4 BOOK REVIEWS

Oh what a lovely time of year this is as publishers get busy and flood bookstores with a wealth of books for the year-end.

As a child I never felt it was really a good Christmas (or birthday, for that matter) unless I had at least one book I could anticipate getting into as soon as I possibly could once the formalities were over.

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They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but the first hint of how unique this book is comes from the amazing origami-meets-poster dust jacket. Open it out to see scenes from one of Australia’s loveliest regions.

Author and chef Steven Snow is a bit of a legend on the north coast of NSW. His restaurants have won awards and made news for years, so his many fans will be thrilled with this book.

Snow’s collection of recipes gathered no doubt over his many years of cooking in his highly awarded restaurants around Byron Bay has been a long time coming, and will be even more appreciated because of this.

“My intention in this book,” begins Snow in the book’s introduction, “is to give away as many secrets and impart as much knowledge as I can.” He succeeds.

And of course the bounty of this tropical area is well represented with dishes featuring mangoes and avocadoes and other local fruits. Steven Snow is best known for his way with seafood (hence Fins, the name of a couple of his restaurants – the current one is at South Kingscliff)  and so of course here you will find plenty of dishes featuring Australian seafood to be prepared in his inimitable style.

Surfing dudes will love it for the many shots of waves and boards (courtesy of  photographer Brett Boardman); vegetarians are well catered for; seafood fans will have their fill. Food lovers will be thrilled.

Byron, Cooking and Eating, Steven Snow, Murdoch Books, 2008, rrp $69.95, hardcover,  lavishly illustrated, 250+ pages.

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Beginning, quite rightly, with the diet of the indigenous inhabitants of Port Phillip Bay before white settlement, Charmaine O’Brien guides her readers through the varying history of gastronomy in Melbourne, one of Australia’s  most food-centred cities.

It’s a quirky, interesting trip as O’Brien meets restaurateurs, food writers and culinary professionals and gives insights into early eating establishments and food-loving characters.

Familiar and novel foods make their appearance too – yum cha, Violet Crumble, hot dogs – and recipes and illustrations add interest to what becomes an entertaining and original scrapbook of all things concerning Melbourne and food.

Flavours of Melbourne, A Culinary Biography, Charmaine O’Brien, Wakefield Press, 2008,  rrp $39.95, www.wakefieldpress.com.au Paperback 300+ pages.

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If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of those rows of delectable cakes and biscuits at the Royal Show, this book will demystify it all.

Author Liz Harfull was raised near Mount Gambier in South Australia. As a keen cook she has entered many shows and been successful. As a journalist and writer who has also won numerous awards she is well placed to put together this book which is a delightful celebration of the tradition of ’show cooking  in South Australia’ and the traditions behind it.

This book features tips from both cooks and experienced show judges about how to make recipes work. These tricks of the trade are an essential part of this treasure chest for cooks. What’s more the book contains many recipes so that you too can make award-winning yeast buns and lemonade scones, muffins, marmalades, chutneys and much more.

The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, Liz Harfull, Wakefield Press, 2008, rrp $39.95, www.wakefieldpress.com.au Hardcover, colour illustrations, 172 pages.

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One of the loveliest books to hit the stores this year, Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen needs  just one extra thing – a clear plastic protector, because although it is striking enough as a beautiful coffee table book, it begs to be used in the kitchen. The colour close-ups are so seductive, the recipes so clear and (let’s say it, apparently easy) that few could resist clearing the benches and cooking up a truly Ligurian storm.

No one is better placed to share the recipes from his home province of Italy. ‘Liguria is another country,” says Chef Lucio Galletto. “They do things differently there, especially when it comes to food.”

He is well qualified to comment – Lucio’s eponymous restaurant has been a Sydney institution for 27 years and is one of Australia’s most awarded restaurants – and the 180 recipes will carry you deliciously to the sunny Riviera di Levante from which Lucio’s culinary journey began.

Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen, Lucio Galletto & David Dale, photography by Paul Green, Allen & Unwin, 2008, www.allenandunwin.com  Hardcover, richly illustrated, 330 pages.

CHRISTMAS WITH MARGARET

This morning a book arrived in the post, which is not unusual in my work. I am very lucky to often receive ‘review’ copies of food and travel books.

However, this one, a big hefty book with evocative illustrations, immediately sent me off on a trip down memory lane. It is Margaret Fulton’s latest book, Margaret Fulton Christmas just released by Hardie Grant Books, and no doubt it will solve a Christmas present dilemma for many people this year.

Absolutely packed with everything for the Christmas table, as well as gifts to make, there are little notes in her inimitable style throughout, and the best thing is that you can be sure everything is going to work! It’s almost like having her at your elbow the whole way – and we all need a bit of support when it comes to Christmas cooking, don’t we?

These days I am privileged to occasionally attend dinners and other functions at which Margaret Fulton is a guest or speaker. On occasions I have sat beside her at a meal. She is great company and it is an honour to be in the presence of someone who has shaped the cooking habits and ideas of several generations of Australian cooks. Born in Scotland in 1924, this amazing lady is still going strong and remains an inspiration to us all.

In my first years of marriage I subscribed to her weekly cooking class booklets. They cost 75c each and I could barely afford them, but the sacrifice was well worth it as I learned to cook from them. Like many of us from that era I still feel a special link with Margaret Fulton, but for me it goes even deeper than this.

Years ago, before I was married, I was a young schoolteacher at a Rudolf Steiner school in Pymble, a Sydney suburb. At the time I was single-handedly masterminding my year-end wedding, toting around a notebook bulging with ‘things to do’, cuttings of ideas and a budget so tight it would make the current economic crisis look like payday.

After school one day, one of the mothers asked me what I was doing for my wedding cake. Cake! I hadn’t got around to thinking about what I was going to do about it. It’s possible I may even have forgotten it altogether amongst my masses of detailed lists.

“Because my aunt might do it for you,” she persisted when I didn’t reply.

Even as cash-strapped as I was, the idea of somebody’s aunt, for goodness sake, making my special cake did not thrill me. I was non-committal.

However when she added “My aunt is Margaret Fulton,” she certainly had my full attention.

It turned out that her aunt, then working as Food Editor for Woman’s Day regularly decorated cakes for the magazine’s special food supplements. These intricate snow-white confections were pored over by brides-to-be, and the step-by-step pictures and instructions would later be copied slavishly by doting and talented mothers or aunts in preparation for the Big Day.

Not me, though. My culinary skills were embryonic, and doting relatives non-existent.

What all of her readers didn’t realise, though, was that mostly Ms Fulton merely iced and decorated upturned cake tins for the magazine’s pages. You can see the publisher’s bean-counters rationalising: what reader could pick the difference, and why waste the time and money making a cake that would never be seen?

“But, if you pay her for the ingredients,” my new ‘best friend’ went on, “she will make the cake as well.”

Deal done. In due course my perfectly decorated cake was delivered in time for the great day. It was two tiers tall and somewhere I still have the royal icing floral posy that crowned the cake. Naturally, in keeping with tradition we saved the top layer to eat on our first anniversary.

The cake was delicious, of course – rich and fruity, perfect in every way. But what else could I expect? It had been made by Australia’s top cook and was the bargain of my life as it cost me just $4.

So, maybe for old times sake this year I should use her recipe for Rich Christmas Cake from this latest book. It’s on page 213 and if it is anything like my wedding cake it will be sensational.

Margaret Fulton Christmas, Margaret Fulton, OAM, Hardie Grant Books, October 2008, rrp $59.95. Hardcover, richly illustrated, 340 pages.

