fermented's review against another edition
I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for a review for Netgalley.
Based on the title, I was hoping this would be a collection of Cuban recipes and stories from a Cuban person's kitchen. I also imagined it might be full of stories from a Cuban-American person's kitchen. Nope. Instead, this book could more accurately be called Cuba! Recipes and Stories from Americans Who Visited Cuba Three Times.
The book's strength is its design - you can tell, even from the cover, that the book has a very visual layout. If you like the design of the cover, you will like the design throughout.
This feels more like an art book by American foodies for American foodies, interspersed with recipes and travel stories, than a resource about traditional Cuban food.
Based on the title, I was hoping this would be a collection of Cuban recipes and stories from a Cuban person's kitchen. I also imagined it might be full of stories from a Cuban-American person's kitchen. Nope. Instead, this book could more accurately be called Cuba! Recipes and Stories from Americans Who Visited Cuba Three Times.
The book's strength is its design - you can tell, even from the cover, that the book has a very visual layout. If you like the design of the cover, you will like the design throughout.
This feels more like an art book by American foodies for American foodies, interspersed with recipes and travel stories, than a resource about traditional Cuban food.
mrremi's review against another edition
4.0
This book gives you a nice look at the long hidden culture of Cuba and how the people have overcome their harsh and restrictive environment to preserve and build upon their delicious food history. I can't wait to try to recipes!
knel15's review against another edition
5.0
The food sounds amazing and the photography is beautiful. It is nice to be given a glimpse into a country that I know little about. There is nothing more inviting than sharing food and a cookbook is a great way to do that. Really beautiful, bright and fresh looking food.
lauraanne9's review against another edition
5.0
This makes me not only want to eat absolutely everything, but it also makes me want to visit Cuba.
Rice and beans...plantains...mango salsa...yum. Just yum.
The recipes are charming and accessible. The photos make you feel that you have been transported to Cuba, and they are so varied...the people, the country, the food are all beautifully represented. The written descriptions make the Cuban culture and experience vivid and accessible. This is so much more than a cookbook, it is a tour of Cuba, from kitchen to kitchen.
I highly recommend this book...and the food.
***ARC Provided by the Publisher and NetGalley***
Rice and beans...plantains...mango salsa...yum. Just yum.
The recipes are charming and accessible. The photos make you feel that you have been transported to Cuba, and they are so varied...the people, the country, the food are all beautifully represented. The written descriptions make the Cuban culture and experience vivid and accessible. This is so much more than a cookbook, it is a tour of Cuba, from kitchen to kitchen.
I highly recommend this book...and the food.
***ARC Provided by the Publisher and NetGalley***
barbara007's review against another edition
5.0
I got a copy of this cookbook from Net Galley (many thanks!) and couldn't stop reading, I gobbled it up in one sitting and now have plans for a month of Cuban dishes at home!
This charming look at Cuban cooking with nibbles of history and culture, glimpses in the lives of the people, give the reader the experience of traveling to authentic Cuban kitchens without ever leaving home. Full of recipes that are sure to please, reading this took me back to memories of my last trip to Cuba and made me hungry for more.
This charming look at Cuban cooking with nibbles of history and culture, glimpses in the lives of the people, give the reader the experience of traveling to authentic Cuban kitchens without ever leaving home. Full of recipes that are sure to please, reading this took me back to memories of my last trip to Cuba and made me hungry for more.
tonstantweader's review
3.0
Dan Goldberg, Andrea Kuhn and Jody Eddy made three trips to Cuba to do the research, cooking and photos for their cookbook ¡Cuba! Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen. They planned to focus on the paladores, underground kitchens using bootleg ingredients. However, they were overrun by tourists, so they instead turned to family cooking in the kitchens of everyday Cubans. This decision adds an authenticity and informality to the food.
The photos are stunning, particularly the photos of the people, their homes and their kitchens. I also loved the photos of the sea. The photos of the food had this authenticity and simplicity that set them apart from most cookbooks. The only false notes came from the shots of several dishes on a table at once. They looked so much the same and so much on trend. You know what I mean, lots of food, spilled herbs, nuts, and deliberate messiness. It’s done over and over and over in book after book and generally works. However, that spilling the food all over the table messiness is an expression of wealth and privilege and strikes a false note when representing the humble foods of people who make an art form of making do.
This cookbook is as much coffee table book as recipe collection. Every page is a picture. The text is printed on photos, many of them pictures of painted walls with peeling paint. In others, the text wraps around elements of the photo. It makes an extraordinarily beautiful book. Visually, this book is a feast.
The recipes are good, focusing on simple ingredients that speak for themselves. There are few recipes that have long lists of ingredients. There is not the abundance to indulge in that sort of cooking, instead a bit of salt, oil and roasting bring out the natural simple flavors of good ingredients.
I found myself feeling irritated, however, with Eddy’s frequent mentions of the oppressive Castro regime without even once mentioning the embargo. This is fundamentally dishonest and discredits the excellent work that went into researching the recipes and taking the photos. She repeatedly talks about the limited access to ingredients, to meat, the poverty and privation, the need to repair, not replace and on and on and on. With all that discussion of deprivation without even once using the word embargo is a massive failure of honesty. Telling the truth about the effects of the embargo would not excuse or diminish the regime’s restrictions on liberty, political speech and on the arts. It damages the writer’s credibility and does a disservice to the people of Cuba and the readers.
I was provided a review copy of ¡Cuba! Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen by Blogging For Books.
¡Cuba! Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen at Ten Speed Press
Dan Goldberg at Goldberg Photography
Andrea Kuhn at Andrea Kuhn Style
Jody Eddy web site
★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/15/cuba-recipes-and-stories-from-the-cuban-kitchen/
The photos are stunning, particularly the photos of the people, their homes and their kitchens. I also loved the photos of the sea. The photos of the food had this authenticity and simplicity that set them apart from most cookbooks. The only false notes came from the shots of several dishes on a table at once. They looked so much the same and so much on trend. You know what I mean, lots of food, spilled herbs, nuts, and deliberate messiness. It’s done over and over and over in book after book and generally works. However, that spilling the food all over the table messiness is an expression of wealth and privilege and strikes a false note when representing the humble foods of people who make an art form of making do.
This cookbook is as much coffee table book as recipe collection. Every page is a picture. The text is printed on photos, many of them pictures of painted walls with peeling paint. In others, the text wraps around elements of the photo. It makes an extraordinarily beautiful book. Visually, this book is a feast.
The recipes are good, focusing on simple ingredients that speak for themselves. There are few recipes that have long lists of ingredients. There is not the abundance to indulge in that sort of cooking, instead a bit of salt, oil and roasting bring out the natural simple flavors of good ingredients.
I found myself feeling irritated, however, with Eddy’s frequent mentions of the oppressive Castro regime without even once mentioning the embargo. This is fundamentally dishonest and discredits the excellent work that went into researching the recipes and taking the photos. She repeatedly talks about the limited access to ingredients, to meat, the poverty and privation, the need to repair, not replace and on and on and on. With all that discussion of deprivation without even once using the word embargo is a massive failure of honesty. Telling the truth about the effects of the embargo would not excuse or diminish the regime’s restrictions on liberty, political speech and on the arts. It damages the writer’s credibility and does a disservice to the people of Cuba and the readers.
I was provided a review copy of ¡Cuba! Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen by Blogging For Books.
¡Cuba! Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen at Ten Speed Press
Dan Goldberg at Goldberg Photography
Andrea Kuhn at Andrea Kuhn Style
Jody Eddy web site
★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/15/cuba-recipes-and-stories-from-the-cuban-kitchen/
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