This book is at once an exploration, a celebration, and a little-known tale of unity. It presents 150 delicious vegetarian dishes that together trace a fascinating story of culinary linkage. As renowned cookbook writer and teacher Najmieh Batmanglij explains, all have their origins along the ancient network of trade routes known as the Silk Road, stretching from China in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. On this highway moved not just trade goods but also ideas, customs, tastes and such basics of life as cooking ingredients. The result was the connecting and enrichment of dozens of cuisines. In 'Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey', Najmieh Batmanglij recounts that process and brings it into the modern kitchen in the form of recipes that are venturesome and yet within reach of any cook. They are intended for vegetarian, partial-vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike -- anyone who is looking for balanced, unusual and exceptionally tasty dishes. The book offers a wealth of information derived from the author's extensive research and her travels along the Silk Road during the past 25 years. She complements the recipes with stories, pictures, histories of ingredients, and words of wisdom from her favourite poets and writers of the region. Introduction: A Travellers Tale; The Era of Caravans; New Foods -- East & West; Toward a Silk Road Cuisine; Salads, Eggs Rice Fruit & Vegetable Braises Pasta, Pizza & Bread Pastries, Desserts & Candies Teas, Coffee & Sherbets Preserves, Pickles & Spices Silk Road Glossary & Resources Credits & Acknowledgements Index.

"Kudos for Dahlia's beautiful Silk Road Vegetarian cookbook. Its food and lore are vibrant, evocative, and colorful, as are the pictures of the dishes and family gatherings. Each dish is as simple and wholesome as it is delicious. The book spans several cultures and cuisines while always remaining straightforward and within reach. All this and perfectly vegetarian and gluten-free. All I can say is WOW! You'll be eating your veggies, I guarantee it!--Levana Kirschenbaum (www.levanacooks.com), celebrity chef and author of The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen and Levana Cooks Dairy Free!"

This book is at once an exploration, a celebration, and a little-known tale of unity. It presents 150 delicious vegetarian dishes that together trace a fascinating story of culinary linkage. As renowned cookbook writer and teacher Najmieh Batmanglij explains, all have their origins along the ancient network of trade routes known as the Silk Road, stretching from China in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. On this highway moved not just trade goods but also ideas, customs, tastes and such basics of life as cooking ingredients. The result was the connecting and enrichment of dozens of cuisines. In Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey, Najmieh Batmanglij recounts that process and brings it into the modern kitchen in the form of recipes that are venturesome and yet within reach of any cook. They are intended for vegetarian, partial-vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike - anyone who is looking for balanced, unusual and exceptionally tasty dishes. The book offers a wealth of information derived from the author's extensive research and her travels along the Silk Road during the past 30 years. She complements the recipes with stories, pictures, histories of ingredients, and words of wisdom from her favorite poets and writers of the region. The scope of her culinary journey of discovery is vast - from Xian in China, to Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, to Isfahan in Iran, to Istanbul in Turkey, and to the westernmost terminus of the ancient trade routes in Italy. Her recipes - all of them personal favorites - include such exotic yet simple fare as Sichuan Crispy Cucumber Pickles; Afghan Boulani, a savory pastry stuffed with garlic chives; Persian Pomegranate and Walnut Salad; Kermani Pistachio and Saffron Polow with Rose Petals; Chinese Hot and Sour Tofu Noodle Soup; Turkish Almond and Rice Flour Pudding; Uzbek Candied Quince with Walnuts; and Sicilian Sour Cherry Crostata. Fortunately, all the ingredients for these recipes can be obtained at local supermarkets and farmers' markets. In recent years America has become a kind of modern Silk Road, where wonderful ingredients from all over the world are available to everyone. Najmieh Batmanglij's cookbook, Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies was mentioned as "One of the most exciting cookbooks I've seen in a while" by Yotam Ottolenghi in the Guardian, and her From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table won the Gourmand Cookbook Award for the world's best wine history book of 2007. She has spent the past 33 years traveling, teaching cooking, and adapting authentic Persian and Silk Road recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and has taught and lectured throughout the United States. She currently lives in Washington, DC, where she consults with restaurants around the world and teaches master classes in Persian and Silk Road cooking. Her most recent book is Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year.

