This book is worth the price of admission just for the photos which are gorgeous.  They, as well as the recipes make me want to track down some of the ingredients not readily available in my neck of the woods.  While the dishes look incredible and sound delicous, I don’t see myself whipping any of the up in my kitchen.  I do live dreaming of doing it though.

California cooking is fresh, local and imaginative and this is what this book is quintessentially.

You know those odd-vegetables that you see sometimes at the farmers market, but rarely have the guts to buy them?  Or if you do, once you get home and think "what on earth do I do with this?".  Well, this is the go to book for you. 

You know those people who have, like, a hundred recipe books and can sit for an evening reading them?  Well, this is for those people - everything that could possibly find in a farmers market is discussed in passionate detail.  This book will provoke and inspire cooks, and also cause people to think about ingredients for other recipes in a whole load of other ways.  A great gift for a passionate cook.

I  recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This is an interesting cookbook. The recipes inside are unusual but they sound fascinating. I can't wait to break out a few of these recipes already.

The thing that caught my eye most in this book we’re the photographs! They are beautiful and vibrant. I also like how the recipes are organized by the type of produce (leaves, spores and succulents, savory fruits, etc.). I definitely have added a visit to the Berkeley Bowl to my bucket list!

Note: I received a digital advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Diving into this cookbook, I had never heard of the Berkeley Bowl. This East Coast girl had never encountered "California's most iconic market", helpfully explained on the cover. It seems to be no ordinary market. From the author's reverent description in the intro, it's a family-run supermarket that's dedicated to stocking a wide array of rare and exotic produce and has come to embody the Berkeley food scene. 

This book turns out to be just as much a love letter to this market as it is a mini encyclopedia of the unusual and interesting fruits and vegetables one can find and buy from the Berkeley Bowl--as well as how to cook them, which would seem to be the main hurdle when you come home with such vegetables as chrysanthemum greens, stinging nettle, hedgehog mushrooms, and satsuma. Being Chinese, I have eaten a fair amount of the Asian vegetables, but there are many more that were foreign to me, and are sure to be foreign to the majority of readers. 

There is a page or two devoted to each vegetable or fruit, along with a recipe that McLively has created to highlight its best features. The recipes are as creative and globe-trotting as Treviso Spring Rolls with Black Tahini, Charred Cactus and Black Eyed Pea Chili, and Moroccan Cardoon Stew. A little detail that I loved is the little legend at the bottom of each recipe that includes what signs of freshness to look for when buying the fruit or vegetable, seasonal availability, storage information, and substitution options. 

It's immediately apparent that McLively knows her stuff. Each recipe comes with a blurb where she describes the qualities of the vegetable or fruit in rich detail, as well as why she cooks it the way she does. Her writing is compelling and filled with such vivid detail that despite not knowing many of the vegetables, I could almost taste them from the descriptions alone. This is the book's biggest strength. She clearly has a passion for cooking with fresh produce and a fearlessness in the kitchen that is inspiring to read about. 

The recipes are smart, approachable, but also impressive for company. They make me lament the fact that I don't have a Berkeley Bowl of my own to shop at. Some of them can be found at your local Asian market if it has a large enough produce section. Some can be found at gourmet grocery stores such as Whole Foods. I haven't had the chance to make any of the recipes yet, but I will update this review when I do. The recipes I'm most excited to cook are the Grilled Cheese with Mizuna, Dates, and Goat Brie; Sweet Corn and Chive-Stuffed Squash Blossoms; Roasted Chestnut Chocolate Torte; Morel Pot Pies with Asparagus and Peas; and Anaheim  Chile and Corn Chowder. If you're a vegetarian, you're in for a treat because all of these recipes are vegetarian. As a meat-eater, I didn't find that I was missing meat dishes, as that would defeat the whole purpose of the cookbook. 

The other strength of this cookbook--the photos. They are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and some of the best I've ever seen in a cookbook. They are bright, colorful, and perfectly evoke the sunniness of McLively's Berkeley kitchen. My one biggest criticism of this book is that I wish there were more photos. There are pictures for about a quarter of the dishes, far too few when a lot of the vegetables were new to me. She does helpfully include a key at the end where there are pictures of all of the vegetables and fruit. 

My other major criticism is the layout, which I felt could have been more organized. She groups the recipes by types of vegetable/fruit, rather than meal course. There are desserts interspersed with appetizers and mains, which felt odd and might make it harder to go back to recipes later.

