Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

When this book was announced as the Cook the Books selection for December/January, I wasn't sure that I would be able to join in as both the paper book and the e-books were pretty expensive. I tried a few different places and then realised that the book was available as an audiobook and I had credits available!

Bite By Bite is a collection of short food essays from essayist and poet Aimee Nexhukumatathil. It is a really interesting mix of nostalgia, the author's personal memories, culture and food history. 

The audiobook is narrated by the author herself. Some times that can work and other times not so much, but I do think it worked here, mainly because it is her memories, her heritage, her favourite foods etc. It also worked as an audiobook for me because it isn't a straight line narrative, by which I mean because all the essays are short and about particular subjects so if you don't listen for a week it doesn't matter. You can just pick up the next story and go from there. Some of the essays are 3 or 4 minutes long and others are about 15 minutes long. 

The author is of both Indian and Phillipino heritage which brings an interesting mix of ingredients, and a little bit of competition to the mix such as when her parents disagree about whether the best mangoes grow in India or The Phillipines. There are also a number a traditional Phillipino dishes that are included such as Lumpia and Kaong. There is also an influence from her travels, such as the essays about Shave Ice and associated social history in Hawaii and Gyro from Greece.

I did learn quite a lot from many of these essays, and it did get me thinking. For example, there are numerous chapters about different types of bananas. In our supermarkets, you might be lucky to find two varieties of bananas. Who decided that those are the only two varieties that we should have? I was particularly intrigued by a variety called Saba Banana that is less sweet but is used as part of a bananacue in the Philippines. Barbecued banana with a caramel sauce sounds amazing! There were also other fruits that also have some different banana asssociated names, such as Pawpaw which can be known as names like Poor Mans Bananas or Hoosier Bananas. Here in Australia, we tend to call them Papaya. 

I was surprised to see the suggestion that you can make your own homemade vanilla extract by using vanilla beans and vodka. I have never even thought that such a thing could be possible! And this chapter was also interesting due to the history of the cultivation of vanilla. 

Some of the essays are more a collection of sentences, for example in the chapter about onion, but others are personal stories which flow a lot better. 

I am so glad that I was able to participate this time. I don't read a lot of non fiction, so I am not sure I would have come across this book if not for Cook the Books. 

I decided pretty early on what I was going to make, although I did have a few other ideas, but in the end I decided to make something that is kind of inspired by the essay on pineapple. 

I really had two reasons for making Hummingbird cakes.  The first was because in the essay, it talks about the fact that hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii as they pollinate pineapples and change the internal structure of the pineapple making them less marketable.  So yes, I have made hummingbird cake because hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii

The second reason is because my auntie had given me this recipe ages ago. Every now and again I come across the piece of paper and so today I am putting it on the blog so that I can find it again when I want to find it, not just when I happen to find it. Oh, and and a bonus reason....I have been thinking about finding something to make with cream cheese frosting for weeks!

I have made Hummingbird Cake before, but that time it was a large cake, and it also had the addition of coconut in it. 

When I was making the cakes I just used normal oil as we only had extra virgin olive oil in the pantry, and I made 1.5x the frosting because that just didn't feel like enough with the measurements. It actually could have done with double the frosting. I started trying to pipe the icing but quickly ran short so ended up just using a knife to spread it on the top, which is why they look a bit messy! Although to be fair, my baking always looks messy. It does taste good though! I served these up as dessert when my sister and her family came for dinner and they got a big thumbs up.

The Cook the Books selection for February and March is Annabel Abbs' book Miss Eliza's English Kitchen, which is also published under the name The Language of Food. This will be a reread for me so it will be interesting to see if it works for me the second time round. Here is my original review.

Hummingbird Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self raising flour
2 tspns ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
440g can crushed pineapple in juice, well drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup mashed banana
2/3 cup light olive oil
Frosting
75g cream cheese, at room temperature 
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture

Line a 12-hole muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity) with paper cases

Sift flours, cinnamon and soda into a large bowl. Stir in sugar.

Combine pineapple, eggs, banana and oil in a large jug. Whisk well. Stir into flour mixture until just combined. Divide mixture evenly among paper cases.

Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for 20 minutes, or until cooked when tested. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a small bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar. Beat until combined. 

Spread frosting over top of cold cakes.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Steak, baked potato, salad    
Sunday - Crispy lemon and garlic roast chicken (new)
Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles
Tuesday - Chicken and onion wraps
Wednesday - Honey pepper chicken and rice
Thursday - Pork chops, mash, beans and mushroom sauce
Friday - Takeout

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci

 

At the beginning of 2022 I became completely obsessed with Stanley Tucci. I listened to the audiobook of his memoir Taste, watched movies and I watched the first series of Searching for Italy more than once. Confession - if I see Searching for Italy on the TV schedule then it is highly likely that I will switch over to it even if I have seen the episode multiple times before. It therefore wasn't a surprise to me that as soon as I heard about this new book I pre-ordered the audiobook.

Why the audiobook? Because it feels like Stanley Tucci is talking just to you. Sometimes he is sharing a secret, other times a joke, and other times just chatting away. It's a great audio experience!

I must confess I did wonder about the whole concept. I mean, how interesting would it be if I was to write a book where I just talked about what I ate for a whole year. Let's give it a go shall we. I am writing this post on Wednesday, so here's my day

Wednesday 23 October

I tried a new collagen protein shake this morning. It is a banana flavour which I wouldn't normally have picked, but I chose it because it was said that it tasted like lolly bananas (candy). I'm not sure that it tasted exactly like that, but it wasn't unpleasant and it was pretty filling. Definitely doable.

