By the Editors of Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet, $19.99, 224 pages
Recreating the flavors of the street, sampled and savored while trekking the world, just got a whole lot easier. From the exceptional travel writers of Lonely Planet comes a compendium of street food classics, all in one beautiful, celebratory cookbook. The World’s Best Street Food: Where to Find It and How to Make It introduces readers to the original fast foods of countries around the world. Each recipe occupies one spread, with the actual recipe on the right and information on the food’s origins, where to find it, what it tastes like and other tidbits of interesting information on the left.
“This was food like I’d never tasted before, big, ballsy and beautifully balanced, the sort of thing to restore one’s faith in life, love, the universe…then the chilies hit. Hard.”
The recipes appeal to a wide variety of tastes and are often easily adaptable. Vegetarian recipes are marked and all recipes are graded by ease of preparation and labeled by eating style (hands, utensils, chopsticks or drink). Exotic ingredients are highlighted and explained in the glossary. The index is organized by country and dish type, making finding a specific recipe simple. Cooks should note, though, that measurements are not consistent throughout the book; some are in volume and some in weight. This is a colorful, easy-to-navigate, exciting addition to anyone’s cookbook collection.
Reviewed by Andrea Klein
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