The Food Lover's Companion

This book! I bought it last week, and I am so impressed. It's an index of foods and ingredients. My favorite entry thus far is that of the croissant. The story goes that there was a war between the Austrians and the Turks. The Turks were tunneling and some Austrian bakers heard them in the middle of the night. They alerted the authorities, and they won the war. As a reward, they were asked to make a pastry in the shape of a crescent, which was the symbol on the Turkish flag.