Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998, Pages 125-126

Book Review

Alice’s Kitchen

By Linda Dalal Sawaya. Linda Sawaya Design, 1997, 216 pp. List: $17; AET: $13.

Reviewed by Raja M. Abu-Jabr

Linda Dalal Sawaya is an enthusiastic Lebanese-American cook who writes with family memories and love as her Alice’s Kitchen shows. Sawaya is also a painter, graphic designer, photographer, children’s book illustrator, and writer as well as the youngest of five daughters of Lebanese immigrants.

The diversity of Lebanese food, and the diversity of lands to which these entrepreneurial adventurers have wandered has made both the Lebanese and their cuisine famous throughout the world. Tabbouli, hummous, and falafel appear regularly in American cookbooks because they represent a healthful Mediterranean diet.

Sawaya’s 216 pages of Lebanese recipes are taken from her own family’s kitchen where her mother, Alice, created beautiful food. Sawaya writes about the rich moments she used to spend in the kitchen after school with her mother and Sitto (grandmother). This image of the three generations working together on the same recipes may explain the secret behind the survival of Lebanese traditional dishes, even as the means of preparing and serving them have evolved with the times.

In the introduction, Sawaya draws a quick picture of her childhood in Los Angeles, California where her family kept a small kitchen garden and raised chickens. To Sawaya, “Having a garden and eating foods in season is our inherited ancestral tradition of living gently on the earth; using its resources respectfully; and preparing and sharing food with love.”

The cookbook includes a section, “About the Recipes,” where Sawaya explains how measurements are used according to her mother’s directions. She also presents suggestions for organic or low-cholesterol substitutes for some traditional ingredients.

The main text of the book is broken into different categories that starts with hors d’oeuvres and continues through cheese, yogurt and butter, sauces, soups, salads, lamb, chicken, fish, vegetarian entrees, vegetables, beans and grains, breads, sweets, preserves, and beverages.

The recipes reflect the traditions and influence of Douma, a mountain village in Lebanon. Sawaya uses the dialect peculiar to Douma in the Arabic words that accompany the recipes. They are Sawaya’s own transliteration of her family’s pronunciation of these words.

Alice’s Kitchen includes a section about herbs, spices and fragrant waters that can be purchased in Middle Eastern grocery stores in North America. Though the list is short, it includes both the basic kinds of herbs and spices used in Middle Eastern food in general and Lebanese food in particular.

In the glossary, Sawaya explains the meanings of the transliterated words used throughout the book. She also provides English translations for popular Arabic expressions associated with hospitality and serving food such as ahlan wa sahlan (welcome), sahteyn (double health, bon apetite), sallem dayetkoom (God bless your hands—said to the cook as a compliment for an excellent meal), and t’faddalou (welcome to the table, dinner is served).

Two pages of sample menu recommendations are provided at the end of the cookbook. In each menu, the reader will notice the diversity of Lebanese food. The combinations suggested present well-balanced meals.

Though the reviewer, a Palestinian from Gaza, did not test many of the recipes, the hummous was easy to make, especially with the quick blender method. More importantly, it was tasty.

Alice’s Kitchen is a well-organized Lebanese cookbook with clear recipes that have a special family taste. It is important to mention also that a portion of the proceeds of the sales of Alice’s Kitchen will benefit the people of Lebanon.