The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey

by Laila El-Haddad, Maggie Schmitt, Nancy Harmon Jenkins

This award-winning cookbook shares with readers the little-known but distinctive cuisine of the Gaza region of Palestine, presenting 130 recipes collected by the authors from Gaza. Cooks will find great, kitchen-tested recipes for spicy stews, piquant dips, fragrantly flavored fish dishes, and honey-drenched desserts. They will also be entranced by the hundreds of beautiful photos of Gazan cooks, farmers, and fresh-produce merchants at work, and by the numerous in-kitchen interviews in which these women and men tell the stories of their food, their heritage, and their families. Anthony Bourdain, Claudia Roden, and Yotam Ottolenghi are among the many culinary figures who have embraced The Gaza Kitchen. This second edition features tantalizing new stories and recipes, a fresh new design in a beautiful hardbound volume, new photos, and an updated index.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Middle East, History, Travel

580 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2013

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

The food must be good - the people in Gaza have the highest rate of obesity in the world - the Al-Monitor says the Palestinians themselves put it at between 72% and 75%. So much for Israel starving the people. All this food can't be coming the way of the tunnels. I love Middle Eastern food and have recently read three books on it, Palestine on a Plate, Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking and Jerusalem: A Cookbook which is an Israeli-Palestinian collaborative cookbook. This book will make a nice addition to that collection especially as it is supposed to have a lot of lush food photography.

[Zora O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wrote a review about an Oman cookbook, which made me remember this *fantastic* book from a few years ago. I wish every cuisine in the world was documented in such a thoughtful, thorough way. There's so much in here beyond recipes -- notes on how dishes vary from village to village, pics of women in their home kitchens, an essay on the debate over whether Gaza should strive to grow all its own food, and even a box on the super-basic cooking techniques Gaza cooks use before a recipe even starts. It's these little details--which direction people slice their onions, how they handle meat, etc--that make the distinctions between cuisines, and it's so easy for a cookbook author to gloss over them.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in Middle Eastern food. The Gaza Strip is *tiny*, but there are things in this book that are not cooked anywhere else in the region. So interesting.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this cookbook! It's beautifully photographed, the recipes are fantastic, and it's an important glimpse into a unique food culture under threat. Wonderful, insightful book!

[Marleene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great recipes. Fascinating food traditions. Lavishly photographed. Warm personal interviews with a variety of Palestinian people from different walks of life.

This is unfortunately offset by the author's strong political bias which permeates the book - and her one sided propaganda campaign to paint Israel as an evil neighbor incarnate and the residents of Gaza as innocent victims

Sharing food should bring us together and create common grounds for discussion and understanding and appreciation. There is a degree of intimacy among those sharing food together, even if in a book and not actually at the table. I am saddened that the author did not attempt this In fact, this is the first cookbook I have encountered with the opposite agenda. It was clear that I would not be welcomed into the authors home even though I brought her into mine.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Review is for the third edition.) Beautiful book, from the stories, recipes, to the photos. The author and photographer spent time in families' kitchens across Gaza, sharing recipes, anecdotes, gossip, and food. It feels like a privilege to read it. I made maqlooba for the first time this weekend and it was delicious!

[Rob Withers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening.... I'd heard about the distinctiveness of Gazan cooking for awhile, glad to get to learn about it. And saddened to see how my government has sponsored harmful sanctions.....

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

chicken - eggplant - fish - cumin
lemon - dill - garlic
chickpeas - cucumber

---

chicken broth

cinnamon stick - allspice - cardamon
cloves - rosemary - nutmeg
mastic - bay leaf - onion

[Jake Kenswil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fantastic recipes

[Colton Brydges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important book as a cultural history of Palestinian cuisine, and putting a spotlight on women's stories. But also an examination of the oppressive conditions in Gaza, as manifested through food. This is worth a read in 2023

[Ehab Zahriyeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/page...

[Can Dragons Read? · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a horrible cook and I don't typically review cookbooks or books about food in general, but learning about Palestine means more than just reading about their pain and struggles- it's learning and celebrating their culture which includes all this amazing food. 😍

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good collection of recipes !

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much more than a cook book. It is also a testament to the beauty and resilience of a people and a culture. I hope they are able to survive. 🇵🇸

[Omama. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herby, spicy, peppery, lemony. The Gaza cuisine is too good.

[Joyce]

Painful to look at the wonderful photos of special people --- to wonder how many are still alive.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful journey through Palestinian food and its people.

[Tineke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for a few years, but decided to read it once more, given what is happening in Gaza right now. The author collected tasty recipes, but more interesting, for me at least, are the stories of the Gazan cooks, mostly women. Many Palestinians fled to Gaza from 1948 onwards, and they all brought their own recipes, with differences between Palestinians from the North, the coast or the countryside. In the interviews the cooks tell proudly about their houses or farms, kitchen gardens and special dishes.
It is unbearable to think that some of the contributors will have been killed, and most of them are displaced presently...

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed all the side stories and personal tidbits. The food is a bit too hot for my taste, but I mellowed it out with labna and cheeses. Great book for understanding culture and people in Gaza.
The details on UNRWA, cultural appropriation, water, malnutrition, and sustainability were very informative for how short they were.
Overall the book provides a well-rounded picture of life in Gaza and how the people have adapted to Israeli and Egyptian oppression.