friederike's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
Mediterranean Seafood: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes
By Alan Davidson
Ten Speed Press - 2002
What a great informative book! About two thirds of this 300 page book is more or less an excyclopedia of fish and seafood of the Mediterranean. For each fish/seafood some basic information (family, latin name, etc.) is given, as well as it's name in most of the Mediterranean languages (as well as, obviously, the English one). this is followed by a few remarks on appearance, habits and the like, an illustration (black and white drawing), and information on how the fish tastes and how it is used in Mediterranean cuisine, as well as, if applicable, in which recipes the fish is used.
About the last third of the book is filled with recipes, sorted by country, along with some details on the respective cuisine and some useful information on seafood in general (how to recognize if fish is fresh etc.). Until now, recipes have been quite reliable, though they tend to be on the complicated side of cooking, and not everything might be explicitly mentioned. Also, there are no pictures in this last part of the book.