Ideas Post 22: Vote for a Recipe

When I was in San Francisco a few months ago I found time to stop by the great Omnivore Books and browsed my way through their terrific cookbook collection. Once I discovered they would ship for a flat fee, meaning I wouldn't have to lug the books onto my plane and I wouldn't be paying CA sales tax, I couldn't help buying two of the cookbooks that had caught my eye: Divine Food and Five Morsels of Love. Both books are a little different relative to your typical cookbook. Divine Food includes fascinating descriptions of the gastronomical traditions, contemporary cuisine, and regional specialties in Israel and Pakistan. Five Morsels of Love is one of the most visually stunning cookbooks I've ever come across, by a woman determined to complete her late grandmother's unfinished cookbook, despite the granddaughter never having cooked before.

In addition to these two brilliant books, a co-worker of mine gifted me with a loan of one of his favorite cookbooks, and I have been too busy cooking from it to return it. A Taste of the Orient was published in 1987, compiling recipes from across Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, China, India, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, and the Philippines. There are a lot of recipes in here I've never seen in other cookbooks on the region, so it's been a lot of fun flipping through.

In honor of these lovely books, I'm offering six recipe ideas this week. Please vote (by Monday) for your favorites, and don't limit yourself to just one... I'll try to get through at least 2-3 this week.

A) Sweet Focaccia with Oranges from Divine Food

B) Citrus Poppy Seed Strudel from Divine Food

C) Thin Korean Pancakes (Bindae Duk) from a Taste of the Orient

D) Chicken and Spiced Vegetables (Sayur Kari Daging Ayam) from a Taste of the Orient

E) Hyderabadi Chicken Curry (Dum Ka Murgh) from Five Morsels of Love

F) Omelette Pulusu (Spiced Omelette Curry) from Five Morsels of Love