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Cookbooks for Aliens

Aliens land on Earth. Ahhh!

Wait, wait, good news. They only have one, oddly specific demand:

"Teach us about the food from each of your 'countries'."

Which cookbook would each country send?

The cookbooks on this website are:

The books you're most likely to find in an 80-year-old couple's kitchen
The "book of reference" for a country's cuisine
Each country's most comprehensive cookbook

I find these kinds of books fascinating. They help a lot with cooking, of course. The way to start learning about a cuisine is sometimes to buy one. Reference cookbooks are also interesting anthropologically; most of the recipes in them are not groundbreaking, but they can tell you about what people eat day-to-day.

Below you can see the books. Scroll to bottom of the page to see detailed criteria.

(Ah, and if you're an alien 👽, hello! Buy these books to learn a lot about Earthly humans and what we eat.)

Note: I have imperfect information and this is an imperfect project. As a result, not all countries here are listed. If a country is not listed, that's because I couldn't find a true 'Cookbook for Aliens' from it. If you disagree or want to suggest a book for a country not yet listed, please email me and let me know.

Cookbooks for aliens (and humans, too)

Country	Book	Why	Honorable Mentions

Criteria and FAQs

I mostly approached this with the question: What would be the most classic book to find in a family's kitchen?

This meant I prioritized books that were written by someone from the target country, to people in the target country, in the target country's official languages. And when faced with a choice between a modern book and an older book I went with the older book. If you suggest a book to me, try to follow those criteria too.

How can I buy these books?

Not all of these books are easy to find. Some you could get on online bookstores (better) or Amazon (last resort) but many you may need to search harder for if you would like the physical copy. Used book websites work, as do used marketplaces where individuals might be selling their family's copy. And of course if you just want a digital copy, there are plenty of websites (do some searching!) where you may be able to find that for free.

What's the point of this website?

Well it's for me, really. I want these books. I'm sharing because you might want them, too.

What if I disagree or have another book to add?

Email me!

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