Mystical Places and Marvelous Meals: A Travel Cookbook

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 254 pages
• Published by: iUniverse, Inc. December 13, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0595345913
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0595345915
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 15.2 ounces

Product Review
Entertaining,informative and taste-teasing. I am delighted to have this treasure which is interesting to read and the recipes are exceptional. -- EuropeanVisits.com, March 1, 2006

For "People who travel with a map in one hand, a knife and fork in the otherCool locations" -- The Washington Post, February 5, 2006

Product Description
Travel adventures and tasty food go hand in hand. Mystical Places and Marvelous Meals: A Travel Cookbook, explores ancient settlements, searches for legendary beasts, and dispels travel myths while sampling local delicacies.

• Visit little known funerary structures 1,900 years older than the Egyptian pyramids.
• Enter a chapel lined with the bones of 5,000 monks.
• Find out whether sex and death are mutually exclusive.
• Do bullfights mean blood and gore?
• Does roadside food have to taste like plastic?

Authors Sara Nieves-Grafals and Al Getz—a husband and wife team of mental health professionals turned travel/cookbook writers—take us on over twenty years of journeys peppered with history, geography, folklore, cross-cultural psychology, foreign languages, architecture, mythology, archaeology, and gastronomy. Seventy-five recipes from their Washington, D.C. home kitchen transport us to different destinations.

Sara Nieves-Grafals, a polyglot clinical psychologist from Puerto Rico, dances flamenco in her spare time. She lectures about mental health issues and has a psychotherapy practice. Al Getz, originally from New Jersey, retired as a public health analyst. He has edited scientific publications, builds cabinets, designs kitchens, and dabbles in photography, classical music and painting. Together they journey through life, traveling, learning, and cooking.

Reader Reviews
Loved it! At last a book that focuses on something other than sight seeing, namely the other memorable aspect of travel - local cuisine. What makes this cookbook unique is that unlike cookbooks specializing in the cuisine of a foreign country, which tend to provide a mere listing of recipes, here the authors weave local recipes into storytelling of local legends. The book implants local culture and folklore into cuisine. Both legends and accompanying recipes are captivating, e.g., Pasta for a Funeral or an Orgy, which is presented in the chapter on Italy. The book has an international flair to it, covering travels and recipes in such countries as France, Portugal, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Peru. Some recipes are unique and can't be found in many cookbooks including mussels with potatoes, Turkish remedy potatoes, pasta with pistachios, and beans with clams. Most recipes are easy to prepare, and the novice cook should have few problems in the kitchen. This book is for the traveler who can't be satisfied with only photographs of foreign places as well as for the curious food lover who craves for more than just a recipe.