SPICE, SPICE, BABY
FEAST: FOOD OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD
INa political climate where the term “Islamic” has become often charged with meaning, it somehow becomes easy to forget, in the ceaseless din of talking heads and alarmist soundbites, that the Islamic world is vast, multilayered, and nuanced — and also that its foods are delicious.
Anissa Helou’s Feast: Food of the Islamic World (Ecco/ HarperCollins) is a journey across the Old World, more or less following the path once known as the Silk Road, which spans the Earth’s belt from Morocco to Indonesia, a country that many people don’t realize contains the highest population of Muslims in the world.
Feast demonstrates there is more to break one’s fast with than hummus and falafel (although those favorites are wellrepresented). Recipes include the dish’s country of origin (there are often more than one) and span the gamut from street foodworthy grilled Turkish kebabs to Iranian lentil polow, a dish that includes that distinctively crunchy, intentionally overcooked rice known as tah-dig. There are unfamiliar dishes like Syrian meatballs in sour cherry sauce and koshari, an Egyptian street food quasi-casserole that includes elbow macaroni and lentils, as well as a quintessential falafel recipe that actually comes from a restaurant in London. A dip down to the subcontinent includes classic spinach with paneer and Hyderabadi kebabs with twice-cooked ground lamb, while Indonesian dishes include Indonesian fish head curry (better than it sounds) and Indonesian vegetable and egg salad (also known as Gado Gado).
The book is meant to be cooked with, not just flipped through — there are very few ingredients listed that cannot be easily found (or easily substituted). Even the barberries in the Iranian herb omelet are available stateside these days. Some dishes, like Spicy Baby Shark, can be rejiggered with, according to Helou, Atlantic mackerel or Pacific halibut. Helou, a Lebanese-Syrian journalist and cookbook author (whose titles include the book you didn’t know you needed, Offal: The Fifth Quarter) can break down even an Emirati baby goat roast into something a regular human can tackle at home — given some extra time to prepare all the spice mixes and, of course, the baby goat. — Tantri Wija