After going for a walk for the third day in a row (some kind of record surely), I came back and made swiss meringue kisses, the first step in making a layered celebration cake. I tried to make these kisses a few weeks ago but thought it hadn't worked so threw it out and decided to try again when I had a bit more time. They looked exactly the same today so I thought I would try piping them and they were fine. Whoops.

However...it turns out that my brain is still very fried. The instructions said either 90C for a fan oven or 110C for a normal oven and to cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I set the normal oven for 90C. I turned the oven up after an hour. Alas, needless to say, they aren't quite right so I will be trying again tomorrow. These ones aren't a complete loss. We will be having Eaton Mess for dessert this weekend.

I also made raspberry compote. Tomorrow, swiss meringue buttercream. Or that's the plan anyway.

Last night we had steak, salad and crunchy potatoes. For lunch today, I refried the potatoes and had more salad and a fried egg on top. Simple, quick and delicious.

In the evening, I went to an author talk featuring chef Annie Smithers and baker Nadine Ingram. It was such a fun night, listening to the both of them talk about their passion for food, and I was very very tempted to buy their books, in particular Love Crumbs by Nadine. It's a gorgeous book. For now, I am requesting their books from the library. Notice that doesn't say I might not buy it at some point.

Anyway, back to Stanley.

Over the course of 2023, Tucci diarised what he ate as he lived his every day life. Now to be fair, his every day life is a lot more interesting than mine is so we do get to ride along as he has dinner at various restaurants with his celebrity pals and appears at various events, including some of the charities that he is involved in.

But it isn't all about jetsetting and privileged lifestyle although we do get plenty of that. We also get the minutiae of daily life as he navigates life with a young family. For example, we see as his young son's tastes expand but also he laments that his daughter's preferred choice of pasta which is basically pasta with butter and cheese.

There's no doubt that Tucci loves food, loves spending time feeding friends and family, and he has very strong opinions on various subjects. There were definitely times when I got grumpy old man vibes, particularly when talking about air travel and inconsiderate people.

There were also some incredibly touching passages where he talks about his children, about hating being away from his family, grief and the passage of time. And, it was funny. He talks about trying to find a home for the new version of Searching for Italy,which is part of a running joke throughout the book  - what will that show be called. I don't really mind what it is called. I just can't wait to watch it!

One of the highlights for me was a poem about cooking pigeon in the style of EE Cumming. I am sure that this would have been good to read in the print version, but as an audio experience  - phenomenal. Worth the audio just for that alone. We got to hear the odd syncopation, the emphasis on words like 

sizzle

The very first part of the book talks about staying in Italy for a couple of months while filming the movie Conclave. My husband and I had already been talking about going to see that movie, which I want to do even more!

Once again this was an enjoyable experience. Bring on the next TV series and book. I will be watching and listening again for sure!

I will be sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Peri Peri Chicken Pizza
Sunday -  Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognaise
Monday - Zucchini and Eggplant Lasagne
Tuesday - Steak, salad, roasted potatoes
Wednesday - Finger food
Thursday - Sticky chicken with mash (new)
Friday -

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Taste: My Life in Food by Stanley Tucci

Earlier this year I heard about this book, in particular the audio version. I was looking for something engaging and easy to listen to, and so, despite the fact I don't read a lot of non fiction, I gave it a go. Boy, I am glad I did.

I did intend to post  about this back in February when I was on a bit  of a Tucci kick, but I wanted to get the book from the library so that I could grab a recipe or two out of it. Howeverr, it took months for it to come in. Obviously a popular book. Luckily it came in time for me to participate in this round of Cook the Books.

From the opening paragraphs of this book, this was a delightful audio experience. Even now that I have the book sitting here, I can hear Tucci's voice as I flick through the pages and read various paragraphs.

As the title suggests, Tucci takes us on a meander through his life using food as the lens. We start with his childhood, move through to a formative family trip to Italy which really cemented his love of the country, and then on to his life as an actor. 

There are some passages which were a delight. For example, there is an exchange early in the book between his parents and grandparents which made me laugh out loud. The gist of it was that grandma was trying to give his parents some money towards a family meal so there was a prolonged discussion where the parents are saying no, so grandma tries to give it to the kids instead! 

In addition to these simple exchanges, there are also some name dropping and sumptuous meals with famous friends, but the reality is they are people who are in his orbit. For example, he is married to Felicity Blunt, sister of actress Emily Blunt, who is married to Jon Kasinski. You get the idea.

It isn't all glitz and glam. Obviously he does get to mix in those circles, but Tucci has to deal with his own share of challenges including the death of his first wife Kate leaving him to raise their children and his own battle with cancer. In his case, it was cancer of the tongue and the treatment meant that he couldn't eat or taste much at all which for a dedicated foodie like him was obviously challenging.

When I was thinking about which recipe to share for this post, there really was one that jumped at me and that was Spaghetti con Zucchine alla Nerano. There were two main reasons for this. One is the the way that Tucci waxed lyrically about it in both the book and in his TV series (which I reviewed here). The second reason is that I love cooking with zucchini, or more precisely chopping zucchini. When I am chopping zucchini I feel as though I have some knife skills which is definitely not true.

I actually enjoyed the process of making this recipe, but it is time consuming. It took me a long time to fry all the zucchini but Tucci does mention that you could do this part in advance so on the day that you are cooking it you can just in effect put it all together. And as for the taste, it was really delicious. The zucchini was sweet and when you put it together with the cheese and pasta it was deliciously creamy.

