A truly fascinating book especially in light of what is happening in Israel/Gaza today. It gives a wonderful insight the life of the people and the recipes are ones I will definitely be trying.

Dies ist ein wunderbares Buch voller Geschichten, die zu jedem Rezept gehören. Ich liebe es, etwas über neue Kulturen zu erfahren und habe dieses Kochbuch sehr gerne gelesen. (ja, ich lese Kochbücher). Es gibt so viele wunderbar klingende Rezepte, die man ausprobieren kann, vom Frühstück bis zum Abendessen und alles dazwischen. Ich werde es genießen, mich durch dieses Buch zu kochen.

This is a good way to communicate what once was, in light of what’s currently happening, using the one thing that can usually bring people together, FOOD. The stories behind the recipes are equal parts uplifting and heartbreaking.
I hope the time will come when the focus is how to live peacefully and the origins of the conflict, while not forgotten, be forgiven and laid to rest.

What a wonderful book full of tasty recipes and photos. I loved the stories about the people who shared the recipes with the author. Highly recommend for any one who loves middle eastern food. Thanks to Aurora Metro and Netgalley for this review copy.

I received a free ebook copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This is a wonderful cookbook, filled with recipes, stories, and photos of the people who share meals with the author. What a treat. There are lots of delicious recipes for food I know I enjoy, but haven't had a reliable recipe to work from until now. There are breakfasts, snacks, mains, and sweets that you can try at home. Most ingredients needed are relatively easy to find in grocery stores and specialty shops, and the recipes are easy to follow.

Definitely check this book if you'd like to expand your culinary repertoire!

The Arab-Israeli Cookbook is spectacular. Although I haven’t cooked from it, the recipes are well-known and uncomplicated. ( You will have to convert to American standard measurements.) what I loved about the book was the introduction to each recipe- the author’s anecdotes about the Israeli and Palestinian cooks who welcomed her crew into their homes. She depicted them as gentle, king, and welcoming as I had found them to be in my trips to Israel and Jordan. So, while the food and recipes will enrich the reader’s palate, the narrative will enrich the reader’s connection with humanity.

Thanks to Net Galley and Aurora Metro Books for an e print in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fairly basic cookbook. It has great recipes in it but the instructions aren't always super easy to understand in the way that they are just very simple. Instead of detailed directions they are more vague. The reason for republishing this book is really nice ans understandable.

Possibly a little unfair to review this book twenty odd years after its publication. This book was written before Ottelengification and before Sabrina Gayhour. The recipes seem somewhat dated and simple. Perhaps a tuna melt was “authentic” to that household but not really something I want to find in an Israeli/Arab cookbook.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Absolutely love this! As a Lebanese woman, it is so wonderful to not only find a cookbook with authentic recipes, but also have it filled with personal stories to go along with each one. Highly recommend!!

Beautiful original pictures, mouth watering recipes and an exotic atmosphere that made me feel hungry all the time. I really loved it!

A true representation of the cuisine of Israel and Palestine from the local people who make the best of the best. Worth every penny to add it to your collection.

There's something very poignant about reviewing 'The Arab-Israeli Cookbook' by Robin Soans (Aurora Metro, Sep 2005) during Pesach while the news is filled with the latest conflict. And yet, it's also precisely the right time for this small, gentle book.

I haven't seen the show that this book accompanies, and wouldn't have normally opted to read something that would likely heavily reference something I hadn't watched, but adding Claudia Roden's name to the cover cinched it, and I'm glad I took the chance.

This sits somewhere between a travelogue, a cookbook, and a series of mini autobiographies. The author's writing is comfortably reined in: you can feel the moments when Soans really wants to wax poetic but doesn't, and instead allows his interviewees' words to center his prose. It strikes the right balance, I think; given a larger canvas, perhaps his prose would have become overbearing, but tightly wrapped around descriptions of people, locations, and tastes, the relative restraint works.

