The World's Finest Foods

Large in scale and scope, Creber's (Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook) selective culinary atlas is well-stocked and luscious, offering an eyeful not only of foods but their homelands. Turn the pages slowly. You may feel like a traveler being serenaded by sights and aromas. Of course, the recipes are far from hidden-but extensive text and Phil Wymant's color photographs detail vineyards, castles, ancient statuary, hilltop villages, culinary history and more. The author devotes chapters to France, Japan, the United States, Indonesia, Russia, China, Greece, Spain, Thailand, Mexico, Italy and Morocco. Visually and otherwise, Greece offers one of the most striking chapters, with sidebars on feta cheese, rosemary and eggplant; Russia, too, is gloriously photogenic, from the beets used in salaty (salads) to less edible onion domes. Each chapter is long enough to represent typical dishes that are within our reach to prepare; wine notes, maps and a glossary of ingredients also help to situate us. (Nov.)