Ethnic Eating: The Canadian Scene Cookbook

Christy Conte is a business analyst and entrepreneur in Ajax, Ontario.

Canadian Scene is a news and information service for Canada’s ethnic
media that has been around since 1951. In honor of its fortieth
anniversary, Canadian Scene asked its readers, viewers, and listeners to
contribute their favorite recipes to a cookbook project. Ethnic Eating
is the fortunate result of this cross-Canada collaboration.

Ethnic Eating contains almost 100 recipes from 31 different ethnic
communities. The recipes are organized in alphabetical order by country.
All the major groups one would expect are represented here, along with
such lesser-known cuisines as Moldavian and Nepalese. Cookbook
aficionados will appreciate the diversity in this collection.
Better-known favorites such as Italian Chicken Cacciatore and Greek
Pastitsio rub shoulders with less-standard fare that includes Ponnukotun
(pancakes) from Iceland, Aloo Ko Achar (potato salad) from Nepal, and
Schavyo (sorel soup) from Byelorussia.

The book is easy to use; it is spiral-bound and recipes are easy to
read. All measurements are offered in both metric and imperial, and have
been standardized. Because most of Canadian Scene’s contributors have
been preparing these dishes in Canada for years, the average reader
should find necessary ingredients readily available. There will always
be exceptions, of course; you probably won’t find Portuguese linguica
in Moose Jaw, or Indonesian daun salam leaves in Dawson.

This book’s only deficiency is its lack of any sort of ingredient
index. Recipes are indexed by menu groups (soups, desserts, meat, etc.)
only—a less useful format, for the most part.

Ethnic Eating will round out any cookbook lover’s collection.