IamAFoodie

You won't want to miss Ristorante Ostaria del Duomo in Cefalu. Great food. I especially enjoyed the stuffed fish rolls made with mahi-mahi (involtini di lampuga). In case you haven't found it yet, a recent surfing on Amazon turned up a new guidebook on Sicilian food for travelers: Eat Smart in Sicily.

I'm looking for more information about a type of biscotti apparently made only in Aidone. The biscotti contain wine and are understandably called biscotti con il vino. Their shape is suppose to represent a dove and they are a specialty for Easter. I have seen pictures of them and their shape is strange, hardly bird like. Has anyone seen these special biscotti from Aidone and/or know anything more about them?

I'm looking for more information about a type of biscotti apparently made only in Aidone. The biscotti contain wine and are understandably called biscotti con il vino. Their shape is suppose to represent a dove and they are a specialty for Easter. I have seen pictures of them and their shape is strange, hardly bird like. Has anyone seen these special biscotti from Aidone and/or know anything more about them?

My choices: Mary Taylor Simeti's "Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food" was enjoyable. Also, since I was planning to visit Peru, I was fortunate to learn about and buy a copy of a handy culinary guidebook before I left. Its title is "Eat Smart in Peru: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure." I just received a copy of "A Baghdad Cookery Book" newly translated by Charles Perry. It's a translation of a 13th-century Arab text, and it looks quite interesting.

Hola Mariana, I'm the director of the Travel Publishers Assn. Which of my 80+ member pubs are you writing for this time? I love them all, the behemoths with a begillion titles down to those with single titles! You probably don't have too many pages to work with, so making choices on what to include beyond the basics may be a bit difficult. It's hard to condense when there are so many wonderful ingredients and dishes you want to mention. In my experience, the one food item that comes up immediately in any conversation about Peruvian food, one that negatively resonates with people who have been to Peru, and even many who haven't been but are in the "know," is the Peruvian fondness for guinea pig (cuy). Since we in the US and in many other countries tend to think of guinea pigs as pets, or at least not something to eat, the response to eating them is typically one of, well, disgust. We ate them in the name of research. Here's an opinion to share with you as you contemplate your game plan. Countless people have mentioned to me that one of the biggest problems with guidebooks is that the restaurants mentioned for a particular locale/city in any given guidebook are the only ones that a great many travelers dare to venture into. This means, they state, that the restaurant's clientele (depending on the size of the guide's readership) is primarily made up of travelers carrying the same book, (and therefore they all have the same handful of restaurant choices)-- and they say they don't travel to a foreign country to eat with their compatriots, nice as they may be. These people tend to use guidebooks for info on sights and places to stay, and ask locals or hotel staff for recommendations of good eateries that aren't full of tourists. It's difficult to get around this problem. Space limitations of your chapter dictate how many restaurants you can add, and many of your readers will go to the ones you mention, repeating the cycle alluded to above. In my culinary guidebooks I discuss what there is to eat so don't have this problem, and an additional benefit is that my guidebooks don't go out of date. I wish you well on this project. Peru is such a grand destination!

Mariana, Can I say this in our discussion group? My culinary travel guidebook to the foods of Peru (Eat Smart in Peru: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure) was published a couple of months ago. When we all were asked recently about news of interest to eGullet-ers, I sent a short PR but don't know if it was put online here. You can read more about the book on amazon.com or ginkgopress.com. We spent about 2 months in Peru, eating and eating and eating. Sigh. Oops, could have said suspiros :-) To your question, the book includes a chapter of recipes contributed by some of Peru's finest chefs (plus several more chapters to make you pretty savvy about Peruvian food). We visited many restaurants throughout the country and had a great variety of dishes demonstrated for us. In Lima, you might also want to try A Puerta Cerrada, Senorio de Sulco, Huaca Pucllana, Astrid y Gaston, Manos Morenos, Wa Lok, Punta Sal and Naylamp (sorry, all accent marks omitted). BTW, this book is all about WHAT there is to eat, not where to eat it, tho if you look at the picture captions, see the chefs and dishes photo'ed, etc. etc., you can get a pretty good idea of where we were and what we thought about the food.

I'm wondering if the menus in Sicily are in Italian or Sicilian?

Has anyone bought cashews in the markets and see that they are called either anacardo or maranon there? I'm thinking these Spanish names aren't in common usuage there. Probably they are called and spelled cachues??

Peruvians have many soup-like dishes on their menus. There is one called an aguadito. Does anyone know what distinguishes a dish called aguadito from, say, one called sopa or chupe? (Caldo is more or less a broth.)

A popular use of aji amarillo is in the Peruvian dish called causa. The mashed potato component of this preparation is colored and flavored with a paste made of these peppers. There probably are lots of recipes on the Net for this classic and delicious dish.

I've recently read about the salt pans near Maras in the Sacred Valley. Does anyone know the history of this area? Since it's nowhere near the sea, the ground water must become saline by seeping through layers of rock salt. I gather the salt pans are hard to get to, but I intend to try when in Peru this summer. Would appreciate hearing more about the salt harvesting.

I did some further searching for books in English about Peruvian cookery besides the one by Copeland Marks. This is what I found: Tastes of Peru by Marina Polvay June 03 ISBN 0781809657 A Russian Jew Cooks in Peru by Violeta Autumn 1973 ISBN 0912238410 Peruvian Experience: Cuisine & Culture in the Land of the Incas ISBN 1567900704 Because this book is quite short (35 pp.), I suspect it might be for children. This may be of interest for the African influence in Peruvian cuisine, which we know occurred. The Peppers, Cracklings & Knots of Wool Cookbook: The Global Migration of African Cuisine by Diane M. Spivey Dec 2000 ISBN 0791443752 The Autumn book is available used for $67.41. The Spivey book for $14.10. The others aren't available as far as I know. I've order all 4 through our university library's world-wide lending program, so I'll have a chance to see their content. I can report back on this when I get my hands on them in the next few weeks (I hope). Now I'll have to begin looking for Peruvian cookbooks in Spanish! Anyone have some titles to report on?

I will look up the book you suggested by Sophie Coe. I'm familiar with her wonderful book, "The True History of Chocolate," finished posthumously by her husband, so the one you recommended is bound to be insightful. Thanks. I have the one cookbook in English I know of that features Peruvian food, written by Copeland Marks. I'm also interested in any Peruvian cookbooks in Spanish and sources to buy them. There must be many of them available, but at this point I don't know which ones are the best in their genre.

Are there any Peruvians on this list? or past traveling foodies who would know what cities or villages in Peru (coastal, Andes and Amazon regions) are noted for special regional dishes? I'm putting together an itinerary for a trip this summer and food is my focus.