Foodist: Cookbook Reviews

Spices of Life

By Nina Simonds

Award-winning author, Nina Simonds (A Spoonful of Ginger ) has had an ear cocked to the healing properties of food since beginning, as a teenager, her studies of Chinese cuisine in Taiwan. Give a culture a few thousand years to grow and flower and it will have a thing or two to say about what’s good to eat, and what’s good for you to eat, no question about it. Other cultures may not have it all quite as tabulated and codified as the Chinese (or Hindu culture with the laws of Ayurveda), but have settled over the eons on a way of life and cooking that works to the benefit, not the detriment, of the body. Mediterranean culture comes to mind. Measure all that against fast food and a culture (our own) that willfully strips time away from the daily need to eat – and not just eat alone, but as a family or group with time for each other – and you have the roots of a health crisis. So it’s perfectly natural for an insightful food writer like Nina Simonds to write a wonderful cookbook with the idea of health at it’s core. “Simple and Delicious Recipes for Great Health”: That’s the sub-head for Simond’s latest cookbook, Spices of Life.

She quotes Calvin Trillin right up front: “Health food makes me sick.” And she takes that nostrum to heart.