Baghdad to Bombay - In the Kitchens of My Cousins Review

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(More customer reviews)I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sofaer's book. I picked it up and couldn't put it down until I finished reading the entire book. It is a fusion of Arabic Jewish, Indian, American, Israeli, & Australian family stories. Indians (especially those from Bombay) will enjoy this book. It will be an eye opener for Jews of European origin, who know very little about Arabic and Indian Jews. Sofaer traces her family from the middle-east to Burma, India and finally the West. Her family tapestry is woven with the rich threads of many cultures and is presented very well. The characters are many and quite colorful.
Her recipes reflect the travels that the family has gone through in many lands & are good. There are many photos of the family, and they take us back in time. I gifted this book to a couple of my friends who enjoyed it as well. I highly recommend this book.

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Baghdad to Bombay weaves the threads of a vital family into a rich tapestry of good food and beloved tradition. This tapestry represents the strength of a people who have been constant in their commitment to their ancestry, new homelands, and the future generations to follow, always amid an atmosphere of hard work laced with an appetite for fun.Visual artist and first-time author Pearl Sofaer takes the reader through the color and clamor of her beloved Bombay market. We share her histories and adventures, as well as those of her cousins, who grew up in cities from Baghdad to Bombay. We get acquainted with cousins who survived a World War and escaped from a farhud. We take a dark journey on a freighter through the Suez Canal but also a cheery cruise on the Queen Elizabeth I. London and New York come alive, as do Jerusalem and Sydney. Throughout, we are generously fed and offered new and traditional foods, with recipes so we can replicate these tastes be they spicy from Mesopotamia or soothing from Wellington in our homes.The fun of dance and song enliven the pages of her childhood in India, as does the joy of eating with cousins from around the world. You are left with a feeling that this family clan loves life and has grabbed it with hard work and enthusiasm. As you move from chapter to chapter and culture to culture, you feel Pearl s constant joy, passion, and commitment to her heritage, to her mother cities, Bombay and Baghdad, and to the love she has for the friends of her childhood, her special cousins.