Reviews: Good Food, Good Living

review

Good Food, Good Living
Karen Anand
HarperCollins India
Rs. 299
Pp 192
ISBN: 9789350291108
Paperback /

About the book
What are the best foods to try in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur? How do you judge wines and pair them with Indian foods? What would you order in Paris if you were a vegetarian? And which cheeses would you shop for abroad if you were carrying home a hamper? These are among the many foodie questions answered by Karen Anand in her collection of food writings published over the years and compiled in this informative book.

Savour the flavours from around the world and catch up on global food trends. Also enjoy the special collection of recipes from different corners of the world woven into the articles.

Reviews:
Practical gourmet guide Business Standard
Karen Anand may not know this but she owes a debt of gratitude to a learned Telugu Brahmin and a Sikh economist. Had P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh not courageously demolished the licence-permit raj and liberalised the economy 20 years ago, her career and this book would not have found a market, for a variety of reasons. First, a book on lifestyle and one so blatantly titled would have been considered mildly politically incorrect in those pseudo-socialist times when to be poor was glorious (at least from the politician’s point of view). Second, there would have been few takers for this book since the Indian middle class (a) couldn’t have afforded many of the good things she writes about and (b) wouldn’t have had access to them even if they could. Third, the rich would access these things overseas and wouldn’t have needed Anand’s advice to do so.

So it is no surprise that the earliest of these essays, a compilation of her newspaper articles, date from 1993. It would be easy to dismiss this book as warmed-up leftovers but the publishers clearly hope to catch the rising tide of sophisticated consumerism “at the flood,” so to speak.

Today, it is almost ironical that two men with conspicuously simple lifestyles have enabled the urban, westernised upper middle class to chatter insouciantly about sauerkraut, sushi, the travails of accessing good avocado or asparagus or Camembert or Brie and the comparative virtues of Kendal Jackson versus Cloudy Bay, all of which they can consume in India.

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Cookbook Corner Hindu
Ever wondered what’s on your plate at a sushi bar? Wish you knew your Camembert from your Gruyere? Gourmet specialist, chef and food critic Karen Anand presents the essential guide to navigating the sea of haute cuisine and introduces you to exciting new culinary territory. This foodie’s bible is sure the satiate the palate of even the most exacting connoisseur.

This is for all those venturing into the culinary arena for the first time: brides, bachelors and others new to Indian cuisine. Right from tips on how to equip your kitchen, to step-by-step instructions about basic processes to planning menus, Rohini Singh guides you through your first steps in the kitchen. Essential armour for all those setting up a kitchen, this book is sure to be splotched and stained with happy memories.

Practical gourmet guide

Karen Anand may not know this but she owes a debt of gratitude to a learned Telugu Brahmin and a Sikh economist. Had P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh not courageously demolished the licence-permit raj and liberalised the economy 20 years ago, her career and this book would not have found a market, for a variety of reasons. First, a book on lifestyle and one so blatantly titled would have been considered mildly politically incorrect in those pseudo-socialist times when to be poor was glorious (at least from the politician’s point of view). Second, there would have been few takers for this book since the Indian middle class (a) couldn’t have afforded many of the good things she writes about and (b) wouldn’t have had access to them even if they could. Third, the rich would access these things overseas and wouldn’t have needed Anand’s advice to do so.

So it is no surprise that the earliest of these essays, a compilation of her newspaper articles, date from 1993. It would be easy to dismiss this book as warmed-up leftovers but the publishers clearly hope to catch the rising tide of sophisticated consumerism “at the flood,” so to speak.

Full report here Business Standard

Cookbook author on South Indian cuisine

Hari Nayak returns from the buffet line with three plates artfully laden with two kinds of dosai, some hard-boiled eggs coated with batter and red-colored pieces of “lollypop” chicken wings.

“I like to go up once to get appetizers, then return for the entrees,” he says, taking his seat during a bustling lunch hour at Anjappar in North Brunswick.

He presents the appetizers to his guests and demonstrates how to enjoy the dosai, which are rice-based pancakes. He dips the oothappam dosai, flecked with strips of red onion, into a creamy coconut sauce.

Nayak, an internationally renowned chef, cookbook author, food consultant and all-around cheerleader for Indian cuisine, goes unrecognized at the busy restaurant. Women in saris glide by, trailed by tumbling toddlers. Other men and women, clearly on lunch break, fill one plate, chow down and move on. The clientele, at least on this day, is exclusively Indian.

Full report here My Central Jersey

Morsels of pleasure

Nita Mehta assures that her latest cookbook will bring peace to the dinner table

An unlikely segment, kids, is the target of cookbook writer Nita Mehta's latest effort. Named 101 Recipes for Children (Nita Mehta Publication), it is a book aimed at mothers to roll out appealing dishes for their young ones.

The author, who has more than 250 bestselling cookery books to her credit, has taken special care of the tiffin box items in the book and has emphasised on the appeal factor of the dishes served. The other categories covered in the book are snacks and meal time dishes. A special section on sandwiches and shakes has also been included to cater to the special cravings of teenagers.

Talking at the launch of the book at Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place, the author said that snacks should be like finger food that little fingers can pick up with ease. “Meal time dishes should be simple but of a high standard that the child will learn to appreciate for the rest of his life.”

Full report here Hindu

Ignou's food for thought

Be it xukoti (a dish made of jute leaves and rice) or chicken cooked in rice powder in Assam, Bengal's puli pithe and Hydrabadi jahaji korma or dum ke baigan and many more, these dying cuisines from different regions of India may come back to the dining table. Lip-smacking ilish macher paturi, puran poli, eromba, iddyappam, puttu kadala, khar or goan patolleo, etc will soon be subjects of study at the Indira Gandhi National Open University's Maidan Garhi campus in New Delhi.

