Pocket Dictionary of Ethnic Foods

Daniel G. Blum likes to eat and cook but he is also very busy running his company so like many of us foodies with a hectic work and social schedule he eats out of a lot. He also happens to love Ethnic foods and find himself ordering takeout from many of his DC. area ethnic restaurants quite often.

He found himself struggling with the wording on most of these menus and being the curious foodie that he is, Blum started collecting takeout menus, researching dish and ingredient names on the Internet to compile a glossary.

After more than three years of gastronomic curiousity-induced work and chatting up dozens of local ethnic restaurant owners and chefs to back up those findings, he self-published his Dictionary--with an initial print is 10,000 copies--back in January.

His Pocket Dictionary of Ethnic Foods is a wonderful resource to keep around when eating out and shopping at ethnic grocery stores. It has over 1,400 detailed definitions of the more common ethnic food dishes and ingredients selected from forty-two different cuisines and includes pronunciation guides for most terms listed.

At $9.99 the dictionary is also priced to sell (can be found even cheaper at amazon and other online book sellers) and it is for the most part, a labor of love so I'm more than happy to help Mr. Blum make a return on his investment.

With the wealth of ethnic communities, cuisines, restaurants and grocers here in Seattle, I truly believe this book will come in handy local foodistas. In fact, it belongs on every food blogger and gourmand's culinary library, side by side with our copies of Food Lover's Companion.

From amazon: "There's even an index in the back, sorted by ethnicity, which makes it easy to find the words within a given cuisine. If you've ever been flustered when trying to decipher a menu while dining out, or if you just wanted to know what Moo Goo Gai Pan meant, then the Pocket Dictionary of Ethnic Foods is for you. From aamchur to Zwiebelkuchen, this is sure to become an indispensable resource for diners and for customers visiting ethnic grocery stores."