Red Sands: Reportage and Recipes through Central Asia, from Hinterland to Heartland

by Caroline Eden

Red Sands, the follow-up to Caroline Eden's multi-award-winning Black Sea, is a reimagining of traditional travel writing using food as the jumping-off point to explore Central Asia. In a quest to better understand this vast heartland of Asia, Caroline navigates a course from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the sun-ripened orchards of the Fergana Valley.

A book filled with human stories, forgotten histories and tales of adventure, Caroline is a reliable guide using food as her passport to enter lives, cities and landscapes rarely written about. Lit up by emblematic recipes, Red Sands is an utterly unique book, delving into 'the last blank on the map' while bringing in universal themes that relate to us all: hope, hunger, longing, love and the joys of eating well on the road.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Travel, Food, Asia, Cooking, Food Writing

310 pages, Hardcover

Published November 17, 2020

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book takes its name from the vast Kyzylkum desert that is spread between the rivers of Amu Darya and Syr Darya. It crosses the boundaries of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The five states that make up the Central Asian region used to be swallowed up by the red opaqueness that was the USSR and now are separated into Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Whilst there are formal borders between them, there are regions that still flow across these man-made lines that follow customs, food and culture. It was whilst stopping at a café for a memorable lunch of shashlik, bread, onion and melon between the cities of Burkara and Khiva that the idea for this book formed.

Her journey starts in the spring on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the town of Aktau. It feels slightly lawless being located a fair way from the capital. She didn’t want to eat where the monied people head too rather she wanted to discover for herself the more homely food available in the town. The food was superb and the bill was small; it was a good start to her culinary travels in the region. She heads out to the dark oily hear of Kazakhstan passing nodding donkeys that bring wealth to the country and onto an underground mosque that people stop in on a pilgrimage to Beket-Ata. She leaves her donation of food and they get back on the road to continue their journey. She finds the kitchen and questions the chefs about what is bubbling in the cauldrons.

This sets the tone of the books. She moves from place to place, drinking tea whilst meeting the locals. She shelters from the rain in and shares food in a home dripping with heirlooms, watching café owners spraying water over courtyards in the vain hope of suppressing the relentless dust. The architecture is as bleak as the desert at times, but she is really here for the food. She is fortunate to be asked to a wedding, heads to what sounds like an amazing forest in search of walnuts, she swims in a lake alongside a military sanatorium and admires the plov platters in the workshop that they are made.

Inside the walls of the clay tandoor were roundels of non bread, each one slowly baking and expanding until golden on top, chewy in the middle and crispy underneath. What smell in the world is more innocent, more primevally reassuring, than that of bread? No smell. Nothing is more soothing than the scent of bread.

This is a wonderful book, it is a sumptuous and heady mix of food, travel and reportage and it just works perfectly all together. She is a sensitive and curious traveller, seeking to tease out the stories that normal people have to tell her about the lives that they lead. Not only can you read about the places, but the recipes that are scattered liberally throughout mean that you can bring some of those flavours and smells into your home. Like Black Sands, the cover on this is just gorgeous and the photos taken in the locations are stunning too. Another fantastic book from Eden.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess to a long fascination with Central Asia that I think arose from looking at maps when I was young. What could exist in this huge place in the middle of the world's biggest continent with all of those places with wonderful funky "stan" names? Endless steppe, monstrously big mountains and a brutal continental climate. And who could the inhabitants be with such cool national names? Uzbek, Tadjik, Kyrgyz and Kazakh. And then there are the great cities of the Silk Road - Samarkand, Tashkent, Bukhara, centers of trade and Islamic learning going back to before the time of Marco Polo. What are they like today? All of the answers can be found here.

The book is a mix of travel and cooking. Caroline Eden takes us from ancient cities to modern ones, from great natural beauty to post Soviet ecological ruin. Everywhere she goes she finds kind people, good food and something good to say about the place, even the most desolate and boring places that most people would dismiss out of hand. For me her visit to an evening feast at a mosque during Ramadan was the highlight of the book, but there are plenty of other scenes that are nearly as good. She has the most wonderful authorial point of view for this kind of book, being curious, appreciative and able to find the good in everyone and everything. I want to be her friend and travel with her.