I highly recommend this book, in particular the audio version. And now, having revisited this book for this post I feel like I need to go and start watching season 2 of his series Searching for Italy. Or maybe I should start from season 1, episode 1 and make my way through them all....again..

Spaghetti con Zucchine alla Nerano

About 16 fl oz sunflower oil or vegetable oil, or, if you choose, olive oil
8 to 10 small zucchine

75g fresh chopped basil

Sea salt to taste

Extra virgin olive oil
500g spaghetti
200g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Place sunflower oil in a large potand bring to a low boil over medium-high heat.

Slice the zucchine into thin rounds and fry in the oil until they are golden brown. Remove and set aside on paper towels.

Sprinkle with basil and salt.

Transfer to a bowl and drizzle liberally with olive oil.

Boil the pasta until al dente and strain, reserving about two cupfuls of the pasta wwater.

Place the cooked pasta in a large pan or pot over low heat along with the zucchine mixture and combine gently. Add the pasta water, a little at a time, to create a creamy texture. You may not use all of the pasta water. Now add some of the Parmigiano to the mixture and continue by stirring gently and tossing. When the mixture has a slight creaminess, remove from the stove and serve immediately.

I thought I would also share a Youtube video of Stanley Tucci making a different recipe, for no other reason than I can.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Spaghetti con Zucchine alla Nerano

Sunday - Out for dinner

Monday - Mexican Chicken and rice

Tuesday - Quick Cannellini Bean cassoulet with toasted baguette

Wednesday - Ham and cheese omelette

Thursday - Creamy mustard chicken with crispy potatoes and green beans

Friday - Takeaway Friday

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Food through history

I find series that look back through time at food history totally fascinating. Over the years I have watched a few of them, including the funny British show Supersizers Go where the hosts go back to a particular time and eat as people would have done, and then look at what the effect on their bodies has been. Another one I enjoyed was a series set in Italy looking at the role of food in Italian history, including where pasta comes from and the humble origins of pizza. So fascinating.

Recently we have been watching an Australian series called Back in Time for Dinner. The premise is that a family has the living areas of their home restyled to show what life was like in each decade starting in the 1950's, moving through to the 2000's and beyond into the future. In each episode the family learned what food was like, what their individual roles would have been in the family structure, with particular emphasis on the slowly changing roles of women across the last 70 or so years, important historical events and the rapidly changing role of technology. The kids were very excited when the 80s came and they got a home computer.

The episodes from the 1980's on were probably the most interesting for us, because that is the era that we grew up in, and there were many times through these episodes where there was something that we remembered or that prompted conversations about how we lived and worked and ate.

There were some truly awful food things presented. The modern kids were not at all impressed with their first meal in the 1950s which was tripe in white sauce, but some of the other lowlights included a liver sausage sculpted into the shape of a pineapple, complete with a yellow coloured mayonnaise to complete the illusion, as well as food from the future which has been transformed into small gummy shapes. It may kind of taste like meat and 3 veg but it just doesn't sound very tasty or appetising.

It was very interesting to look at the way that food has changed over the years. In the 1950's the food was all fresh, but as they progressed through the decades we saw how food changed with the advent of frozen meals and microwave convenience meals but now, it seems as though we are coming full circle with the focus moving back towards fresh, and preferably local, ingredients.

The other thing that was interesting was how waves of immigrants slowly changed the food landscape here, from the first spaghetti bolognaise recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly, to the coming of Chinese food, to Thai and beyond. It was a fun series to watch.

I haven't read as much food history, but when I do I find it just as interesting. Over the last few weeks I have been browsing through A Timeline of Australian Food; From Mutton to Masterchef. It is actually a similar premise to the TV series. Each chapter is a new decade starting from the 1860's through to 2009.

This book doesn't have a narrative as such, but rather has paragraph sized snippets about the food that we were eating, the technology at the time, historical events, the origins of many of the brand names and advertising slogans (like Yoplait is French for Yoghurt) that are Australian icons and so much more.

I found it very interesting because there were plenty of snippets which I could feel a connection with. Having spent a lot of time growing up in Adelaide and in the Salvation Army, I found the fact that the first 'fair trade' tea was sold by the Salvation Army in 1888, the same year that the site the company that became Western Star began producing butter. The Adelaide Central Market opened in 1869, which is a good 9 years before the Queen Victoria Markets opened here in Melbourne.

There were some quintessentially Australian facts. For example,  there is a story about how Queen Victoria's son Prince Albert was visiting the country, so there was a big catered picnic organised, but the Prince was running late and so the crowd became rambunctious and ended up raiding all the catering. There were also strikes to protest against the early closing of pubs or when they tried unsuccessfully to change the name of Vegemite to Parwill. About 10 years ago, the makers of Vegemite tried to change things up a bit and launched a version of Vegemite that was called iSnack 2.0 which unsurprisingly was not particularly successful, but I had no idea that it wasn't the first time that there had been a spectacular marketing disaster involving Vegemite. Doesn't really matter what it is called, I am not going to be eating it! Bleugh!

A couple of other interesting facts...whilst peanut butter originally came from the U.S,  the first commercially produced versions were actually produced here in Australia in 1898. There is a brand of tomato paste here made by a company called Leggos. I would have sworn black and blue that this was a company with Italian origins but it actually was founded by a Welsh man named Leggo. In the 1970s the company even hired Gina Lollobrigida to promote the brand.

One interesting story was about one of the most iconically Australian songs - Waltzing Matilda. I had no idea that the words were changed in 1903 to be used as a theme song for a Tea company, and this is the version that we know now. Apparently the swagman wasn't originally jolly or didn't need to wait until his billy boiled!!