MUDGEE MUNCHING

The Mudgee district, a land flowing with (not milk) but wine and honey, seems to be many people's idea of a promised land. The region, just a few hours by car from Sydney, is thick with displaced city-siders who have left the rat-race and set up in a winery, an orchard, a restaurant or a gallery.

So you have ex-accountants, ex-lawyers, ex-teachers – ex-everythings – happily tilling the soil, getting down and dirty, alongside fifth-generation locals.

While the mix could be disastrous, it seems to work very well. Each new flood of skills adds something to the district and the gentle Mudgee atmosphere heals urban nerves and steals their hearts. So fully does the place adopt people that you have to dig a bit before the information is volunteered.

Basically, once you move in, it seems, a sort of green amnesia takes over.

With a population of around 10,000, Mudgee's assets are disproportionately large. Wineries, restaurants and cafes abound, and food producers – honeys and mustards, trout, yabbies, lamb, nuts, jams, jellies, fruit and vegetables – make the area almost self-sufficient.  

Dozens of wineries are scattered around a region that one wine writer has described as 'almost perfect conditions for wine-growing'. Mudgee's altitude is 450 metres and the red volcanic soil, cool nights and summer showers prolong the ripening of the grapes, producing  unique wines.

One of my favorite places to visit is an old schoolhouse just out of town. Bechora and Sybil Deeb met years ago when they both worked at the Sydney Hilton Hotel. Before that Bechora had worked with Archbishop Abdo Khalisse, head of the Maronite Catholic Church, as his driver, personal assistant and, inevitably, his cook.

For it is in the kitchen that Bechora's skills are best displayed. Today Bechora and Sybil are the hosts of Deeb's Kitchen which is open at weekends on the corner of Cassilis Road and Buckaroo Lane. Before that they ran the Mudgee General Store, the sort of place found in every country town, handling a miscellany of absolute necessities. What they didn't realise was the impact they would make on local palates.

As one local expressed it. "We started finding these wonderful foods in the store. Vine leaves wrapped around amazing flavours, unusual cheeses and breads. We couldn't believe it."

In fact Deeb's soft creamy yoghurt and sheep cheeses became his signature. The milk, from Middle-Eastern awassi sheep was from Cowra. The result came from Bechora's persistence and diligence. He still makes some cheeses and they appear on tables at the restaurant. It is hard to predict what may turn up on the menu here. Deeb is a gifted and intuitive cook, so whatever is in season, whatever is ripe in the garden, whatever is freshest and tastiest might make it to your plate.

And it will always be fantastic, you can be sure.

If you want to sample the rest of this rich district’s bounty, perhaps the easiest way is to visit the Old Railway Station, now unused for trains, but with a restaurant and a shop packed with local products, Mudgee Gourmet @ The Railway.

Mudgee means ‘nest in the hills’. With such a wealth of food and wine, it has become a very comfortable and attractive nest as well.

ALTITUDE SICKNESS(ES)

We've all heard of jetlag and most of us claim to have suffered its effects. Some of us may have also endured the odd bout or two of air-sickness. But what about those other supposed-maladies that strike without warning when you are about nine-thousand metres above the nearest medical help?

Some seem to come on almost as soon as the wheels retract as we realise we’re going to be aloft for the next twelve hours. Or twenty-three. Or more.

And if it is not you who is affected, then it might be your seat-companion, or the person sitting directly behind you. First Aid is usually out of the question. The flight-staff, while recognising the conditions, are unable to help.
In fact there probably really isn't anything you can do either – except laugh.

1. Obsessive-Compulsive Writhing. This uncomfortable affliction causes a person to spend most of the flight stretching, climbing around, twisting, and generally tying themselves in knots, trying to get into a comfy position. These may not be the world's movers and shakers, but they certainly manage to keep the other passengers entertained (red, disturbed) with their acrobatics.

2. Nocturnal Paranoia. Sufferers believe that everyone else is sleeping well and comfortably. They misinterpret the plane's normal engine noise as the contented snores and regular breathing of their companions. They are certain they are the only ones awake on the whole plane – and that goes for the captain and flight attendants too.

