Book Review: The Occasional Vegetarian
Author: Elaine Louie Publisher: Hyperion Books – 265 pages Book Review by: Laxmi Chaandi This book is a collection of recipes spanning 25 cuisines around the world contributed by some 90 chefs and cooks. Organized alphabetically by names of dishes, this is an easy-to-use cookbook. At the top of each recipe is the name of its contributor, typically a chef in a particular restaurant, along with a list of foods, ingredients and preparation directions, and how many people the dish would serve. The title The Occasional Vegetarian means the book is intended for meat eaters who occasionally want to eat vegetarian or vegan food. Vegans do not eat seafood, eggs or dairy products like butter or cheese (made with cow’s milk) and sometimes not even honey. Typically, vegetarians eat all this but avoid meat and seafood. There is no strict distinction of course between vegans and vegetarians. If you ask different people who call themselves vegetarian, some will tell you they do not eat eggs and seafood but others will tell you they eat one of these two types of food but not the other. Vegetarians do not eat meat and seafood for nutritional reasons but many, such as hundreds of millions of Hindus, the reason is religious. For the guidance of readers, each recipe is marked if it is for vegans. But this is not always the case,...
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