Williams-Sonoma Foods of the World: New York: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World

This book, like most books from Williams Sonoma, is amazing. In this series, the recipes are usually contributed to give a person the experience from eating at a restaurant. These books require a person to have cooking experience since some of the recipes use too much salt. But the point is that you will have the opportunity to enjoy the culture of NYC in your home. These books are great! Cuban food is exciting...very exciting... I am preparing to make Jewish food.

While I doubt I'll use the recipes, my favorite part of the book are the introductions to each neighborhood of Manhattan with accompanying restaurant recommendations and history. This will enrich my next visit to NYC more than my local cooking.

Sadly I have only made 2 recipes from here. The ziti and the espresso choc. buttermilk cupcakes. I haven't attempted to make any of the other recipes in the book really so I can't rate on that. The ziti is super good, but really rich, unless you have a big family you might end up having to give some away. Its a lot of pasta. I really like eggplant a lot and it tastes pretty good. The cupcakes are the most moist cupcakes I have ever made. Everytime I make the cupcakes I am always complimeted on how yummy they taste. They are so good I don't even make the frosting, they don't need it. 2 suggestions though, use quality espresso like lavazza or illy and use ghiradeli cocoa. I think I made the frosting one time, the frosting was way too rich and it was like enough frosting for two cakes, it was too much and too sugary. When I make the cupcakes I make two batches because they go really fast, but I make them one batch at a time. On the other recipes, I just haven't had the time to get into it. I am sure they are alright, even though the [cooking] difficulty level seemed a lil high for me on some of them.

Very pleased.

Best cook book

I was excited to get this book, as we have eaten in NY many times, however the food in this book is not very appealing to us. There is way to much meat in this book. The main courses section has all meat such as veal, duck, and steak, while only having about 2 fish recipes. Overall, the other recipes in this book are not really worth the cost of the book, as they are all a bit too fancy for the average home cook with a job and a family to worry about, let alone hours being spent in the kitchen making such fancy dishes. I have many Williams Sonoma cookbooks, and this so far is my least favorite by far.

Gave as a gift

I just received the book. I am an advid collector, and I am not sure about the recipes, but the visual eyecandy was wonderful. It captures New York and I can't wait to try the recipes.