Who Is Nawal Nasrallah, and What Books Has She Written?

Nawal Nasrallah is the author of Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine, a book that combines Iraqi recipes with culinary history and culture. Her author site, iraqicookbook.com, also lists two other books of hers: Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens and Dates: A Global History. If you want to cook from her recipes, read about Iraqi food history, or find her books, the sections below cover what each title offers and which edition of the cookbook to choose.

Delights from the Garden of Eden: What the Book Covers

The book is organized by course and ingredient, moving from breads through desserts. The chapter list on the author's site runs:

• Introduction: Iraqi Food in Perspective
• Breads; Dairy Products
• Vegetarian Appetizers and Salads; Soups
• Snacks, Sandwiches, and Side Dishes (with meat, and vegetarian)
• Stews; Rice; Other Grains and Beans
• Lamb and Beef; Stuffed Foods; Poultry; Fish; Savory Pastries
• Desserts: Puddings and Ice Creams; Desserts with Syrup

Beyond recipes, the book includes indexes of foods and ingredients spanning ancient, medieval, and present-day use, a full table of contents, a list of 145 "By-Ways and Asides," and a works-cited list. The site describes the revised edition as including more than 300 color images of dishes, art, history, and culture.

The book received outside attention: SAVEUR magazine (issue 161, December 2013) named it one of its top 10 cookbooks of 2013, and the Times Literary Supplement (Eamonn Gearon, 1 November 2013) called it "a splendid achievement" and "a labour of love."

The Two Editions: Which One to Get

The site describes two versions of the cookbook, and they differ in length and format:

Choose the abridged print edition if you want a physical copy with the color images and a shorter book. Choose the original complete e-book if you want the full 572-page text and read on Apple devices. The site does not state what content was cut in the abridged version, so if a specific chapter or "By-Way" matters to you, check the table of contents PDF linked on the site before deciding.

Her Other Books

• Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens — listed on the site under "Nawal's Other Books." The site does not describe its contents in detail, so treat the title as a pointer rather than a summary.
• Dates: A Global History — also listed under her other books, and the site pairs it with a "More Dates" page.

Where to Find Her Work and Updates

The author's site (iraqicookbook.com) is the hub. It links to purchase pages for her books, a blog called "In my Iraqi Kitchen: Recipes, History and Culture," sample recipes across the chapters above, and an "About Nawal" page with activities and contact information. The site also offers downloadable PDFs, including the book's table of contents and indexes, which are the quickest way to check whether a given recipe or topic appears in the edition you are considering.