Jim's Brain Online

I do almost all of the cooking in my house. As someone with a background in social science (sociology, psychology, anthropology), Biblical studies, and a general interest in other cultures, I tend to lean toward learning about ethnic cuisines as opposed to learning techniques for making a specific type of food (bread, cake, soups...).

Given the amount of time I actually have to cook, I should be getting cookbooks named things like "Simple, Easy, Fast Reciepes for the Clueless Cook" or perhaps "Recipes from Foriegn Countries That Children Will Actually Eat."

I actually lean toward cookbooks that have names like "The Complete Indian Cookbook" or "(Insert Ethnicity Here) Cuisine." The are generally thick, have no pictures, plenty of text, and extensive explanations about how the climate, cultural beliefs, and thousands of years of history contributed to the creation of the meals found within the book.

They generally include glossaries describing the ingredients. Generally, you will need the description.

Titles like "Chinese/Indian/Korean/Whatever Cuisine" do not actually convey the contents of the books. They should actually have names along the lines of "Meals Requiring Obscure Ingredients Not Found Anywhere Near You" or "Recipes That Assume You'll Start Two Days in Advance."

In short, they are the cookbook equivalent of O'Reilly books, describing obscure meals much as your average O'Reilly book describes unix (the least intuitive operating system ever) or certain programming languages/techniques. One difference might be that these cookbooks put more of an emphasis on the authenticity of the ingredients.

My most recent cookbook is a pretty good example of stuff I like. Its named "Lebanese Cuisine" and appears to include meals that are made more or less as they would be made in Lebanon. Most of them look very good, but, it does include a few meals I will probably never get up the nerve to make.

That group includes:
Snails (live snails preferred, they die in the process of being boiled)
Eggs Fried with Chicken Giblets
Lamb Tongue Salad
Brain Appetizer
Brain Omelet
Raw Kibbi (i.e. raw ground beef)

Nonetheless,I can't help but be curious. Perhaps I can find a restaraunt that includes a few on their menu.