This was the perfect book to browse through at night, a decade at a time, and there were lots of fascinating new to me facts!

I am also linking this review to Australian Women Writers Challenge.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Lilla's Feast: One Woman's True Story of Love and War in the Orient by Frances Osborne

In the Imperial War Museum in London there is an item that is described as "The house wife's dictionary and suggestions". It is a recipe book that was typed up on any scrap of paper that the author could get hold of and works through a variety of different chapters from soups to curries to roasts, tips for entertaining, desserts and cakes and so much more. Really what makes this item fascinating though is where it was written and who it was written by.

The where it was written is from within a Japanese internment camp during World War II. As a consequence, the sheets of paper may be a carefully preserved piece of rice paper that has a recipe for ice cream on it or it could be paper provided by the Red Cross. Regardless of the type of paper, the contents of the book do not reflect the daily privations being experienced by the author: the loss of property and freedom; the lack of privacy; the lack of food; the lack of information about the fate of friends and family as a war raged in both Europe and the Pacific and in so many other ways.

The who it was written by is a little more complicated to tell. The cookbook was written by Frances Osborne's great grandmother and in telling Lilla's story, Osborne bring to life not only a life filled with what might seem to us now great adventure and more than a little heartache but also a picture of a very different type of life that is now very much of the past - that of British colonial life in countries like China and India.

Lilla was born into a merchant family in the Chinese city of Chefoo in the late 19th century. After a family tragedy, her mother marries a wealthy man who raises the children with every advantage. Along with her identical twin, Ada, she was raised to be a lady and as such learnt many of the skills that would help her run her own home including how to look after her husband, how to run a busy kitchen and the staff that she would undoubtedly have and, as part of that training, how to cook. Given that she was growing up in a corner of China that was dominated by not only colonial British but also people from many other countries like Russia and Germany, the food she was exposed to was very culturally diverse.

Along with Ada, Lilla was a much sought after young lady and between them they could have had their pick of any young man. Always competing with her sister, Lilla appears to have made a hasty match and suddenly finds herself moving away from the place that she considers her home to India, where her reality does not match in any way the life that she has been raised to live.

Lilla finds herself shuffling between India and England along with her husband and eventually their children, but she constantly finds herself struggling to fit into the establishment. In Britain, she is considered an outsider but when she lives in China or India she is part of the British empirical establishment. Through Lilla's life we see the world as it changes throughout the 20th century. She does not remain untouched by World War I and in due course she finds herself living back in China married to a very wealthy industrialist. 

While in Europe the first signs of the looming second world war are coming to light, there are also signs in the East, with the rise of Chinese nationalism and then invasion of China by Japanese forces. When Japan declares war, Lilla and her ageing husband are among the many allied nationals who are rounded up and put into prison camps, spending several years incarcerated in increasingly harsh and desperate conditions, losing everything that they owned in the process.

After the war, the Caseys needed to try to rebuild their lives but this was Britain of rations and attempting to rebuild and so it seems logical for them to return to China but it isn't long before war breaks out, this time the Chinese Civil War, and the rise of Chinese Communism brings to an end the colonial life that Lilla was raised to live.

It is kind of astonishing to think of someone who is incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp with barely enough clothes to keep warm, eating watered down soup and the occasional piece of meat of dubious origins, sitting there and neatly typing up page after page of recipes. Delicious sounding soups and stews as well as undoubted luxuries like cakes and desserts fill the pages of the book. One can only imagine how hard intellectually and emotionally the contrast between the Lilla's writing and her existence must have been, or perhaps it was more of an escape from the realities of every day life.

The enjoyment that Frances Osborne found in telling the fascinating story of her great grandmother's life is obvious. Part of that enjoyment seems to have come from having spent time with Lilla, who lived to be more than 100 years old, but also in discovering the past story of Lilla's life through the letters that were exchanged regularly no matter where in the world the family were scattered, the stories from other friends and relatives and her own research. I found myself contemplating the fact that we are not necessarily going to leave a letter trail for our descendants to follow all that easily in future times.

There were times though that I felt that there was too much conjecture. Lilla must have thought this or that was used to fill in gaps for the convenience of the story a lot. Sometimes the conjecture was logical, but there were a few times where I found myself wondering how that leap was made. I would also have loved to have seen more recipes from the book. There were four included, but I would love to have seen more as well as some images of the actual book as well.

Frances Osborne has also written about her other great grandmother, Idina Sackville, in her book The Bolter which is set in colonial Africa. I am looking forward to reading that book too, and getting to know another fascinating woman's story.

Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

At the end of her life, Frances Osborne’s one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother Lilla was as elegant as ever–all fitted black lace and sparkling-white diamonds. To her great-grandchildren, Lilla was both an ally and a mysterious wonder. Her bedroom was filled with treasures from every exotic corner of the world. But she rarely mentioned the Japanese prison camps in which she spent much of World War II, or the elaborate cookbook she wrote to help her survive behind the barbed wire.

Beneath its polished surface, Lilla’s life had been anything but effortless. Born in 1882 to English parents in the beautiful North China port city of Chefoo, Lilla was an identical twin. Growing up, she knew both great privilege and deprivation, love and its absence. But the one constant was a deep appreciation for the power of food and place. From the noodles of Shanghai to the chutney of British India and the roasts of England, good food and sensuous surroundings, Lilla was raised to believe, could carry one a long way toward happiness. Her story is brimming with the stuff of good fiction: distant locales, an improvident marriage, an evil mother-in-law, a dramatic suicide, and two world wars.

