Homemade Food

World Flavors

By: Terrapetti Publishing

Narrated by: Denise Kahn

Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Since the beginning of time, food is what brought us all together. But as the human race evolved over time, our desire for unique culinary experiences grew to an insatiable intrigue to be transported to exotic places and enjoy a rich tapestry of taste. A taste sparked by the leaders of the culinary renaissance of their times, a taste that has been maintained through history, a taste that emerged into a tradition and was perfected from generation to generation. That is exactly why, beyond any stars and culinary degrees, it's always the most passionate cook who will make the tastiest meal.

Terrapetti's World Flavors publication is your passport for the tastiest homemade meals around the globe. A map guiding you into the history, the context and the recipes for the most typical dishes of each country. Foods have crossed borders into other countries and regions, they've conquered frontiers faster than wars and are the inspiration and roots of new emerging tastes and culinary techniques, all of which you will be able to experience through this book.

©2016 Terrapetti Publishing (P)2016 Terrapetti Publishing

Quite the eclectic collection of recipes!

Connecting traditional recipes with culture and history is what this book is about. This book contains nearly 70 recipes from 13 different regions around the world. This book was written by 3 different people who live in different cities around the world, though the book never names who these three people are.

I’ve listened to other cookbooks as audiobooks but this one was more of a conversation about food that happened to have recipes tossed in. I was amused to see the book starts off with poutine as I find that such a heavy meal suited for cold weather and ice fishing. However this North American section talks about the great melting pot that the continent is and what that means for typical, tasty meals in that location.

The book does a great job of providing this context for all the regions discussed: North America, Central America & the Caribbean, South America, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Western Africa, Middle East along with South & Central Asia, East Asia & Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand. With the lens of traditional food, the world gets divided up a little differently than in the world of politics.

Each meal starts with an introduction, Meal Presentation, about how that meal came about, what significance it has in the local culture and the very basics of what make it. Then we get the How to Cook This Meal which is a very basic recipe without measurements. It’s more of a conversation about how to make this dish. I really liked this approach because I often view recipes as suggestions of how to make a meal rather than strict guidelines.

There were plenty of meals that I didn’t have a clue how to pronounce and had not heard of before but sound really interesting. Mofongo. Charquican Stew. Kjotsupa. Tochitura. Chorba Frik. MaPo Doufu. Kiwi Hangi. I could go on, but I expect this gives you an idea of the diversity of recipes in this book. All together, it was a delightful and enlightening book on food from around the world.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Denise Kahn did an OK job. Her recording sounded tinny most of the time. I really don’t know if she pronounced everything correctly but the Spanish and Germanic words sounded correct to my novice ears. For some reason she read out the entire table of contents. Now this might have been a requirement of the publisher. It was really boring and didn’t really give me anything.

A gastronomical cultural & world history tour!

With just under 70 recipes from thirteen regions of the world, Homemade Food: World Flavors is a gastronomical tour of our planet. More so, it’s a gastronomical cultural and world history tour.

This loving presented cookbook, beautifully narrated by Denise Kahn, puts every recipe into a cultural or historical context when describing its origins and its place in society before moving on to explain how it’s prepared. More than most other recipe books that endeavour to do something similar, Homemade Food: World Flavors, provides enough depth of information that you find yourself respecting the dish you’re about to prepare.

A great number of societies are based around their food, yet the cultural significance of our cuisine is usually overlooked. Terrapetti Publishing has sought to correct this with three authors from three different cultures who have compiled the recipes and details.

Not all information can be taken as gospel – examining the section on Australia, for example, the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is referred to as The G; Australia’s meat pie is named as Dog's Eye & Dead Horse – old rhyming slang that hasn’t been in common use for a couple of generations at least; and the description of Australian cuisine is one that this Australian food lover barely recognised.

