Winner of the 2016 Best Cookbook of the Year award at the Gourmand World
Cookbook Awards
This book tells the story of the Afghan and Tajik Pamir Mountains, the
old traditions and rapid changes in people's lives and the way they
interact with the landscape. It is also a book about the origins of
food. In the mountainous cradle of one of the world's least known and
most isolated civilizations, many of the foods that are found on Western
fields and dinner tables are cultivated and invented in an enduring
quest for survival.
Combining stories, essays, recipes, and photography, With Our Own
Hands seeks to strengthen the pride of the Pamiri people and excite the
curiosity of those who appreciate diversity in food and agriculture, and
the role it plays in people's relationships with nature and with each
other. In the mountain valleys of the Pamirs life depends on these
relationships, today as much as thousands of years ago, and it is not
difficult to discern in Pamiri food the practices, customs, and beliefs
that form their most ancient expressions. At the same time, the book
describes landscape and cultural changes in response to global forces
and developments, and the struggle of Pamiri people to reimagine and
recreate their ties with the land and their communities. A process that
is as unique in its locality as it is universal in meaning.