Lilla’s remarkable cookbook, which she composed while on the brink of starvation, makes no mention of wartime rations, of rotten vegetables and donkey meat. In the world this magical food journal, now housed in the Imperial War Museum in London, everyone is warm and safe in their homes, and the pages are filled with cream puffs, butterscotch, and comforting soup. In its writing, Lilla was able to transform the darkest moments into scrumptious escape.

Lilla’s Feast is a rich evocation of a bygone world, the inspiring story of an ordinary woman who tackled the challenges life threw in her path with an extraordinary determination.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Almost French by Sarah Turnbull

Unlike a lot of us, including those of us that participate in the Paris In July event, freelance journalist Sarah Turnbull wasn’t all that desperate to visit France when she was spending a year backpacking through Europe back in the mid 90s. She was mainly spending her time in the eastern European countries. In her travels, she meets a French lawyer named Frederic a couple of times and when he asks her to come and visit him in Paris, she agrees.

What starts out as a week long visit turns into a month long holiday affair and then into more and, after a brief separation while Sarah finishes her travels, she moves to Paris to be with Fred. Moving to a different country requires adjustments for anyone, let alone when there is a different language and very different cultural values involved. For a relatively laid back Aussie, the rules that permeate French society are difficult to understand let alone to follow, and that is before you throw the fact that Sarah needs to learn the language quickly and to find a way to break into the freelance journalism market so that she can start to earn some income. Being a freelance journalist means that she must work from home which is a way that the author is isolated from others, and she must find ways to counteract this loneliness.

Turnbull takes us through some of the well known French clichés but also some of the less well known quirks as well. She writes about the French obsession with food, talking not only of the lunch that she ate in a Michelin star restaurant but also of her joy at eventually moving to an area of Paris where there is still a fresh food market. She tells of starting most days with a café crème at her local café, and attends dinner parties where it is expected that there will be numerous courses and if they aren’t right there will be criticisms made - very different to the barbecue in the backyard that most Australians would be used to.

One of the other things that Turnbull talk about included fashion, and the way that seeing seeing how the French dress influenced her to dress better. At one point, she and Frederic had a conversation about how no French person would wear their tracksuit pants to the bakery for fear of upsetting the baker. A few days later I thought about how I would manage in France as I just popped down to the shops in my trackydacks, old smelly trainers and jumper! Non, non, non!

Other subjects to be examined include making friends, the French concept of home (wherein Frederic returns to his small town in Normandy on a very regular basis), moving house to a fabulous sounding apartment in central Paris and the joy of living in the beautiful city but also the issues that brings, Frederic's first visit to Australia and more. All of the anecdotes are told with humour and with a candour that at times can verge on harsh (for example when she talks about how difficult it can be to make friends with French women), but I can also definitely imagine. One of the other fun stories was when Sarah and Frederic decide to buy a dog. Sarah is determined that there do Maddie is not going to be a pampered Parisian pooch, but it doesn't take long before Maddie goes everywhere with her and often provides entres into conversation that might not have otherwise existed.

One of the strengths of the book for me was that Turnbull not only observes as an outsider looking at French society but that she was trying to understand so that she could assimilate as much as it would be possible for an Australian moving to France could, especially someone whose partner is French and so she doesn't want to let him down at all. Also, she took the time to compare and contrast the two cultures and the way they approach everyday things like food or the service that they expect in shops or aesthetic beauty whether it be in their own home or in hotel rooms with terrible art on the walls for example.

One of the other things that was quite interesting to me was that Sarah and I were both travelling at around the same time and so there were some key events that were mentioned during the book that I remember quite clearly. For example, when France won the soccer World Cup in 1998, I remember watching the final and then seeing the news reports of the people of Paris celebrating whilst Sarah Turnbull writes about being there. Whereas she ended up living a fabulous life in Paris I ended up living for 5 years in the UK, and I obviously came back to Australia a lot sooner than she did.

While I was living in an English speaking country with a similar culture and so did not face a lot of the same difficulties as she did, I was involved with a Nigerian man whose friends were predominantly other young Nigerian men and so could really relate to the feeling of ostracism that comes with sitting around a table or lounge for a meal and not being able to follow the conversation because it was in another language that you either didn’t know or weren’t fluent in, to having no one make any effort to include you in the conversation, to that feeling of just filling a space rather than being an integral part of the gathering.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was narrated by Caroline Lee, who I am almost convinced is pretty much the only female Australian narrator out there. I know that isn’t true, but this is the fourth audiobook that I have listened to this year where she was the narrator, and she also narrates several that I have considered listening to. I did like her narration in this book. I think her voice is more suited to contemporary storytelling, or at least I didn’t like her as much when I was listening to historical novels, particularly ones where there was a wide variety of different accents.
This book was published in the early 2000's and it has taken all this time for a follow up book to be released. I am looking forward to finding out what happens next to Frederic and Sarah.


Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor.

Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frédéric together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite for vichyssoise, the feisty journalist does her best to fit in, although her conversation, her laugh, and even her wardrobe advertise her foreign status.

But as she navigates the highs and lows of this strange new world, from life in a bustling quartier and surviving Parisian dinner parties to covering haute couture fashion shows and discovering the paradoxes of French culture, little by little Sarah falls under its spell: maddening, mysterious, and charged with that French specialty—seduction.

I read this book for following challenges/events:

On Rue Tatin by Susan Hermann Loomis

It won't be that much of a surprise to any frequent visitors to my blog to find out that I was instantly attracted to a book that is set in France and features lots of food related stories. This isn't the first time that combination catches my attention, and I expect it won't be the last time either.