The recipes look super good and relatively easy. They are just different enough from familiar foods to be exotically enticing. Only a few have unobtainable local ingredients and for those she kindly suggests substitutes. It would take a few months to cook your way through the foods that she offers up.

Finally, I have to comment on the physical construction of the book. It is beautifully made. It has a nice cover design and sturdy binding, high quality paper and printing in an appealing typeface. The book is filled with beautifully printed pictures in a contemporary layout, with no captions so that you are forced to make your own connections between the text and the images, which deepens the connection between the two. If every physical book could be this beautiful, I would abandon ebooks and go back to print and paper for all of my reading.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline Eden's Central Asian travelogue-cookbook is the perfect escape for armchair explorers who, confined to their quarantine bubble, are in search of new frontiers, geographic and culinary. While locals will proudly point to their location at the heart of Asia, these are lands physically and mentally distant from most English-speakers. Eden takes us first across the steppes of Kazakhstan, into the fertile oases of Uzbekistan, across Kyrgyz towns and bazaars, and finally to the remote mountain valleys of Tajikistan. All the while she eats her way through a diverse assortment of foods reflecting the blurred borders, intersecting identities, and open-hearted hospitality of Central Asia.

Across nearly three hundred pages, I can't recall Eden describing any dishes as "authentic." You're just as likely to come across a description of a Russian pavlova (claimed post-facto by the Kiwis) as an Uzbek, or Tajik, or Kyrgyz plov. This is a refreshing change. Eden could have leveraged her Russian language skills, connections within the region, the simple fact she took the trouble to trek to the world's largest walnut forest to stake her claim to superior knowledge of her subject. But she doesn't. She takes her cues from her hosts and meal companions - desert beekeepers, Russian-speaking guesthouse owners, and Uyghurs fleeing persecution in Xinjiang, sharing their iftar meal - humans first, Central Asians second, food lovers above all. My only complaint about the book is Eden's relative absence. She seems like she'd be fun to hang out with, chasing down plov with a beer in a Shymkent bar.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caroline Eden is a great guide to Central Asia – always curious, describing the landscape and food and people with appreciation and awe mixed with erudition. The sections on Kazakhstan drag a bit but all worth it for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. This would have been a great book for my freshman seminar “You Are What You Eat: Explorations in Food and Culture” – can’t believe it’s been 20 years since I took that class! I still always remember that if you want to understand people, look at what and how they eat.

I’ve never really been one to cook, I’m a take-out junkie, but gosh darnit I’m going to try. There are only a few recipes from this book I would actually cook as most contain lamb or beef and I don’t eat mammals, but I did note three recipes to try including the sweet turnip and mung bean pilaf. Also, now I am obsessed with finding Tajik lemons.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hauntingly superb. One of those you think about long after you have carefully laid it on the bookshelf but before long, I imagine, you'll find yourself reaching for an adventure or recipe. Caroline Eden is able to transport you to places you have never imagined. Her writing is exquisite and thoughtful. I was lost in this book for nights at a time just marveling in a world entirely new to me. I eagerly await her next book!

[Daisy]

A Bread Pudding for Anna Akhmatova

[Sarah Meehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great book. I love the mix of travelogue, personal views on current affairs and of course the recipes. This book clearly speaks to the author's love for Central Asia and will beguile anyone who has has the fortune to travel there themselves.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you pick up a book at a moment that is relevant without even realizing it. I saw this book in the window of a book shop at the beginning of the year and thought it had a beautiful cover. I had no idea what it was about and no urgency to read it. I decided to read it September 2021, and realized it is all about Central Asia, with stories about each country followed by some recipes that were relevant to the story.

