Imagine you are in a market in some far off land trying to buy a piece of meat or trying to identify a fish -– and you don’t speak the local language! Just get out your Visual Food Lover’s Guide (Wiley 2009) and point the way to porterhouse and mullet!
The Visual Food Lover’s Guide is a handy (13 cm x 16 cm) book full of concise information about ingredients. If you aren’t sure what Broccoli Rabe is, check out the photograph, nutritional information, buying, storing, preparing and cooking instructions. There is no recipe, but it will give you an idea of what kind of recipe you might want to look up.
The book divides up ingredients, much like nutrition pyramids: Vegetables (bulb, root, fruit vegetables, etc.), Legumes, Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, and so on. Forget what a Cherimoya (p. 203) looks like? Confused by Kombu (p. 259 and Wakame (p. 258)? No problem. The Visual Food Lover’s Guide can straighten you out.
Though it does name most cuts of beef and lists where each is located on the steer, it is not a guide to taste and tenderness. It won’t help you decide which cut to barbecue and which to stew. But there is a guide to common cheeses of the world that fills in some flavor traits.
So, pack this little book in with your travel guides, or keep it on the bookshelf near the dinner table – it is bound to come in handy.