Varied Kitchens of India

Those who know Marks's previous cookbookson Guatemalan, Mayan and Indonesian cuisineswon't be surprised by his consuming passion to seek out and understand culinary origins. In a departure from the trodden paths of what the West thinks of as Indian delicacies, he probes for the marginal ethnic fare in and near Calcutta generally ignored by Indian restaurants and cookbooks, such unexpected departures as Parsi, Anglo-Indian, Bengali, Tibetan, Kashmiri and the cookery of the dwindling community of Calcutta Jews. Here is a cook who seems ready to go to the ends of the earth for a really splendid brain curry, stretched dough soup, stuffed squash in coconut milk, fish pancake or Jewish plaited cheese, to mention just a few of the rich profusion of dishes with which the book is bursting. (May 6)