THE VON WELANETZ GUIDE TO ETHNIC INGREDIENTS

Among the items you will find in this 700-page treasury are definitions of kampyo, ketjap manis, and katsuo-bushi; succinct comparisons of the cuisines of Ghana and Senegal--or Greece and Turkey; brand-name advice for purchasing supermarket olive oil or salsa jalapena; and recipes for--to select at random--truffle-stuffed veal chops, filling for filo pastry, fillet de sole Troisgros, the fermented black bean sauce used in Cantonese restaurants, and Doro Wat, the national dish of Ethiopia. There's a ten-page treatise on sausages and 15 pages on chilis. Open at random and you find, on a double-page, notes on jackfruit, jaggery, and dried jellyfish, with a recipe for Indonesian peanut sauce made with jaggery. The arrangement is by continent, with alphabetical entries within each continent, To be sure, there are better guides to cheeses, mushrooms, or dried beans, for example, and more complete guides (many of which the von Welanetzes have drawn from) to the ingredients of individual ethnic cuisines. As a reference source, this has its gaps and imbalances, and as a source of recipes, though the quality is high, it is largely a matter of pot luck. Nevertheless, it is chock full of lore and irresistible for browsing.