Book Review: Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka
Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka by Cynthia Shanmugalingam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Half cookbook, half memoir, wholly satisfying. I recommend settling in to read Rambutan as you would read a memoir, while keeping a pad of post-it bookmarks handy to mark recipes you’ll want to try. Just relax and enjoy the author’s reminiscing about her mother, Sri Lanka, life in England, and a very nice ramble about spice tempering. And then, we’re into the curries, and what a vast, diverse collection of recipes it is. I found myself really enjoying learning about curries beyond the simplistic ones I’d tentatively tried making long ago. Cucumber and turmeric curry caught my attention and will be attempted very soon. As will the Sri Lankan turmeric omelet. What can I say? I love turmeric!
I hope you find this cookbook/memoir as warm and satisfying as I did. I give it one star for my beloved turmeric, one star for her mother’s stories and strength, one star for helping me really get into the groove of understanding tempering, one star for such a vast collection of curries, and one star for the engaging, bright, beautiful photography. That’s five stars!
My thanks to the author, Bloomsbury USA, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.
Lori Alden Holuta
Lori Alden Holuta lives between the cornfields of Mid-Michigan, where she grows vegetables and herbs when she’s not writing, editing, or playing games with a cat named Chives.
