Welcome to Our World: A Collection of International Dishes

Gwen Zilm was Technical Services Librarian, Okanagan College, Kelowna, British Columbia.

Welcome to Our World, a collection of recipes for international dishes, was published as a fund-raiser by the Regina Open Door Society, a charitable refugee re-settlement agency.

Recipes are arranged by continent and within that by country. Over half the recipes come from the Far East, Africa, and Central and South America. A chapter entitled “Miscellaneous” includes recipes representative of the ethnic backgrounds of many Canadians (Chicken Kiev, Potato Pancakes, Moussaka, Roast Pork with Prunes, Russia Cream, Tourtiere, and many others).

Welcome to Our World is attractively hand-lettered in blue and illustrated with line drawings. Spiral binding allows it to lie flat on a countertop, an essential feature for the cook. The index is arranged by country, which is less useful than indexing by food type would be.

Books compiled for fund-raising purposes are often not much more than a testament to lime Jell-O and miniature marshmallows. This book is a wonderful exception to that. Although recipes occasionally call for a tin of enchilada sauce on sweetened condensed milk, ingredients are overwhelmingly authentic (for example, juniper berries in “Carp in Beer Sauce” and nuoc mam in the Vietnamese spring rolls).

Welcome to Our World earns a wholehearted endorsement and a recommendation for purchase by libraries with cookbook collections.