This book is a foodie memoir by Susan Loomis who has lived in France for many years now and who has written numerous cookbooks as well as running a cooking school in the small town of Louviers in Normandy among other things.

She first headed to France as a young woman, serving a foodie apprenticeship before heading back to America and starting a family. Years later she gets commissioned to write a French farmhouse style cookbook. Her husband is an artist and so has no real restriction against him working in France and so they, along with their small son, get the opportunity to move to live in France. Initially intended to be a short to medium term move, soon they find themselves buying a 16th century house that used to be the convent and neck deep in renovations to make it into a home, first and foremost, but also into a test kitchen. Now, years later, this same house is home to a successful cooking school.

This was a pretty easy read, and is overwhelmingly a positive take on life and, given that the subtitle of this book is Living and Cooking in a French Town, includes lots of delicious recipes, one of which I have included below.

While there is no doubt that Loomis and her family are living the dream of so many people, I can't help but think that the way the book is written kind of glosses over many of the issues that they must have had. There were lots of times when she mentioned being broke and yet her husband, son and herself managed to move to France, buy a basically derelict but huge building and do it up. Maybe it was that she didn't want to dwell on how hard that really was, especially seeing as her husband did a lot of the work and the process took several years to complete. After a while that could have gotten a bit monotonous to read but still....it just seemed pretty easy. There were altercations with the neighbours and some ruminations on the difference between America and France (including a long search to buy the perfect oven) but overall this was a glass half full type of foodie memoir.

These days the author runs a cooking school based in her house and after reading the book I was once again left wishing that I could go to France (or I would be happy with Italy or wherever) and attend a cooking school like this one. Here's a video where Loomis talks about the experience of attending her cooking school.

Synopsis

Susan Loomis arrived in Paris twenty years ago with little more than a student loan and the contents of a suitcase to sustain her. But what began then as an apprenticeship at La Varenne École de Cuisine evolved into a lifelong immersion in French cuisine and culture, culminating in permanent residency in 1994. On Rue Tatin chronicles her journey to an ancient little street in Louviers, one of Normandy’s most picturesque towns.

With lyrical prose and wry candor, Loomis recalls the miraculous restoration that she and her husband performed on the dilapidated convent they chose for their new residence. As its ochre and azure floor tiles emerged, challenges outside the dwelling mounted. From squatters to a surly priest next door, along with a close-knit community wary of outsiders, Loomis tackled the social challenges head-on, through persistent dialogue–and baking.

On Rue Tatin includes delicious recipes that evoke the essence of this region, such as Apple and Thyme Tart, Duck Breast with Cider, and Braised Chicken in White Wine and Mustard. Transporting readers to a world where tradition is cherished, On Rue Tatin provides a touching glimpse of the camaraderie, exquisite food, and simple pleasures of daily life in a truly glorious corner of Normandy.

Because this post isn't long enough I will share one of the recipes that is in the book, one that I have made and really liked, especially with a big dollop of double cream on the side. Next week I will share another recipe from the book.

Audrey's Yogurt Cake

1 1/2 cups/210g plain flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 drops vanilla essence
Pinch of fine sea salt
3 large eggs
1 cup /210g sugar
1/2 cup/125ml plain, full-fat yogurt (I used low-fat)
8 tablespoons/120 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ounces/90g bitter chocolate, melted in a double boiler, then cooled
icing' sugar

Butter and flour one 91/2-inch round cake pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 190C

Sift together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt onto a piece of waxed or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and the sugar until they are light and pale yellow. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the eggs and sugar, whisking to incorporate then. Fold in the yogurt and vanilla, then the melted butter.

Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan; fold the melted chocolate into the remaining batter until it is thoroughly combined. Pour the chocolate batter on top of the plain batter that is already in the cake pan and run a rubber scraper through the batter several times to make a marble pattern.

Bake the cake in the center of the oven until it is slightly mounded and your finger leaves a very slight impression when you touch the top of it, about 35 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Serve when it is fully cool or the following day. If you like, dust the top with icing sugar.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

This post also counts for my participation in the Paris in July event hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath, 

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead (includes international giveaway)

The whole title of this book is A Train in Winter: A Story of Resistance, Friendship and Survival in Auschwitz. I don't read a lot of non-fiction but I knew I wanted to read this one as soon as it came out. I think part of the reason I was so interested is that I do find reading about people's experiences in big conflicts like WWI and WWII fascinating. I am aware that I could probably read non-fiction about WWII exclusively as there is a lot out there but I need a hook to catch my attention. In this case, the hook was the fact that the book was about a group of women who were active in the French Resistance and ended up being captured and then sent to the death camps like Auschwitz and Birkenau, among other places. The book follows a group of 230 women, all French political prisoners, from their activities in the Resistance to their capture and initial captivity in the French prisons and their eventual secret deportment to Auschwitz on Le Convoi des 31000, one of the only trains to contain female resistance prisoners. Of these 230 women, only 49 returned.

Broken into two parts, the first part provides the reader with background to life in France during the early days of the German invasion, the formation of the Vichy government, and then the initial resistance activity. We meet communist intellectuals who put out anti-Nazi newspapers, the couriers who deliver messages and copies of the newspapers, women who helped host people fleeing from the Nazis including other activists as well as Jewish people. While a lot of the people we meet lived and worked in Paris, there were also groups of people who were working in cities and towns in rural France. There were young women who were still in their teens, and older women with grown children, mothers with young children and so many more.

