So far, I am not impressed by this memoir/cookbook/city guide about the authors' home city of Damascus. It is light on reliable information, and I don't think the French translation from the original German was done by someone with a good grasp of France's basic food environment. Some word choices are definitely off, and sound very German, which is ironic when you think that those dishes and recipes were originally in Arabic 🙄
so-soRafik Schami always tells stories about an old Damaskus, that feels magical and painfully real at the same time. They are all somewhat mesmerising, but this one was not my favourite, but still a decent read. Helped pass the time on the train :)
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#foodandlit
pickWhat a delightful celebration of storytelling! This book contains stories within stories within stories and is filled with charm and quirky characters. It is told in the tradition of Syrian storytelling and gives a few nods to Scheherazade. Book 3 in my #readoutloud project, in which I read aloud to my mother. We both enjoyed it very much, and the story gained something through being “spoken”. #readaroundtheworld #Syria
Last night I made my first dish from the tagged book: cheese & sweet chermoula eggplant. I think my eggplant half was a little too thick; the top layer was delicious, but the chermoula didn‘t add any flavour to the bottom, even though I crosshatched the vegetable‘s flesh. Next time, I‘ll try to really dribble the sauce down into the creases and see if I get a better result.
pick4/5⭐ A beautifully designed book that adds wonderful bits of cultural flavor to the delicious-looking recipes. The author's passion shines through in her personal tidbits.
Love everything that Ottolenghi touches! So tasty and hearty! And only 99p on Kindle today 👏🏼
Ahh - more of the Hay Festival from the comfort of my sofa! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Really, I‘m disappointed without knowing if by me or by the author. My orientation was, as I said, the blurb, not the subtitle “The failure of Western nations in the Middle East”, which puts the content a bit into perspective.
I was so curious for Peter Scholl-Latour because he to me seems quite famous in Germany – and now I am so disappointed that I‘m unsure if I ever touch another book by him. 😟
If you‘re an expert, you might like it.
so-soIt‘s not uninteresting but it absolutely doesn‘t meet the expectations created by the marketing blurb. Honestly, there‘s no red thread in there. Additionally, the writing is demanding with long complicated sentences that are hard to follow even with your ears.
And Scholl-Latour uses a lot of unknown terms without explanation. The last 3 hours about Iranian history were interesting. Therefore “So-So”, otherwise it had been “Pan”.
