Secrets of Cooking Armenian / Lebanese / Persian

Cookbook by Linda Chirinian 1987 Lionhart Inc CT

One of the best cookbooks of this category, deemed authentic by dr bob's mother-in-law Isgouhi, who uses many of these recipes.

• Amazon link
• Google search

Recipes we can vouch for:

• p.16 hummus
• p.19 labni
• p.20 stuffed grape leaves
• p.26 baba ghanoush
• p.39 sujuk (buy in Upper Darby: Mediterranean Foods)
• p.123 potato and meat bake
• p.142 string beans in olve oil
• p.160 spinach in pastry
• p.170 Armenian rice with noodles
• p.191 raw meat with bulgur (kibbeh naye)
• p.193 flying saucer (kibbeh saje)
• p.195 layered meat with bulgur (kiebbeh bil sineya)
• p.200 parsley and bulgur salad (tabouleh)
• p.212 Armenian meat pies
• p.220 Armenian brioche (chorak)

dr bob review 2003:

• https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Cooking-Armenian-Lebanese-Persian/product-reviews/096170330X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm
• My wife is Armenian from Lebanon but it is her mom who is the cook. In turn her mom was from Aleppo, Syria, which Patricia Wells describes as a culinary mecca in the Middle East in one of her travel food writings. This cookbook is the most authentic one for the traditional Armenian recipes of the Middle East diaspora: my mother-in-law has tested a number of them and confirms that they can be trusted. Of course there are as many variations of these recipes as cooks (more, since when I get her to dictate recipes for posterity more than once, they always change), but these simple straightforward ones work and are good. Some of my food tales are at drbobenterprises.com. I have bought about 15 copies of this book to give to relatives and friends over the years. Among all cookbooks in this area (and I have many as an amateur cook with a heavy cookbook habit), it stands out. So if you are interested in this cuisine, buy the book.
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/096170330X/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all all used copies.
• Now in 2020 looking at the reviews there are always grumblers in any crowd, but these are just TROLLS in the new vocabulary. Ignore them.