The second part focuses on their life within the camps, the constant stream of new arrivals and the daily horror that awaited them. Starved, beaten, sick, forced to stand for hours at a time in freezing condition, lice-ridden - the list of terrors go on and on. Forced to work in the infirmaries and to witness some of the medical experiments but it does also give them opportunities to try and save some lives where they can. One of the things that helps those women that do survive is their reliance on each other, their solidarity for want of a better term. It also touches on the difficulties of returning to 'normal' life, to the children who don't know the women who return, the memories, and more. One of the more telling quotes from the book comes from one of the survivors:

Looking at me, one would think that I'm alive....I'm not alive. I died in Auschwitz, but no one knows it.

The author does a good job of sharing just enough information about each woman, but there are a lot of them and there were times that there was just too many women that the reader had to try and keep track of. I am not sure if a couple of more in depth profiles of chosen people might have had just as big an emotional effect as so many smaller details. Even with this criticism, this book did pack an emotional punch. There were times that I cringed as I read about the terrible acts of inhumanity that these women were subjected to, along with millions of others who didn't fit the Nazi ideal of acceptableness, like the Jews but also other groups like gypsies, homosexuals, and so many more. I found the sections that talked about the fate of many of the young children and babies born in the camps to be particularly heartrending.

There are photos liberally spread throughout the book. Some of them included the children that the women left behind, some pictures of the camps and more. I must say one photo that did affect me was one of a group of German guards, mostly female, in the prison camps looking very happy. Given that it was strategically placed in the text in sections where they talked about how vicious some of these women guards were, it was hard to equate these happy, smiling faces with some of the sadistic punishments that were meted out.

One of the things that I found amazing about these women was that while a lot of them were politically active as individuals, there were others who took up roles in the various resistance organisations after their husbands/brothers/lovers/fathers were arrested and taken away by the Germans. They KNEW the risks they were taking, they did their best to avert those risks but they still took up the work of distributing anti-German literature, or helping people cross borders into safer areas or whatever it is that they were doing. Sometimes they were caught thanks to the work of the French police who worked with the Gestapo, other times they were just caught almost by accident. Other women were denounced by their neighbours for listening to the BBC, which was banned, and in a couple of cases there was no evidence that the women were actually involved in any way but they were still rounded up and ended up in the prison camps.

What I wasn't expecting was to find myself contemplating big questions about myself. We are lucky to live a pretty easy life in that there haven't been any major wars in Australia. I did find myself wondering if I would have the strength of conviction to be an active resister if we were invaded. Would I have the fortitude to physically survive the terrible conditions and the mental strength to come back and live my life after seeing the many terrible things that these women were subjected to and witnessed? Having contemplated it for a while, I think that the fact of the matter is that I would probably not be a resister but would be more of the keep your head down and do the best to survive kind of mentality. I most certainly would have struggled physically and mentally! Heck, I struggle now at times.

The other thing that I do find myself pondering is about how a country like France moved on from the effects of the war, particularly when you think about the collaborators, the police who followed the German orders, the judges who enforced German laws. For example, how do you look your neighbour in the eye if you suspect that they were the one who denounced you to the Germans? How long did these after effects impact on life in French society? In the final section, the author talked about the fact that the last of the collaborators were released from prison in the late 1960s, which isn't long before I was born. Is the past fully in the past  and if so how long did it colour daily life for the country as a whole?

I did think that the author drew some interesting conclusions. When looking at the women who survived there was an inference that it was only a certain age of woman who was likely to survive, and that they were most likely to be those with certain beliefs who were strong enough to stand the experiences that they were being subjected to. I am not quite sure why this was the conclusion that was reach, whether it was an agenda at the beginning of the process or if it was a more organic conclusion.

This is a very interesting book about a very important subject. After the war, there were only comparatively few women who were individually recognised for their bravery and their work in the resistance. This book attempts to redress that in some small way. It isn't a book that you can just get lost in or reading in a single sitting. The subject matter is confronting and distressing, and as you can see had me contemplating some pretty big questions in my own mind. I am glad that I took the opportunity to read this book as part of the tour.

Tour details

You can check out what other participants on the tour thought. The tour schedule can be found here.


Giveaway details


Thanks to TLC Booktours and the publisher I have one copy of A Train in Winter to give away, and the contest is open internationally! The giveaway will close on 18 November 2012.

To enter please complete the form by clicking on the link below

Entry form 

Synopsis

They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen who scrawled "V" for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to each other, hailing from villages and cities from across France, these brave women were united in hatred and defiance of their Nazi occupiers.

Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.

In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.

A Train in Winter draws on interviews with these women and their families; German, French, and Polish archives; and documents held by World War II resistance organizations to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival—and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.

Paris in Love by Eloisa James

Eloisa James is an author who I have enjoyed a number of times. Her historical romances are clever (sometimes too clever for me) and funny and I look forward to each knew one. When I first heard that this book was coming out, I was kind of surprised because despite the title this is very much not historical romance. James may be a successful author but she is also a university professor, wife and mother

For a woman who might seem to have it all, there were a couple of blows that made her and her family decide that it was time for a change. Her mother died from cancer and then James herself was diagnosed with the dreaded C word. After treatment, the decision was made. The family sold up and moved to Paris for a year. For me, that sounds like an impossible dream!

