This is an awesome, well-compiled collection of authentic Gazan home-cooking. The selections range from drinks and desserts to salads and main courses and include both local specialties and recipes common to all of the Levant. None of the recipes are particularly difficult to make and many of them are actually quite simple. Additionally, the fact that the book shows you how to make / recommends substitutes for the more "exotic" ingredients is incredibly helpful for anyone that doesn't live near a specialty market.The Gaza Kitchen is a richly illustrated cookbook that explores the distinctive cuisine of the area known prior to 1948 as the Gaza District—and that of the many refugees who came to Gaza in 1948 and have been forced to stay there ever since. In summer 2010, Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt traveled throughout the Gaza Strip to collect the recipes and shoot the stunning photographs presented in the book.The Gaza Kitchen's 130 recipes codify this little-known part of the Middle Eastern culinary canon for the first time ever-- in any language. But this is not just a cookbook. In its pages, women and men from Gaza tell their stories as they relate to cooking, farming, and the food economy: personal stories, family stories, and descriptions of the broader social and economic system in which they live.
On the rest of it:
The book beautifully summarizes many of the ongoing issues in the Gaza Strip: the struggles of local farmers and fisherman, reliance on the tunnel system for basic goods, and the difference between availability and affordability. Additionally, when it comes to the women of Gaza, the authors largely step out of the picture and let the women present their own stories. The weaving of these narratives in and out of the recipes movingly highlights the role of cooking and the home in Gaza and presents narratives of food and family that will resonate will almost anyone.
Laila El-Haddad is co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced (2015), co-author of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey (2013), and the author of Gaza Mom (2010). She is a talented writer, analyst, and social activist, and a policy advisor for Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.Born in Gaza, El-Haddad currently lives in Columbia, Maryland. Her co-author on The Gaza Kitchen, Maggie Schmitt, is a writer, researcher, translator, educator, and social activist. She holds a B.A. from Harvard in Literature and has conducted advanced graduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Schmitt, who lives near Madrid, works in various media to explore the daily practices of ordinary people living in the Mediterranean region.
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