From Venice To Istanbul, Rick Stein Recipe

In his most recent book, From Venice To Istanbul, Rick Stein discovers the flavours of the Eastern Mediterranean. In the introduction he mentions a restaurant in Venice whose menu states no pizza, no lasagna, no menu touristico. These are the restaurants we seek out all over Europe to ensure we eat where the locals eat. And this recipe book is about cooking what the locals cook, all influenced by the Byzantine era. The photographs are stunning but not every recipe has a photograph, and not all of the photographs are relevant to the recipe, or even on the same page as the recipe. Rick’s anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter tells a story personal to his experience. He provides us with the English name of the dishes as well as the…