Foodist: Cookbook Reviews

Taverna: The Best of Casual Mediterranean Cooking

By Joyce Goldstein

You could start with carmelized orange custard or figs stuffed with chocolate and almonds, and work your way backwards through Joyce Goldstein's Taverna, and the food simply gets better and better.

Whether the Greek taverna, the Turkish lokanta, the Portuguese tasca, or the Spanish taberna, small plates of delicious foods meant to be savored with wines and coffees and the gossip of the day - that's the rule of thumb. Think garlic shrimp or zucchini fritters and you are close. Fried mussels with nut sauce, and cheese-filled pastries, you're closer still. With a Greek salad, eggplant and tomato pilaf, stewed clams with ham, sausage and tomato, and braised pork with quince, you may as well pull up a chair and seat yourself at the village table. You are going to be in this particular taverna for quite some time, so delicious are the possibilities.

Joyce Goldstein has a flair for recipes that capture the heart and soul of a place, making the foods of the Mediterranean accessible to any kitchen anywhere.
Schuyler Ingle...