Culinary Travels

A delightful book of stories, musings and delicious recipes. In kindle format it is not so enticing but spend a little time and dig a bit deeper and you will find a great selection of delicious accessible recipes. An interesting selection from biscuits to goulash with info and stories to add to the flavour of the book.

There’s no table of contents. The book starts with a brief introductory prologue. Each chapter deals with a specific country/region and begins with a little introduction. The chapters are: Germany, Austria, & Switzerland (11 recipes, including 2 deserts and a drink); Italy (14); England & Ireland (9); France (12); Belgium (9); Spain (10); and Poland (12).

The chapters vary in number of recipes as well as their variety. The book as a whole includes quite a few seafood recipes, a few meat recipes, a decent number of vegetarian recipes, and deserts from each region. It includes well known regional specialties (Belgian waffles, pierogi, French onion soup) as well as less familiar options. There’s also a good mix of simple recipes to more complex fare.

Each recipe is accompanied by a photograph, mostly of the finished dish though a few have photos at a later stage in the cooking process.

I made two recipes, tortilla Española (sweet potato omlet) and surówka z marchewki z jabłkiem (carrot salad with apples). The instructions were easy to follow and both tasted very good (I did half yellow and half sweet potatoes for the tortilla).

The chapter introductions often mention the importance of slowing down in life and travel to experience the moment and really savour your food. Always a useful reminder.

It’s a nice cookbook with a good variety of recipes from around Europe.

This book takes you on a mouthwatering gastronomic journey across europe!

The author shares some classics of the european food culture. There’s ratatouille, bavarian cream, focaccia, etc.

The things that she makes look really good, the only downside to this book is the pictures, which aren’t very “professional looking” (sometimes you can see the isle and cabinets behind the plates)

“Culinary Travels: Memories Made at the Table” by Emily Szajda is a fine collection of recipes and recollections from the author’s time in Europe. Part travelogue, part personal history, part cookbook, Ms. Szajda has created an interesting introduction to the pleasures of the European table.

The book is grouped by country, and it follows the author’s travels and adventures. Each country/area starts with a brief introduction and a personal history before digging into the recipes from that region. The recipes also have an introduction as to why it was included, or how it was experienced. For the most past, the recipes are either pretty straightforward and often include basic/traditional dishes (French onion soup, Belgian waffles, etc.) with the occasional complex recipe or surprise addition.

Being of Polish descent, I appreciated the section on Poland, which is often overlooked in this type of book. Nothing too strenuous here, but a solid sampling that will make you want to visit the countries themselves.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Black Rose Writing via NetGalley. Thank you!

I liked the premise of the book on food based around the author's travels. Every chapter begins with a different country. There are some tales of the author's experiences in those countries and how that lead to creating memories through food. There are many recipes available and seem to be rather easy to prepare. Overall it was an interesting book to read.

I love cookbooks, but really enjoy when the books include tales of the travels and collections of the foods fetured in the book! This is a fun read and I can't wait to see the actual book to see the photos in color!