[.ca] The Greatest Dishes!: Around the World in 80 Recipes (ISBN 0060197315)

Greatly Terrific:
I've been an avid reader of Anya Von Bremzen's culinary adventures in Food & Wine magazine and Travel & Leisure(where her roundup of hot new chefs in Spain last December was a mouthwatering scoop, a holiday treat.) So I opened The Greatest Dishes! with high expectations. Delighted to say I'm delighted! What I love here are Von Bremzen's tangy intros to each dish, sometimes personal (does she travel 24-7??), sometimes historical. And delightful range of delectibles--terrific lasagne; Shangai meatballs; tamales; a New Wave Ligurian chocolate cake! Potato salad (German, naturlicht)! (Some dishes I wouldn't have thought to put on my list, but darn they get a fresh appeal here). I guess if we can't all travel like Von Bremzen does, we can at least eat of what she eats. A wonderful book from one of our incomparably delightful and informed food writers. (Oh, recommendations in back, if you ever do make it to Marseilles, say(you lucky soul), and hanker for the best bouillabaise in town. Von Bremzen points you where to go.)