That said, the book conjures up images of culture and place that, while not perhaps entirely accurate or modern, still gives the food context. It’s the recipes themselves that most readers will no doubt be interested in and there’s around 68 dishes that live up to the title – meals that you would and could cook at home from the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Asian, Middle East, and Australasia

Like the traditions of the regions, some recipes are precise while others just give you the ingredients and method without specific measurements.

Narrator Denise Kahn makes each dish sound mouth-watering. She reads very slowly, allowing time to make notes or for the words to sink in. Her voice is soft and articulate, unlike the recording itself which lacks the sharpness obtained from a professional studio. Kahn’s pronunciation of the various food names is a difficult and commendable feat that she makes sound effortless. Bravo! I’d love to hear the outakes!

This and my other audiobook reviews can be found on my site at SaidNotRead dot wordpress dot com. The challenge of an audiobook reading of a recipe book is the need to regularly hit the pause button or to jot down the details before cooking – unless you have an exceptional memory for what you’ve just heard. For the visually impaired however, or those who struggle with English literacy, this could be a great gift.

A flavourful read!

This is more than just a cookbook - it is filled with tons of useful information. You will listen to the different culture from different places, the history of food and so much more! A delightful, flavourful and delicious read!

I loved the narrator's voice. Highly excellent performance!

Perfect for food lovers.

More than just a cookbook

Any additional comments?

I found this to be very interesting listen filled with lots of useful information. You don’t get the recipes so much as the how to but you should be able to find them online. This is more about the different cultural from different areas of the world how the history of the food got started, how they mixed and blended until they became the best with unique recipes that really tempt your taste buds. I really enjoyed learning about the different cultural and how they make the best recipes you might find others on line but these are the best of the best.

You are given three authors that take you around the world from different times in our history going into depth and really making it interesting. I really liked knowing how the recipes differ from way back when until now. How things had a different name but it was changed. How each area uses their culture and what they could find on hand to make these delicious recipes. The author really gives you wonderful details that really bring the recipes to life. They tell you how to make it just now how much to put into it. I would have liked to have known just how much along with all the other details they give you. Again you can find this out if one of the recipes really tempts you like they did me.

The author give you recipes that you can make at home not ones you can really go out and order in a restaurant. What fun would that be, I am always amazed when someone goes out to eat and they order food they make at home. If I am going to order you can bet it will be something that takes too long or too complicated to make. These recipes are down to earth some are comfort food with a twist.

I loved Ms. Kahn performance she really brings this to life with her different accents that really pull you in. There is a little of an echo or something that doesn’t really take away from the audio at first but you become use to it. Beside that it was wonderful audio that the narrator really gets into bringing her own life to it. There are no background noise but for the echo or something, no repeat of words. She really gets into character with her different accents and tones. I just loved that part, lord when I tried to say those words it was a mess. You really have to listen to it to really get the true feel of what this narrator brings to it. I really want to listen to more of her work in more of a normal book to see how she does character voices I bet she does a great job.

As I said it was a very interesting audio that really gives lots of useful information on wonderful dishes you can make in your own home. The recipes are in detail with a little history about how each dish got its start and how it may have changed.

Interesting , now I’m hungry

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author.
The book is an interesting listen, but I definitely would want a print version to take advantage of the recipe ideas.

This is the fourth book I’ve listened to by this narrator ( Denise Kahn ). She does well reading this content. The audio quality (as in other of her books) still lacking. The sound is tinny and wavers a bit. It’s distracting at first, but once into her books thankfully I get used to it and it is less distracting. I reduced the rating from 4 to 3.5 due to this.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

Story 4/5
Narration 3.5/5

Would be better in Print.

I loved the book and the narrator but this would be a book that olI personally would rather have in digital or hard cover as I would love to try some of the recipes. That being said, the book was very informative. Giving a brief description of the culture of each country, how the dish originated, as well as the recipe for you to try. I would love to read more books in this series but I will be getting the written copies in the future for the simple reason I would like the print recipes.

Really Good!!

There are so many amazing receipes in this book. So useful and different receipes.

All listeners should listen to Homemade Food.