toddtyrtle's review against another edition
4.0
Food, history, culture all wrapped up into one book. Took a while to finish this one as I didn't finish it in time and it had to go back to the library and spend some time with other readers before I could get it back and finish. Glad I persisted.
susanj13's review against another edition
3.0
A mixed bag of a travel-food memoir; mostly written based on the author's personal visits to friends in different parts of the country, so very selective in diversity. I call it a mixed bag, because the quality varies significantly between chapters. I thought the section on Mughlai food focusing on Delhi, Lucknow and Hyderabad was fantastic with some really interesting historical research. On the other hand, the one on Anglo-Indian food just seemed patronizing to the core...and yes, she did make a tour of my home state Kerala and wrote a nice bit about the Syrian Christian cooking culture, but spent most of the remaining text comparing Kerala to Bengal and also squeezed in some Chettinad cuisine in there to avoid writing an entire chapter on Tamil Nadu, I guess. Also, how on earth does one write about food in Kerala and not mention the sadhya at all?!
Something that really bothered me about her writing voice was the constant lamentation of how age old food practices were slowly vanishing with urbanization - an ironic complaint about progress in society when women are trying their best to get their lives out of slaving in the kitchen and the author herself is someone who has migrated and found herself a cushy life in faraway Boston. Found it a very unprofessional approach to modern day food writing.
It wasn't all bad but would hardly recommend it to either Indian or non-Indian. I am sure there are better books out there on the subject.
Something that really bothered me about her writing voice was the constant lamentation of how age old food practices were slowly vanishing with urbanization - an ironic complaint about progress in society when women are trying their best to get their lives out of slaving in the kitchen and the author herself is someone who has migrated and found herself a cushy life in faraway Boston. Found it a very unprofessional approach to modern day food writing.
It wasn't all bad but would hardly recommend it to either Indian or non-Indian. I am sure there are better books out there on the subject.
eila's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.5
I suppose I was expecting too much from this book. I had anticipated a sensory journey through some of India's major foodways or regions, dotted with a few particularly knockout recipes. Instead I got a bland summary that lacked both heart and depth.
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