In some ways, this book is almost a reflection of our modern times. The various chapters start with an essay that is a few pages long, and then the rest of the individual chapters are made up of various small snippets of daily life in Paris, many of them starting out as Facebook and Twitter updates. It does mean that whilst there is a definite beginning and end to the novel, there isn't really a narrative that links. It is rather that the same people appear in the pages - James herself, her Italian husband Alessandro and her children, 15 year old Luca and 10 year old Anna, as well as the in-laws and a revolving circle of friends.

Whilst living in Paris might be one of my dreams, as it was for Eloisa and Alessandro, not everyone was thrilled. Luca and Anna had to leave behind their schools and friends and start afresh at an Italian language school in Paris. To say that there were ups and downs during the year is an understatement. There were difficulties with language, with school and with friends. It might also be a bit confronting for the kids now to realise that some of the things that they said and experienced are now filling the pages of this book! 

This book is primarily about the experience of giving yourself up to living in a new place, but it is also a picture of so much more. It is an inspection on family and marriage (not quite warts and all, but with some disagreements and affection clearly on show), on illness and death, food and fashion (especially lingerie), on love, on bad hair and on the difficulties of putting an overweight chihuahua on a diet. 

The writing is delicious in many ways. There are lots of snippets about sensational (and not so sensational) food, observations about the different pace of French life and family, all of which are filled with humour and just the right note of poignancy. 

James shares some of her favourite Paris experiences, the little out of the way museums that might not be known the world over like The Louvre, but are filled with fascinating treasures, the out of the way restaurants, the amazing little shops. One day, it would be nice to be able to experience some of these sights myself.

Once you get used to the style of the writing, the book flies by, and I most certainly found myself smiling happily to myself as I shared the family's journey, even on a long and crowded train trip home that lasted a lot longer than normal. While everyone around me was getting grumpy, I was happily ensconced in Eloisa James' Paris. 

Rating 4/5

After years of living vicariously for years through her romantic heroines, bestselling novelist Eloisa James takes a leap that most of us can only daydream about. She sells her house, leaves her job as a Shakespeare professor behind, and packs her husband and two protesting children off to the city of her dreams.

Grand plans are abandoned as she falls under the spell of daily life as a Parisienne -- exquisite food, long walks by the Seine, reading in bed, displays of effortless chic around every corner and being reminded of what really matters in a place where people seem to kiss all the time. 

An irresistable love letter to a city that will make you want to run away, PARIS IN LOVE is also a joyful testament to the pleasures of savouring life. ′I never did learn to live in the moment, but I did learn how to waste them. It was a glorious lesson.′

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

Last year I very nearly tormented myself due to the strength of my longing, palpable longing, to renew my acquaintance with Paris. I read books, watched movies, participated in blogging events. I am pretty sure I dreamed of Paris. This year, I have managed to back away from that a little bit, which is probably a little more mentally healthy, but I very nearly had a relapse reading this book!

This book is the story of blogger turned author Amy Thomas swapping her fabulous life in New York for fabulous life in Paris for a year. Amy has a self confessed sweet tooth and so a lot of the focus on the book is about finding the best French desserts on offer.

The food descriptions in this book are fabulous. I was certainly left wishing that I had a cupcake or a cookie, a macaron or one of those delectable little cakes that seem to be popular in Paris by my side as I read through the pages.

One of the differences between this book and others, is that not only does Thomas talk about the new experiences that she is having in Paris, she also compares and contrasts those experiences with her New York memories. For example, in one of the early chapters she talks about how cupcakes are crossing the Atlantic from New York to Paris, but also that macarons have made the opposite journey and where to find the best of each in both of those cities.

If you had the good fortune to be heading to either city, you could use the author's experiences as a guide to finding some of the best indulgences, especially seeing as there are handy maps and also lists of websites, contact phone numbers, addresses etc for many of the places that were mentioned in both cities.

There was a point where I was a little concerned about the direction the narrative was taking when Thomas started lamenting her lack of a love life. Whilst I have no doubt that it was a very real preoccupation, I wasn't sure that I wanted to read yet another I moved to Paris/Tuscany/choose-your-own-destination and had a fabulous life and fell in love with a fantastic guy too! Fortunately, that was a short aberration!

One thing that I did think the author did a great job of was in explaining the feelings that come when you are living overseas for an extended period of time. I spent five years living in the UK, and I could totally relate to the feelings of knowing that you were lucky to be able to live where you are, but also wishing you were back at home some times too. And then when you do go back, you miss your life in your new location! It's like you are living in two places, never fully in either one! Even when I returned home, it took about 18 months to feel like I was fully at home again, and then within six months of finally achieving that feeling I ended up moving to a different city in Australia.

If you have a sweet tooth, if you want to live vicariously through the eyes of Amy Thomas as she spends time in both Paris and New York, then this may be a good choice for you. She certainly had me wishing that I could spend even just a couple of weeks in Paris exploring some of the culinary highlights!

Rating: 4/5

Forever a girl obsessed with all things French, sweet freak Amy Thomas landed a gig as rich as the purest dark chocolate: leave Manhattan for Paris to write ad copy for Louis Vuitton. Working on the Champs-Élysées, strolling the charming streets, and exploring the best patisseries and boulangeries, Amy marveled at the magnificence of the City of Light.

But does falling in love with one city mean turning your back on another? As much as Amy adored Paris, there was part of her that felt like a humble chocolate chip cookie in a sea of pristine macarons. PARIS, MY SWEET explores how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a salted caramel souffle's rise, as intensely satisfying as molten chocolate cake, and about how the life you're meant to live doesn't always taste like the one you envisioned.

Part love letter to Paris, part love letter to New York, and total devotion to all things sweet, PARIS, MY SWEET is a treasure map for anyone with a hunger for life.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.