend that if you're particularly fond of certain European cuisines, buy the Culinaria books that cover them. Don't buy this one volume thinking it's a "Best of European Dishes" volume. It's what it says, "European Specialties" and they truly mean "specialties."
S**A
Five Stars
Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book. I greatly recommend it for both culture and ciusine lovers.
Trustpilot
2 months ago
4 days ago