Clearly, I loved this book. At first, I was worried it would be too niche and only useful for people near the Berkeley Bowl, or a similar market. However, with some persistence, I could probably find most of the ingredients in this book even in New England, and at the very least, this is a useful collection of knowledge for any aspiring cook.

If you are drawn to markets like the Berkeley Bowl, but don't know what to do with the beautiful food that is presented to you, get this book. The founding story of the Berkeley Bowl at the beginning of the book is a very interesting read and it is fascinating how its existence has shaped a whole community. When it comes to the recipes in this book,  I have to say that I have never had such intense food cravings as the one I had when I read the Berkeley Bowl. I instantaneously had  the urge to shop at a similar market in my own home town and start cooking. Everything looks so fresh and is brimming with color. Although the recipes in this book feature exotic ingredients, they are all easy to prepare. By studying  Laura's recipes I will get more familiar with the foods I have previously  passed up at my local market because I did not know how to prepare them.

This is an inspired cookbook. The author, using Berkeley Bowl Market as an inspiration, makes up some very exotic recipes.  For the adventurous cook, this is a must-have cookbook.

I was given an ARC of this book for an honest review.
What an Unusual and Unique Cookbook. I was astounded at the amount of very different ingredients. Some of the recipes will be a taste test to remember. I have already earmarked a few to try this weekend. The desserts sound wonderful and I will be taking along some to friends and family for the festive season. I was impressed with the instructions of where one could obtain some of the unusual ingredients and it will be an adventure to try and obtain them in the Farmers Markets where I reside. I would recommend this Cookbook to those who are into Healthy foods and are not afraid to try new and unusual tastes

I was curious to see the recipes in this book and it exceeded my expectation. The recipes are exciting and unsual and help to discover new ways of cooking. Many thanks to Netgalley and Parallax Press

Extravagant and delicious. This books impress me with the original recipes. The author provides a good choice of recipes that can be don through the year.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  From the publisher - 														
Description
Celebrating the unfamiliar yet extraordinary produce from California's most iconic market, Berkeley Bowl, this cookbook offers recipes for a panoply of fruits and vegetables that have been largely overlooked or forgotten in popular cuisine.
Registered dietician Laura McLively, an avid home cook and creator of the popular blog MyBerkeleyBowl, created a recipe for every unfamiliar or "exotic" fruit and vegetable she found at Berkeley Bowl. Here is a collection of her favorite discoveries, and a tribute to the remarkable, 40-year-old family-run market that inspired them. 
Shining a spotlight on the versatile and unique qualities of the astonishingly beautiful, plant-based bounty that's available to vegetarians and meat eaters alike, these recipes and photographs will help you embrace hundreds of exciting fruits and vegetables you may never have tasted or thought of cooking, including crunchy sea bean spindles, tubers bigger than a toddler, wiry-haired rambutans, and wrinkly skinned Indian bitter melon. Eating more types and colors of plants exposes us to a wider variety of nutrients, antioxidants, and beneficial bacteria. 
Berkeley Bowl is a mecca for great chefs, and with the recipes in this cookbook, you'll see why. Even if you don't live near Berkeley Bowl, getting your hands on these ingredients can be a fun and rewarding experience in its own right, and cooking with them will make your meals explode with flavors, textures, and new culinary adventures for all your senses.
A partial list of recipes: Green Garlic Soup with Lemon Cardamom Yogurt, Sweet & Sour Tofu with Gooseberry,      Charred Nopal and Black-eyed Pea Chili,  Corn and Chive Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Pepino Melon Poke,     Stuffed Indian Eggplant, Morel Pot Pie, and Starfruit Almond Torte.

Oh, what a lovely cookbook!!! There are some seriously yummy looking and sounding recipes in here although I am not sure how many I will b able to make living in Canada with little or no access to these fruits and vegetables, especially in the winter.  A girl can dream though ... four solid stars!

Wow, this is one fabulous cookbook. It is filled with vivid images of the fresh ingredients, including images from the independent grocery store that inspired this book. It's my dream grocery store! Some recipes seem fancy (mostly due to the exotic ingredients), others are simple, and many are simple but with a fancy flair! One I will be making soon is the Green Garlic Soup with Lemon Cardamom Yogurt- hello! 😊 That won't be the only recipe I try, as I have many bookmarked to try in the future. I love cookbooks filled with pictures, and this one certainly is. If you enjoy fresh produce and a few fun ingredients tossed in from time to time, this is an adventurous cookbook to try! 

Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley, for the complimentary copy.