3. Hypoventilation. This condition causes people to crave fresh air – and lots of it – at all costs. They insist that if there is an air vent to be had, it goes on you as well as them. If they could bring a portable fan on board they would, and you spend the flight wondering if pushed far enough, they might consider banging open a window just to make themselves more comfortable.

4. Uncontrollable Jerks. No, that's not the national footie team off on a free-booze flight. This mainly affects the knees, causing the person behind you to knock the back of your seat continually. Occasionally elbows are also involved and these will always belong to the stranger beside you with whom you are attempting to share an arm-rest.

5. Withdrawal-Tremens. Usually exhibited by smokers confined to a smokefree zone (aka a plane). Symptoms include twitchiness, rudeness, abruptness to flight staff, and the need to get up and walk around all the time. There will also be a constant fumbling in shirt pockets, and sighs of frustration and constant checking of the watch with mutterings of "When will we get there?"

6. High Altitude Amnesia. This sad phenomenon causes passengers to forget where they have put things (such as their glasses, toothbrush, or reading material) and causes them to spend the entire flight hauling down items from the overhead locker and rummaging about in them, only to repeat the process (after a lengthy inspection of the seat pocket) before doing it all over again. The only advantage is that these people will never suffer from swollen ankles as they get more than their quota of exercise during a flight.

7. Aircraft Blindness. Closely related to Domestic Blindness, a ground-level gender-specific disorder. This can affect both sexes rendering them unable to see the toilet 'Occupied' sign, the attendant as they pass (which means they must make a special call for one) the sugar sachet on their meal tray, or the seatbelt sign when it comes on.

8. Super-Hydration. This one actually does refer to the football team off on the flight of a lifetime. They have heard the drink is free, and they plan to make the most of it. The flight gets longer and they get louder as the fluid level rises.

9. Wanderer's Disease. You find these poor souls pacing the aisles, clogging the exit areas, and propped near the toilets. They might tour First Class if they get a chance; once they would have sought an invitation to drop in on the flight crew as they try to make a snack for themselves. They arrive exhausted having walked the whole distance from London to LA, or wherever it is they are going.

10. Scrounge-aholism. This is a fairly passive syndrome, and you will recognise the sufferer by their bulging pockets or stuffed-to-capacity carry-on luggage. They have paid for their flight, so they are going to make sure they have some tangible reminders, souveniring everything from swizzle sticks to salt sachets, knowing full well they will never use the stuff. The more honest ones stop short at packing the inflight blanket and pillow, but will usually be unable to resist sorting through the free amenities drawer in the toilets.

Next time you fly watch out for these conditions, and pray you don’t succumb to one yourself.

SOUPING IT UP IN SYDNEY

A few things to know about Din Tai Fung in Sydney’s World Square. Firstly it is a little tricky to find. Management admits the signage is not good, so just remember that once you are near Bay Swiss go up the broad staircase then turn right. Look for the queue. And if there isn’t one there should be, because Din Tai Fung is one of the hottest new Asian eating places in town.

More things about Din Tai Fung. You need to learn them first because once you are eating those dumplings, all else is forgotten. The name is a combination of the names of two companies that were important to the young founder, Bingyi Yang, who at first opened a humble dumpling stall in Taipei, Taiwan in 1958. Today Din Tai Fung is one of Asia’s premier Chinese restaurants and now the world renowned restaurant chain has just opened it’s 41st shop, in Australia. It is already in nine other countries: Japan, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, USA, Hong Kong.

There are around forty items on the menu, dumplings, of course, but also rice, noodles, soups and vegetables, all prepared on the premises, all with scientific precision. On a tour of the tiny show-kitchen at the front of the restaurant – glass-walled so passers by can stop to watch the action – we stand and watch entranced as white capped  chefs weigh each thimble-sized piece of dough then hand-roll each dumpling wrapper and stuff them exactly the same. It’s finicky meticulous work and we are told that Din Fai Tung’s diners go through about 5000 of these delicious mouthfuls every day!

