This practical guide to the world's most popular fruits and vegetables features more than 200 full-color photographs--plus detailed descriptions, selection tips, and guidelines on peeling, blanching, cooking, and eating. Award-winning chef Aliza Green describes everything you're likely to find at your local grocery store and farmer's market--from common cabbages and coconuts to more adventurous fare like chayote and cherimoya. Grocery shopping--and dinner--will never be the same again!

Those bristly cactus spines are guarding something really good to eat. Like chocolate, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and chile, prickly pear cacti are one of the true treasures of the Americas. In her unique, beautiful cookbook Carolyn Niethammer has collected 56 enticing international recipes for the succulent fruit and tender green pads (or "nopalitos") of the prickly pear. A wild-food expert and master cook, she guides readers all the way from cactus patch to casserole.

More than condiments but not exactly side dishes, the combinations of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices featured in this book are the very definition of flavor when eaten by themselves, and add a jolt of taste that can dress up any main course. Here are 40 inventive, easy-to-make recipes ranging from the familiar to the exotic. Full-color photos.

Fruit - natural, no additives , lowfat , heart-smart, good for you. With every day that passes exotic fruits - like their great counterpart, chiles - are increasingly working their way into our lives. Just as North Americans have found a friend in the fire of chiles due to their embrace of Mexican, South American, Caribbean, Thai, Indian and Chinese cuisines ( among others), so tropical and subtropical fruits are another indispensible and common ingredients that figures dramatically in the cooking of these regions. Experience some of Chef Van Aken's tropical recipes for drinks and desserts!