Rose's Melting Pot: A Cooking Tour of America's Ethnic Celebrations

Beranbaum ( The Cake Bible ) credits ``bright green abalone liver at a sushi bar in Tokyo'' as one of her long-lasting culinary inspirations, and uses Rose's Melting Pot to gather together other multicultural delicacies (or mainstays) that she has found closer to home. Not a new idea, but always a welcome one, and this time there are surprises, as well as Beranbaum's characteristic skill and enthusiasm: lemon poppy seed buttermilk pancakes (born of the author's lemon poppy seed pound cake); Ethiopian doro wat , or stewed chicken, highly spiced with cardamom, ginger, turmeric and more; salmon pie. The range inherent in the melting pot idea can hardly go wrong when challah and popovers are side by side in a shared chapter, though for some the author's standards (of hours, energy, enterprise, savvy) may at times be a bit high: her ``Ultimate BLT'' is made from brioche, which we are encouraged to bake from scratch. But Beranbaum's brio may help to overcome one's misgivings about whether to take the leap or not. Photos not seen by PW . (Dec.)