Transparently, I didn’t know what made up Central Asia — Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, so many more. I was surprised by the mix of cultures and countries! An interesting time to pick up this book right as the US was exiting Afghanistan. Additionally, I had read some stories about the Uyghurs but never took time to learn about their culture. This was a great book to get a little information about each place— the food, culture, religion and landscape. It painted some beautiful pictures of the landscape—the mountains and valleys and lakes.

The one thing I struggled with was her clear perspective as a European traveling through Central Asia. There was a point where she referred a lot to colonizers and Europeans in her historical context vs diving a little deeper into the history of the native people.

[Maineguide · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating concept: part recipe book, part travelogue. Caroline Eden carries us along through two long trips through the ‘Stans, exploring the people, places and food of these former USSR countries. Mixed in are a number of well written recipes and beautiful photography. She’s an intrepid traveler, with some Russian language skills, who take us along through home stays, visits with growers, and interviews of local leaders and artists. There’s even a night out on the town drinking that rivals some of the best writing of heavyweights like Jim Harrison or Hemingway. My only complaints are minor, photos aren’t hers and that’s not immediately clear, nor are there cut lines or attributes. And a number of the places she visits aren’t on the map that graces the inside front and back folios. To her credit though, it is well researched and includes two pages of additional reading selections at the end, as well as a glossary and full index. Well done. Onto to her other one: Black Sea.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this book but for all the wrong reasons. The writing was a little over-flowery and repetitive sometimes, and a little careless sometimes (eg a dog beared its teeth) but the photographs were soothing and well composed and the book felt super nice to read. Not only does the cover have a variety of textures (some extra smooth, some like sand) but inside some of the photo pages just felt really nice texturally. Like the paper was pleasingly thick. It took me quite a long time to read as I frequently got distracted fondling the pages.
I doubt I will cook any of the recipes (very lamb heavy and using a variety of Central Asian milk products) but the pictures were nice and I enjoyed the journey with the author.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like in her earlier book, BLACK SEA, Caroline Eden captures the landscape, cultures, and history of people in this area of Central Asia, in an intimate way, by concentrating on individual people in different places in the countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Included within the 28 essays on different places are recipes from Central Asia that have been adapted for British and North American kitchens, and pictures of the landscape and people. I had/have no plans to visit this part of the world, but I enjoyed how she allowed me to feel what these places are like through the voices of individual people and the sharing of their food. A wonderful addition to her earlier book on the areas around the Black Sea.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This follows the format of her previous book Black Sea, and like Black Sea it’s well worth reading. The recipes here are interesting but call for ingredients that (at least here in the USA) aren’t too difficult to find. The photography is spectacular. There’s an honesty here about the difficulties/dangers of travelling in Central Asia that I found refreshing, juxtaposed with her depictions of the beauty of the land and the people she met along the way. I’ve tried a few of the recipes in the book, and enjoyed them, and hope to try some more. We’re fortunate to have this book - very few of us can jump on a plane and explore Bishkek and Tashkent. It’s a luxury even to hold a book like this in your hand, and I hope she keeps writing.

[Kate Parr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this but I'm struggling to articulate why. Essentially Eden is just travelling around various Central Asian cities and sites and sampling various foods. But there's a comfortable feeling to this, almost nostalgic, even though I know nothing about the area. Her descriptions of people and places are very warm, and even when she's visiting somewhere like the sanatoria and there's a bit of snark creeping in, it still feels like its done as if tolerating a bit of a barmy aunt. The images and recipes are sumptuous, and I suppose if there's one line that sums up the book its that in this part of the world 'you are cooked for, not cooked at'.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gorgeous immersion experience into the world of Central Asia. Atmospheric photography, mouth-watering recipes, and insightful travelogue writing from a British journalist on a quest to gain understanding from the intersection of history, place, individual story, and local dishes. She travels through both iconic cities and off-the-beaten-path areas of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. I have been intrigued by all things Central Asian for years and have visited many of the places and eaten many of the foods she mentions here, so I read it with absolutely giddy glee.

