I am writing this on my way to Beirut for a week-long holiday, which is extremely fitting, considering the subject matter of this post. If you are a regular reader, you’re familiar with my love of Middle Eastern, North African and Central Asian food. It is therefore no wonder I absolutely had to have this book by the Beirut-born Anissa Helou as soon as I saw it.

Feast: The Food of the Islamic World is different from my other cookbooks because it’s not based on a geographical area (like Japan or the Mediterranean) nor a type of food (chicken or desserts, for example). It covers – as the title indicates – the cuisines of Islamic countries and regions: from Senegal to Indonesia, from Zanzibar to Xinjiang. I have long been fascinated by how similar ideas are expressed in different food cultures and how they gradually change from one region to another. The way the concept of the stew transforms on its way from Morocco to India is a great example of that and one I’ve loved to explore.

If this sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend checking out Feast, as this is exactly what the book does. It looks at the way for example bread or rice or dairy are treated in different Muslim countries and gives you recipes to try different variations. It also gives you the historic framework to make sense of these variations.

Feast is probably not the best choice if you are an absolute beginner and have no idea what a tagine is or feel very hesitant about using rose water in a savory dish. I can imagine that it might be too much info all at once and give you too many options, as the book is thick and thorough. It also does not have photographs for everything, which is not an issue for me, but if you are encountering a completely new cuisine, pictures are useful. In case you have already cooked your way through your Ghayours and Ottolenghis, however, this a very good place to go for some culturally contextualised food.

As I’ve just bought the book, I haven’t cooked from it much, but I have made three dishes: two labneh-based dips (one with tarragon and the other with aubergines) and the recipe that caught my eye immediately – lamb meatballs in sour cherry sauce, a quintessential Aleppo stew. All were tasty and the meatball recipe is easier to make than many other similar Middle Eastern dishes. The only thing I’d say is that I would probably use less cherries than indicated in the recipe, at least if making it with dried fruit.

As is becoming a tradition, I don’t have pictures to share of the results: I was busy with getting 10 dishes ready for 10 guests and that does not leave much time for snapping photos. In addition to Feasts, I cooked from The Food of Oman (the Zanzibari biryani is magnificent, but very time-consuming), Saraban and Persiana – books I continue to recommend to anyone interested in the food of the Middle World. Or in the food of the Islamic world, for that matter.

Have you discovered any great cookbooks lately?