As a travelogue, it's very brief, but edited skillfully - each little snippet brings you into a home, or a restaurant, or a not-quite-tent, and into a place that for many feels distant and unknowable.

The interviewees are a diverse as the reality of this restive slip of earth: the observant Muslim who smokes, the gay couple who host Shabbat, the Amazigh partiarch who longs for the pastoral freedom that the current situation can't allow. And between the hurt and the worry, you get a glimpse of the reality: of the everyday people, Arab and Jewish, observant and atheist, who just do their best to coexist in an increasingly fragile peace.

As a cookbook, it's somewhat niche: these are recipes as told by the cooks, and so some feed 400, some are from a restaurant, and some are from home. A confident cook will find lots here to enjoy, and have no trouble adapting the recipes to their needs. I certainly wouldn't recommend most of the recipes for anyone new to cooking or not used to tasting, adjusting, and making a recipe their own, but those that do will find plenty of inspiration.

This is a lovely little book, and a balanced representation of society & politics, which doesn't try to reach beyond presenting the interviewees as genuine, warm, and real. Very much worth the read.

Thank you to the publisher for providing this ARC for my unbiased review.

A wide variety of recipes with some nice pictures. I personally prefer when recipe steps are numbered instead of in paragraph form like in this book, but still easy enough to follow.

What a wonderful, and timely collection. I cannot wait to dive in to some of the dishes described herein. A great addition to a growing shelf

I think this is exactly the cookbook we need right now. Arab-Israeli cuisine has such rich heritage and echoes of it can be found across the world. I've attempted a hummus recipe more than once over the years with questionable success, but I can safely say it's one of my favourite foods.

A quote right at the beginning really resonated with me, "If you have shared food with someone, you can never betray him as you have sealed your relationship before God". I am not particularly religious but food is incredibly important to me and my family heritage (Mediterranean), we absolutely show love and respect through food and I get the feeling this is also at the heart of this book.

I love the personal touches throughout the book, stories of making things like hummus, or people's individual touches to dishes and what they mean to them makes this different and so important during the current atrocities.

My only complaint is that sometimes the recipes aren't clear and/or refer to recipes elsewhere in the book without clear page guidance and I found it quite hard to follow.

This book of stories and photos and food will warm your heart and fill your stomach. Lots of recipes from Middle Eastern culture in this award-winning cookbook.

I like the photos of real people, interesting meals, and backdrops of friendship and neighborly relationships. In this season of war and conflicts, this book is a timely reminder that people are people. Whether someone in power is trying to disrupt, common decency brings us together around the table.

The recipes are organized by type and named for their creators. Made me smile - and hopeful that peace will be rebuilt and prevail through hospitality among Arabs and Israelis (and the rest of us, too.)

It was rather confusing. I thought it was just ok. I love to read cookbooks and this was a bit odd. I did learn a little which is the best part.

An older book, but still relevant today. This is less a cookbook and more a travel diary interspersed with stories and recipes. The photos of the food are lacking, but an interesting read nonetheless.

This is a wonderful book full of stories to go with each recipe. I love learning about new cultures and thoroughly enjoyed reading this cookbook. (yes I read cookbooks). There are so many wonderful sounding recipes to try here, from breakfast to dinner and everything in between. I will enjoy cooking my way through this book.

The Arab-Israeli Cookbook features recipes, interviews, and history. There are photos of the food and people in their daily life. The cookbook is written in a very storyline way with the different inclusions of photos and quotes.

The sections are breakfasts, light meals, main courses, desserts, and dairy. The recipes are incorporated from different groups of people, so it is a good combination of a bunch of different peoples recipes which is nice. Due to this some recipes have the ingredients listed without specific measurement while others do have measurements.

The history and interviews of the cookbook have a bigger presence than the recipes in some of the sections. The metric system is the International System of Units (SI), so that is something to take note of. Overall, there are a lot of recipes I have not tried before so it will be very interesting to cook some.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.