Whose Samosa Is It Anyway?: The Story of: The Story of Where 'Indian' Food Really Came From [Hardcover] Ved, Sonal

Regrettably, the text is full of factual distortions and historical inaccuracies.Example: "However, they (the Portuguese) can be credited for introducing cheeses like the Bandel and Kalimpong - invented in Bandel and Kalimpong towns in West Bengal - to India." (Page 142)Fact-check: the Portuguese never went anywhere near Kalimpong. Cheese making in Kalimpong was started by Swiss Jesuit priest Father Andre Butty in the 1950s at a facility known as the Swiss Dairy. A Google search and Wikipedia will validate this fact.I could point out several other editorial faux pas, but there are just too many to list here.The concept of the book was promising, Sadly, there are too many sweeping statements and generalizations that tend to garble the narrative, rather than clarify.A pinch of salt would be in order.

I am very disappointed that it is torn from the time it arrived because the picture on the cover is wonderful!

Origin stories and a Foodie's essential guided tour through Indian cuisine's history

Its not recipe book but story book so I returned it.

This book follows the journey of food through the ages. The food item remains the same but the name and it’s preparations differ from place to place.This book talks about how food is affected by geography and religion. We get to read the evolution of food from centuries. There’s a mention of the four vedas in which it’s written how the food has changed overtime.It was an enjoyable read but at places it felt as if unnecessary details were inculcated. If you really love cooking and would love to know about the history of food, then this book is for you.

This introduces us to the various cuisines, spices, veggies and fruits that have made a fuss about where did they come from. The amalgamation of how the cuisines were adapted by the various civilizations and how the external invasions led to rapid changes to basic concept of the original cuisine. It catalogs cuisines and traditional preparation methods starting from Indus valley civilization, Vedic age and how it got tastes associated to those periods. In short it explores cuisine, culture and civilization to present the journey of food. And also how various dynasties have influenced the India's rich culinary practices.Well, I got intrigued by the title and was curious enough to pick it up. But little 🤏 disappointed it tries to brush off the history through Citated introduction rather than focusing on the objective of the study. I would recommend to those have little or less idea about the how and when the civilizations got established and perished over time.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Why do we call guava, peru? What is the connection between Maharashtra’s and Portugal’s batata, and pav? This book is full of fascinating insights about where the food we consider inherently Indian comes from. Word of advice: Don’t read it on an empty stomach!

Good.

This could have been a really interesting book. It has two major flaws. One is a lack of scholarship… the author leaps to conclusions, glosses over whole historic periods and cultures/religions. The more serious problem, for the would be recreational reader, is that many of the terms for foods, spices, and cooking techniques are not translated into English. So the most interesting part of the book is impenetrable unless you are already very familiar with Indian cooking and language(s). Overall, a very frustrating read. The essential content of the book is not in English. I gave it two stars for the good intention and idea, but reading the book as an English speaker is an exercise in frustration.