The hardback, physical book is a beautiful thing itself.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the author's earlier book, Black Sea, this is a physically a beautiful book to have on your bookshelf. It's more travelogue than cookbook but there are plenty of recipes included and lots of beautiful pictures of food, people, and landscapes to inspire you. I was at turns nostalgic for places I recognized and making lists of places I hope to get to in the future. I especially appreciated the recommended reading section since books about Central Asia can be hard to come by.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caroline Eden, whose book Black Sea was showered with awards, is on the road again, this time travelling through the heart of Asia. It's not your usual cookbook, it's more a travel book with recipes, the recipes acting as postcards which she sends as she meets new characters, most of them involved with food... Eden travels quietly and lets you in on every encounter and every bite. A moving... as well as a fascinating read.
Diana Henry

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging travel diary from Central Asia, with recopies. A cookbook? Not really, as only about 5% of the text is recopies. But it's a good read either way.
It's particularly striking how climate change has impacted the region: When a family has been harvesting nuts from one patch of forest for a century, suddenly things are not as they have always been (not to mention the Aral Sea).
I look forward to making some of the recopies, too.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply wonderful. Received as a thoughtful gift, it's a physically beautiful book that has graced my living room as I've dipped in and out for the past six months. Each entry is like going on an adventure. Made me wish I'd learned some Russian, so I could have accessed more of Eden's experiences during my (brief) travels to Central Asia. I've tried several of the recipes and they're all delicious.

[Sophie V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In highschool, I had a classmate from Kazakhstan and he would show up to UN day every year wearing his country's traditional clothes. Other than that, I had never thought about Central Asia much. I'm so happy I chanced upon this book at the bookstore and bought it on a whim! I loved the travel writing mixed with beautiful full page photographs and recipes (that I will definitely be trying). Eden's book has definitely made me want to read more books about this region of the world.

[Barry Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evocative and engaging journey through the ‘stans with its history, culture and people seen through the prism of their food and traditions. Easily digestible (sorry!) with vignettes interspersed with recipes, it is a very enjoyable genre of travel / food writing.

As I was about to travel to Uzbekistan, it provided me with guidance and insight too, as well as whetting the appetite (sorry again!) for future visits to this majestic region.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this because I was looking for Central Asian cookbooks and I didn’t read the descriptions carefully. It’s more like a travel diary with some recipes. But it’s a fantastic read with insight into modern central Asian life and food and history. I’ve been reading a lot of Central Asian history lately, this is a great way to kind of tie that all together. She writes in an engaging enough style that it’s easy to find yourself reading straight through a section without realising.

[Cherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s more travelogue than cookbook

I haven’t tried any of the recipes, but they don’t appear to try to be authentic. I don’t know where these recipes came from — is she adapting from things someone showed her how to make or is she just trying to make something how she remembers it tasting? But she doesn’t offer the original version even as an option, just saying use Greek yogurt instead of trying to try with qurt if you have access to it and go with a substitute if you don’t . I dunno. On the one hand, she makes no claims to authenticity. On the other hand, she offers no provenance to make me inclined to try her recipes instead of random things from YouTube.

For the travelogue stuff, she has a very different style from other folks who’ve reported on similar journeys in the area and she stayed in different places, so it’s an interesting addition to the mix, but definitely not my favorite.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost finished it ahead of going to Uzbekistan, did add to the excitement but was probably a better read finishing it off the other side of the holiday. Some nice stories and history, recipes seem okay but most enjoyable was the photography in it

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this.
I visited Central Asia a few years ago and thus book, especially the descriptions of the local food, made me want to return.

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Perfect escapism reading.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

more a travel book than a cook book. It is a great book to read and learn from the travels through this part of the world.

[Elizabeth Judd Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part travelogue, part cookbook, all fascinating.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, makes you yearn to be far away

[Milouch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entre le livre de voyage et de cuisine, sublime et passionnant