So that’s the basics. Din Tai Fung’s famous pork dumplings - Xiao Long Bao (literally ‘little basket bun’) are the signature dish here, and we know they must be good because, looking around the other tables, almost every face appears Asian.

The promise is that the food is made fresh as soon as your order is taken, steamed in exactly three minutes and on your table in seconds after that.  So good is it that I am told when celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was asked by ‘Foodie Confidential’ what is the one dish he would travel halfway around the world to eat again, he replied: “The soup dumpling at Din Tai Fung”.

Soup dumpling? Did I forget to say that somehow – somehow – each pork-filled dumpling comes with its own soup inside the dumpling. And there is a special trick and etiquette to eating it too.  After it arrives in a bamboo steamer, take the dumpling in your chopsticks and dip it in the sauce, which consists of two parts vinegar, one part soy and a few slices of shredded young ginger in a tiny dish on the table Transfer the dumpling to your ceramic spoon. Poke a hole in the dumpling with your chopstick to allow the soup to drain into the bowl of the spoon, then drink the soup. Only then, eat the dumpling and enjoy the flavour everyone raves about!

It’s really simple once you get the hang of it. But maybe you just need to try another. And another. Oh and some of the other 40 dishes on the menu. Then come back again, to try the rest. Perhaps that, really, is Din Tai Fung’s secret of its success.

Address: Din Tai Fung, Shop 11.04, Level 1, World Square Shopping Centre, 644 George St, Sydney. 02 9264 6010. www.dintaifung.com.tw

Open 7 days Lunch 11:30am - 3:00pm  Dinner 5:30 - 9:30pm

NERVOUS NOSHING

A while back we had a house guest staying with us for a few days. A delightful person – but a vegan.

FYI, vegans eat no dairy products, no eggs and (often) no honey. A week preparing meals for a vegan can seem a long time. I found it helpful though to realise how easily I can ramp up flavour in meatless dishes by relying on cheese, yoghurt, sour cream and eggs. And how challenging without them! 

It is widely believed that people who minutely watch their diets live longer, but I reckon it just feels that way! And, quickly, before I risk losing all the healthier readers of this site, I should disclose that for many years our whole family was vegetarian, and probably much the better for it.

Not all thought so, though. Many years ago our toddler son was hospitalised for croup, a fairly common early childhood ailment. I sneaked a peek at his chart, as you do, while staying with him in the ward. There the doc had written ‘family is vegetarian, but otherwise normal’. I was at first insulted, then a little chuffed that at least once in my life, there it was in writing from a medico, that I was normal!

Even now, though those years are well behind me, I still often find myself ordering vegetarian options from a menu without noticing I am doing it. Those dishes just often seem to be the tastier and more attractive option.

Of course these days vegetarian food is so much more varied than in the seventies – especially when we were first trying to eat out. Then it was salad, perhaps with the embellishment of cheese if we were lucky, and omelettes. Pity help the non-lacto-ovo-vegetarians (aka vegans). They would have starved in that era. Tofu was virtually unknown, then. In Australia, at least. And forget fast food. Chips without the fish was the only choice. Very healthy!

Now having progressed a little, taking note of the latest health news, realising that a moderate amount of lean red meat and plenty of fish is perhaps even more beneficial to us than avoiding meats altogether, I can proudly say I’ll eat anything – with one caveat.

I define myself simply as a ‘squeamish omnivore’.

To explain – I have never seen the Sardinian cheese meant to be consumed maggots and all, and I don’t know how I would fare with that. But washed rind cheese is fine with me, and while we are onto smelly food, so is durian. (. .more)

Contributor to:

Travel and Living

Sally is a contributor to Global Travel Writers

View a sample of Gordon Hammond's photography at www.gordonhammond.com.au