Weekend Cooking: 1,000 Foods to Eat before You Die by Mimi Sheraton

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Almost everyone in the food world has heard of Mimi Sheraton. She is, among other things, a former restaurant critic for the New York Times and an award-winning cookbook author. Few people know kitchens, markets, restaurants, and ingredients as well as she does. And now she is sharing her top-1,000 list with her many fans.

1,000 Foods to Eat before You Die is a delightful mix of autobiography, travel memoir, cookbook, and kitchen reference. Sheraton says one of her aims "was to curate a sort of jigsaw puzzle that pieces together a picture of what the world eats." And lest you think that she had to struggle to come up with a thousand entries, Sheraton informs us that the real problem was culling her text to only a thousand.

So what wonders will you find between the covers? Sheraton focuses on about seventy different cuisines from every continent, telling us where to go, what to eat, how to eat, where to buy, and how to cook. We learn about food festivals, restaurants, street food, open-air markets, and little shops.

Have you ever had English summer pudding? It's a creamy, berry-laden dessert that you can travel to London to try or you can follow the recipe and impress your friends. Sweets not your thing? You can learn the secrets of French grand aïoli sauce and where to eat eel in Brussels. More casual tastes? Read up on cinnamon toast, Turkish kebabs, and Brunswick stew.

I'm dreaming of a visit to the Palermo markets and thinking of the delectable nibbles that German beer drinkers munch on during Oktoberfest. The entry on smørrebrød made me miss Denmark, and the pierogi article made me miss my mother-in-law's cooking. From knishes to kibbeh, sopaipillas to satay, 1,000 Foods to Eat before You Die takes you around the world and into the kitchens of dozens of cultures and countries.

Mimi Sheraton provides hours of fascinating reading, including dozens of recipes and hundreds of cool places to visit. The pages of 1,000 Foods to Eat before You Die transport us to a food-lover's paradise that contains everything from oysters to Oreos (really!). Even if you have no plans to try every recommended dish or drink, this is a must-own book for all of us who like to eat, cook, drink, travel, and/or learn.

Note: The illustrations were scanned by me and all rights to the text and photos remain with the original copyright holders. The quality of my scans do not reflect the quality of the book. (Click to enlarge.)

Published by Workman, 2015
ISBN-13: 9780761141686
Source: Review (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)