Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia

Prolific writer Albala (Food and Faith in Christian Culture; Food in Early Modern Europe) and an army of food scholars and experts here tackle the monumental task of summarizing the world's dietary culture in 154 alphabetically organized entries covering Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and Europe. Albala explains that in order to constrain the size of the work, most food variations are discussed within the context of the country or nation of origination, but that certain groups demanded separate entries. For instance, there is one entry for Canada, but the United States is broken into regions, and Basque territory in Europe and the Hmong in the United States have individual entries. Perhaps the strength of this well-written, useful work, however, is its focus on food culture broadly, including the social connections, rituals, daily routine, values, and challenges in making dietary choices as impacted by religion, health, celebrations, and more. In an effort to achieve this lofty goal, the set provides valuable extras. All of the pieces include an overview of the area or people, major foods, cooking practices, typical meals, trends in eating out, special occasions, and diet and health. They also each boast "Food Culture Snapshots" that describe a typical day with a fictional family as they plan, purchase, or gather food and then cook and eat it. Further-reading recommendations follow the entries; these are sometimes relatively lengthy. Each volume is complemented by black-and-white photos, a number of recipes, and a full index. BOTTOM LINE This is a quality encyclopedia with broad appeal especially for public libraries and undergraduate colleges and universities. —Lisa A. Ennis, Univ. of Alabama Lib. at Birmingham