[.ca] The Food of India: A Journey for Food Lovers (ISBN 155285678X)

Wrong picture:
For those wondering why no bookstore sells this book, (the title is very common) the picture shown is incorrect. The picture should be of chili peppers in a red sauce held in a metallic rimmed bowl.

excellent:
though the cover picture is wrong but the recepies aren't- i am a professional chef with quite a good expertise in indian cuisine and in pursue to sharpen my skills in south indian- i find the recipes easy and also authentic in every aspect- the author may be a srilankan national( a wild guess by her name) but the work and the dedication has made her a authentic indian to her work. It is very appreciable hats off to the author priya. I have tried a few reciepes which are perfect and the pictures in the book are extrodinary to the western eyes bringing the streets of indian market to them.. I with no doubt give 5 star rating to this book

Wonderful!:
This gorgeous oversized hardcover (yes amazon has the wrong picture . . .) first gave me the impression that the authors' priority would be pretty pictures and recipes would come second. I was very pleased to find that I was wrong. The book has lovely and accurate recipes for everything an Indian Kitchen should have including how to make panner (indian home made cheese) chenna (cheese used to make desserts) yoghurt, obscure indian vegetables and the main staple recipes of most indian cookbooks. I do have two complaints - the recipes are given without possible western substitutions for indian ingredients . . E.G wrapping things in bananna leaves and cooking them. Sounds great but my indian store doesn't tend to carry bananna leaves. Would foil work?? I don't know. It usually helps if a recipe is tweaked to accomodate a western supermarket. Julie Sahni's book Savoring India does that wonderfully. Also, ocassionally there are fold out pages with little blurbs and pictures of things like street foods or snacks without a recipe for them. Nice to see but no way to cook them is provided. I would also like to make a comment about the growing size of the cookbooks nowadays. I hated the teensy weensy pocket paperbacks but these huge SUV's of the kitchen take up the entire counter space above a cabinet and are way to long and heavy for a standard cook book holder. about six inches shorter would have worked fine although some of the pretty decor would have had to go. All in all, a nice book for indian cooking

Gorgeous and useful:
This book is both gorgeous and useful. The many delicious recipes are interspersed with mini-photo essays on the geography and culture of the subcontinent. Every recipe I've tried from this book has been successful and delicious. (Try the Kasmiri chicken, cooked with yogurt, almonds, and pistachios!) However, I am lucky enough to live in a city (Houston) with a large ethnic Indian population and several sources of supply for some of the more unusual spices called for in these recipes without which it would be difficult to tackle these recipes.

Excellent book for Indian food.:
I have lived in Andhra(South East), Bangalore(South Central), Delhi(North) and Uttar Pradesh(North West) provinces of India for extensive periods of time. I have also lived in United Kingdom Germany United States and Canada. My perspective of this book comes both as a foreigner and an Indian. This book looks very closely at the culture of the Indian people in trying to bring out the recipes. The authors have done their research in terms of the background on Indian food and culture. Also the photographs are just beautiful, picturising the Indian cusine and the culture around making food. The photographs also capture the Indian life since a large population of Indians live on microeconomic means such as selling one or two of these dishes, vegetables, or such, to make their living. From the chat shops on Bombay Chaupati, to the south Indian dosa's I got lost in the color and flavours depicted in the book. I have the hardcover version of this book, and over the last year or so I have used the book on a regular basis whenever our family invites friends for dinner, which we do on a monthly basis. All our friends love the book and its recipes.