| |  How the Ancient Egyptians Put Their Feet Up: Furnishings in Ancient Egypt
By Ilene Springer Mr. Mohamed Arabi: The "Bird Man" of Aswan
By Dr. Susan L. Wilson A Brief Look at the Sinai
By Jimmy Dunn Mummies of Ancient Egypt: The Process and Beyond
By Catherine C. Harris The Lost Feeling, Or Was It a Mummy?
By Arnvid Aakre Breaking the Color Code
By Anita Stratos Alabaster: Egypt's Rock of the Ages
By Sonny Stengle Wreck Diving in the Egyptian Red Sea
By Ned Middleton The Animals of Ancient Egypt
By Caroline Seawright  Editor's Commentary
By Jimmy Dunn Ancient Beauty Secrets
By Judith Illes Book Reviews
Various Editors Hotel Reviews
By Jimmy Dunn & Juergen Stryjak Kid's Corner
By Margo Wayman Cooking with Tour Egypt
By Mary K Radnich The Month in Review By John Applegate Egyptian Exhibitions
By Staff Egyptian View-Point
By Adel Murad Nightlife
Various Editors Egypt On Screen
By Carolyn Patricia Scott Restaurant Reviews
Various Editors Shopping Around
By Juergen Stryjak Web Reviews
By Siri Bezdicek Prior Issues May 1st, 2001
April 1st, 2001
March 1st, 2001
February 1st, 2001
January 1st, 2001
December 1st, 2000
October 1st, 2000
September 1st, 2000
August 1st, 2000
July 1st, 2000
June 1st, 2000 | | | Book Review by Mary Kay Radnich
Egyptian Cooking: A Practical Guide By
Samia Abdennour Hippocrene Books 1998  The delights of Egyptian cooking have been proclaimed both here in the Tour Egypt magazine and elsewhere on the Internet. For those travelers to Egypt who are willing to step outside of their culinary comfort zone and sample traditional Egyptian fuul or Om Ali, they will not be disappointed with the results of their experimentation. There are many Egyptian delicacies, however, with its location at the corner of North Africa, Egyptian cuisine is also a mixture of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African foods. Many regional cookbooks exist that offer Egyptian cuisine, but how can one learn to prepare completely Egyptian foods in the comfort of a private kitchen? Samia Abdennour has solved this problem for us with her compact cookbook, Egyptian Cooking, A Practical Guide. This handy paperback is a repository of all sorts of local Egyptian foods, the kind you would find in a typical Egyptian restaurant or in a private home. It is not full of westernized delicacies but rather good old home cooking recipes. And she does a good job of introducing the Arabic names for all of the recipes as well as the ingredients and cooking utensils. The cookbook chapters are divided into sections according to courses, Mezze, Breakfast, Main Courses, and so on, finishing up with chapters on Kitchen Utensils, Spices, a good Glossary and finally, an Index chapter. The final chapters, which explain terms, spices, etc. are very useful for understanding just what all that Arabic means. Within each chapter are divisions according to main ingredient, such as chicken recipes, salad recipes, etc. This feature makes the cookbook a very handy guide in preparing an ethnic meal. In the case of the section on Molokiyya, the popular green of Egypt, no fewer than eight variations of Molokiyya recipes are given. I found this cookbook to be a good basic cookbook of Egyptian food. Some of the selections are very exotic, such as preparations of various animal organs. I did find that many recipes were bland for our tastes and more spices or hotter spices were required. One significant drawback – no photographs. If you are dependent on a photo of what the dish is supposed to look like, then this will be a handicap for you. However, like most home-cooked food anywhere, a soup is liquid, a salad is green and a roast is a roast. I didn’t find the lack of photos to be a problem, plus it makes the book a very affordable US $11.95. Egyptian Cooking, A Practical Guide is available on the internet from the online booksellers, such as Amazon.com. | |
