Crossroads Cooking

Examining the diverse ways in which separate ethnic cuisines blend to create new culinary traditions, an innovative cookbook presents two hundred unusual recipes that demonstrate the richness of hybrid cuisines from Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas.

Rozin seeks to document dishes that have sprung up as disparate cultural traditions and foods from far-flung parts of the earth have collided. Not confusing this with fusion cooking, a contemporary artifice, Rozin catalogs dishes that have appeared in established ethnic cuisines. For example, Afghanistan's munti dumplings are much like Korean mandoo. Muslim dietary rules forbid pork, so the Afghani version has lamb and mint inside the boiled dough wrappers, and yogurt substitutes for soy sauce. Authentic Sicilian cooking recalls Morocco's spices as much as it does Italy's pastas. The Balkan peninsula fills crispy Middle Eastern phyllo pastry with Eastern Europe's mushrooms and sour cream. In Texas, Mexico's poblano chiles spice a distinctively southern spoon bread. African, Asian, and American foods combine in Jamaica's renowned curried goat. Cooks looking for unique flavor combinations will find Rozin's cooking attractive. Mark Knoblauch