Note: 100% of revenue from the cookbook will be donated to research efforts at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (www.UHRP.org)Please visit www.uyghurcookbook.com for instructional videos. This book is Uyghur-American Gulmira Propper's loving tribute to her mother and her masterful Uyghur recipes--a colorful collection of quintessential Uyghur dishes including hand-pulled noodles, lamb, pilaf, and more. Gulmira and her mom, Parida, are from Urumqi, the capital of the Uyghur region of central Asia, once a major port on the Silk Road, and home to a minority Turkic ethnic group, the Uyghur people. When Gulmira was a child, her family left the Uyghur region to seek a better life, resettling in Japan and ultimately in Nashville, Tennessee.Today, with the gross human rights violations of the Uyghur people, the preservation of the Uyghur culture is more important than ever. These recipes can hopefully help the world get to know the Uyghurs and the flavors of their cooking, and above all, keep the culture alive.

From the shores of the Black Sea to the sands of the Pacific, the foods enjoyed along the Silk Road whisper tales of connections between the cultures, histories, economies, and regions of Asia. In The Silk Road Gourmet, author Laura Kelley brings the breadth of Asian cooking to your door. Spanning more than thirty countries and including 1,000 recipes, the three volumes of The Silk Road Gourmet explore the cuisines of the countries that traded goods and shared culture along that great lifeline of the ancient world. This first volume surveys the cuisines of Western and Southern Asia from the Republic of Georgia to Sri Lanka and examines the cultural links between the countries that have led them to share ingredients, methods of preparation, and even entire dishes. This cookbook includes recipes for delicious and authentic main-course meat and vegetable dishes as well as appetizers, desserts, sauces, and condiments to grace contemporary, globalized tables. Learn how to prepare Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Walnut Sauce from the Republic of Georgia, Meatballs in Lemon Sauce from Armenia, and Cinnamon Potatoes with Pine Nuts from Azerbaijan. With fully tested recipes and step-by-step instructions, The Silk Road Gourmet brings the exotic home to you. Reviews We tried chicken with apricots in lemon pepper sauce: simple to make and assertively delicious, aromatic, and satisfying. If every dish is as good as this Afghani gem, Kelley's book will prove priceless. --Mick Vann - The Austin Chronicle The Silk Road Gourmet is one of those workhorse cookbooks, the kind that . . . will be kept on the kitchen counter while others get stored on the shelf. --Rose O'Dell King - Ft. Myers News-Post The first volume of The Silk Road Gourmet: Western and Southern Asia has been nominated for an award by Le Cordon Bleu's World Food Media Awards. --Le Cordon Bleu's World Food Media Awards For those who love to learn about history and the origin of foods. The Silk Road Gourmet is an excellent resource.It is a cross between an anthropology textbook and a cookbook. --Sarah Parkin - The Phoenix Examiner Silk Road Gourmet is not an ordinary cookbook. It is a culinary exploration of non-European methods of cooking, tastes and - to a certain extent - a different way of life. --Manos Angelakis, Luxury Web Magazine

A food writer travels the Silk Road, immersing herself in a moveable feast of foods and cultures and discovering some surprising truths about commitment, independence, and love. As a newlywed traveling in Italy, Jen Lin-Liu was struck by culinary echoes of the delicacies she ate and cooked back in China, where she’d lived for more than a decade. Who really invented the noodle? she wondered, like many before her. But also: How had food and culture moved along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Asia to Europe—and what could still be felt of those long-ago migrations? With her new husband’s blessing, she set out to discover the connections, both historical and personal, eating a path through western China and on into Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and across the Mediterranean. The journey takes Lin-Liu into the private kitchens where the headscarves come off and women not only knead and simmer but also confess and confide. The thin rounds of dough stuffed with meat that are dumplings in Beijing evolve into manti in Turkey—their tiny size the measure of a bride’s worth—and end as tortellini in Italy. And as she stirs and samples, listening to the women talk about their lives and longings, Lin-Liu gains a new appreciation of her own marriage, learning to savor the sweetness of love freely chosen.

Crossroads of Cuisine offers history of food and cultural exchanges in and around Central Asia. It discusses geographical base, and offers historical and cultural overview. A photo essay binds it all together. The book offers new views of the past.