Kitchen Arabic: How My Family Came to America and the Recipes We Brought with Us (Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction) Paperback – March 15, 2023

This unconventional cookbook is a joy and a treasure. I now purchase copies to give to family and friends as special gifts. Joe Geha weaves delightful, humorous stories of his childhood with delicious family recipes. The recipes have been an adventure into a new way of healthy eating, introducing me to new spices and foods. Try the toum, the kafta, and the mjedderah, it’s all wonderful! And you must try the Lifit Ma’bous (pickled turnips)! I know it was a stretch for me too. I never been a fan of turnips, but with mjedderah, it makes the dish. So good. I love that he gives such detailed instructions in proper technique. The recipes align nicely with a Mediterranean diet, which is important for me. The stories alone are wonderful and a real pick-me-up whenever you are feeling down about life. I had the great good fortune of attending several of Joe’s cooking classes. Joe is a master storyteller, both in person and on the page. I laughed and even, at times shed a few tears. If you are a fan of Bill Bryson’s style of writing and like to cook, you will love this cookbook!

Kitchen Arabic is a personal and touching, historic and brave account of the author’s experience coming to America as a child from the Middle East. It’s a fascinating account full of twists and turns and…great recipes! Easy read, couldn’t put it down!

Joe Geha is a wonderful storyteller. He could write about paint drying and it would be entertaining and amusing.But in Kitchen Arabic, he has great material to work with: the story of his parents immigrating from Lebanon, his family acclimating to a new country, and his love affair with the delicious food of his home country.I haven't made any of the recipes yet, but they're almost not needed. This is a book that's terrific just as a food memoir. But they all look delicious and fun to try, and will encourage me to experiment with some new ingredients that I haven't before.Kitchen Arabic is one of those rare books that are an absolute pleasure to pick up, a pleasure to read through, and you'll be sorry when you put it down--unless it's to pull out the cutting board and get started on one of the fantastic recipes.

One thing I guess I’ll never figure out about literature: how do you find brilliant diamonds like this except by chance?? Or at best, word of mouth. The text is short, but intense, like an apricot dessert, and is swirled with near perfect story geometry around the recipes and the characters and the events and the places.The last page surprised me to tears, and I never fall for that!I really can’t claim thorough enough knowledge of the book to write a review, because I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet. I figured in the beginning that I would pick one or two that sounded really good, but that seems to apply to several dozen.The author has clearly subjected every recipe to intense personal experience and cultural research. I have no doubt that executing each of these dishes will be truly challenging and rewarding for a tired Midwestern palate. This is not “365 Ways to Do Chicken!”

Couldn't wait to buy this book! Joe's stories are as delicious and delightful as his recipes. I made Toum (garlic sauce) last night and it blew me away. Absolutely breathtaking! So simple and easy to make with a stick blender in a mason jar. Had it with his Mom's recipe for lamburgers (kafta). Looking forward to working my way through the other yummy recipes. Grateful for Joe's writing that has added so much color and fragrance to Toledo, Ohio's rich history of our middle east community.

My friends dad wrote this book. I wanted to get a copy so he could autograph it. Amazon has amazing fast service

Got the book! Beautifully done! Very real and touching! Can’t wait to make some of the recipes. Congratulations joe this is a treasure!

This book provided enjoyable, interesting and humorous tales of the author's childhood, and then later his adult life, interspersed with deliciously-described recipes relating to the subject matter of each chapter. I found it an easy and enjoyable read. I could see my own great-grandparents' experiences navigating immigration to America and assimilating into the culture while holding on to some of their own with the author's sometimes humorous, always interesting, portrayal of his parents' experiences in this great country of ours. America is a wonderful melting pot, and this book reminds us all of that. I recommend it highly.