Food and cooking are at the heart of Jewish life. During their 2,000 years of exile, Jews migrated across the world taking their culinary heritage and traditions with them. Wherever they settled, they adapted the dishes of their country of residence to fit their own dietary customs and laws, and as a result, Jewish food today embraces a vast variety of cuisines and cooking styles.Acclaimed food writer Paola Gavin takes the reader on a culinary journey through more than twenty countries from Poland to Morocco uncovering a myriad traditional vegetarian dishes that play such an important part in Jewish cooking. When Jews arrived in the Promised Land they became farmers and agriculturists, growing wheat, barley, rye and millet. Their diet was mainly vegetarian – based on bread, pulses, goat's and sheep's cheese, olives and nuts, vegetables and herbs, fresh and dried fruit. For the poor, food was made more palatable by sweetening with honey or syrup made from dates, pomegranates, or carob b