Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine [Paperback]

This book is not just an introduction, but a thorough overview of a diverse, delicious and enduring cuisine.

Now we know the taste of the cradle of civilization.

Turning her research into toothsome reality,[Nasrallah]made flatbread ("as ancient as the Sumerian civilization itself")

This new Iraqi cookbook contains more than four hundred recipes covering all food categories. There is ample choice for both vegetarian and meat lovers, and many that will satisfy a sweet tooth. All recipes have been tested and are easy to follow.

Introducing the recipes are thoroughly researched historical and cultural narratives that trace the development of the Iraqi cuisine from the times of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians, through the medieval era, and leading to its interaction with Mediterranean and world cuisine.
Of particular interest are the book's numerous folkloric stories, anecdotes, songs, cultural explications of customs, and excerpts from narratives written by foreign visitors to the region. Arabic calligraphy, and photos, paintings and sketches add to the pictorial appeal of the book.

The book has received the Special Award of the Jury of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for 2007

Nawal Nasrallah, a native of Iraq, was a professor at Baghdad and Mosul universities teaching English literature and language. Besides her cookbook Delights from the Garden of Eden (2003), she is author of Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A Study of an Early Arabic Impact on English Literature (1980), and co-author of Beginner's Iraqi Arabic (Hippocrene Books, 2006). Her book Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Baghdadi Tenth-Centurty Cookbook English Translation with Introduction and Glossary (Leiden: Brill) is coming out in December 2007. The author has been giving presentations and demonstrations on the Iraqi cuisine, ancient, medieval, and modern.