The Ellis Island Cookbook

Another cookbook. I guess I can't say I don't like them anymore. However, I'm still really picky. It's very disappointing to pick up a cookbook, or cooking magazine and realize that out of the dozens of recipes that there is maybe two, if I'm lucky, that I would really enjoy making and eating.And so few books I've come across really have much of a story. Hence my love of Julia Child's book. But the first one I ever picked up that was just a good read, and so endearing, was My Paris Kitchen. More than just good eating, the book involves a tale as well.

This book involves many such tales. Stories of people from all over Europe and parts of Asia as they came through Ellis island, bring their recipes, and stories, with them. This book itself has a story for me. I moved recently, someplace I had been for a while and a place I had loved. Part of that love was some of the really great friends I made there. One such friend who shares my love of learning, a great read, and even better food, found this volume at our local library and ordered it for me as a going away present. It was perfect, and one of the few things I could carry with me as we moved over seas. It had to come though. And since I've been here and really been able to dig in and read through it, the book gets better and better.

The food is great, and I have a recipe I can't wait to post later this week. But more than that, the stories told are a little window in to a time that is important to me. I also had ancestors that immigrated to the states and went through some of the same hardships talked about in the book.

Most people came with few things, many came with nothing. Except each and every one brought with them a culture. Something familiar to themselves, and the part of that culture is the part I love and what is captured in this book. The food from all over.

Original Picture - Post updated 7/4/2018