After getting the go-ahead by the board of management and academic council recently, Ignou will soon set up a first of its kind culinary institute in India that will offer courses in Indian gastronomy and regional cuisines.

According to Ignou vice-chancellor, V N Rajasekharan Pillai, the introduction of the new courses will help in documenting, preserving, developing and promoting India's regional cuisines. "Every region or state has a cuisine that is unique. With the passage of time, some of the most authentic recipes are already lost or dying. They need to be documented. That apart, the institute will offer professional programmes starting from certificate courses to PhD. It will also offer MBA with specialization in Indian culinary art.''

Full report here Times of India 

Living in the limelight

As the cover will tell you Medium Raw is chef--writer-traveller-reality show judge-food fanatic Anthony ‘Tony' Bourdain's sequel to the bestseller Kitchen Confidential. How is it different from the first? Kitchen Confidential had the voice of a ranting yet nostalgic chef while Medium Raw always feels like a narrative with Anthony Bourdain's ‘oh so familiar' (now! Courtesy the various TV shows) voice!

Turning the corner
What starts off with a top secret meeting of great chefs (names not revealed) feasting on some of the most exotic (many illegal) treats (a meal described as once in a lifetime for few and never in a lifetime for most) slowly shifts towards his days in the limelight after the tremendous success of Kitchen Confidential.

His career and change in lifestyle from chef to television celebrity and his hatred for the food network! He describes some of his darkest days post- Kitchen Confidential dealing with the failure of his first marriage; days, which included getting ‘stoned', driving drunk and being plain suicidal on a regular basis. All this on a luxurious Caribbean holiday, while running into some of the worst company possible.

Full report here Hindu

Culinary adventurer

The fourth edition of The Hindu MetroPlus Pookkalam contest drew droves of visitors, Indian and foreigners, who were enchanted by the heady fragrance and spectrum of colours, as 49 floral carpets turned the auditorium of the Government College of Women into a veritable garden.

Among the many visitors who dropped in to see the pookkalam was author and food and travel writer Shoba Narayan who declared that she had never seen anything so spectacular. Author of Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes, the foodie and food writer confessed that this time she was not on a gastronomic adventure but to visit her in-laws (former bureaucrats Ramachandran and Padma Ramachandran) who live in the city.

As she sits down for an interview, Shoba recounts how she tasted success with her first article on food in 1999. “I had participated in a competition in the food section of The New York Times. I had to describe an occasion when I cooked a memorable meal,” recalls Shoba.

Full report here Hindu

Spicy, saucy, slurplicious

There are many firsts from the time you pick up this book. It is the first cookery book in purple I have ever seen. It is the first that could be mistaken for chick-lit, or an upcoming sequel to Mira Nair’s Mistress of Spices. It also is perhaps the first cook book that relies more on sketches (both verbal and pictorial) than on photoshop-enhanced imagery. I guess what I am trying to say is, it all comes together and, really works.
I don’t claim any skills with recipes that could remotely be used to draw parallels with coffee-cup deciphering, but the best bit about the book was that it wasn’t just a compilation of recipes. It was a narrative that established the parameters and prerequisites for the author to have written this book.

‘Written’ is the key word here for, as I said earlier, it doesn’t read like a restaurant menu with ingredients and cooking methodology; it is a first-person account of someone who picked up her virgin karchi-kadhai as she took on the kitchen and Indian cuisines. As a result the language is simple but not ambiguous. Also, Indian cooking, seen how it is more holistic than methodical, is translated well into precise timings and quantities. The reader, especially if a non-Indian, will stand to gain something about Hindu philosophy too if he reads deep enough into how the process of cooking isn’t calculated and measured but more based on preferences and personal thresholds.

Full review here Asian Age

Jyoti Basu loved pasta, says grand-daughter and gourmet author

He was West Bengal's chief minister for 23 years but he was no Bengali at heart when it came to his favourite food. Jyoti Basu was a European gourmet fan who loved 'light pastas, salads, soups...', says his grand-daughter Mallika Basu, the latest Indian cook-book author.

'Dadu (grandpa) loved Western food. Whenever he stayed with me or I was home, he would tell me to cook pasta - a light variety of rigatoni pasta with tomato base sauce or mushrooms. He liked mild vegetable soups with croutons and vegetables sauted lightly,' Mallika told IANS here.

But he had a bugbear. Jyoti Basu, India's Communist legend who passed away in January, was finicky about his meat, according to his London-based entrepreneur grand-daughter. 'He loved his meat cooked succulently soft - almost like the texture of a fish,' Mallika said.

Her book, Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking in Busy Living, published by Harper-Collins was released in the capital Friday. The book throws the kitchen in trendy focus - making cooking sassy, smart and hilarious.

Full report here Sify

What's your recipe?

The steady flow of cookery books and food columns suggests that cooking is not just a fad with a generation which loves to experiment

Hollywood hottie Gwyneth Paltrow has recently authored a cookbook titled My Father's Daughter in memory of her late dad. The actor's father Bruce Paltrow died in 2002 from pneumonia after battling throat cancer and she launched the book because she feels close to him when she is making new dishes. Sydney Morning Herald recently quoted the Oscar-award winning actor as saying “Health food was never really on the agenda, it was about fun and deliciousness and togetherness. The most striking aspect about his cooking was how much joy he derived from feeding the people he loved. I mean, genuine, bursting happiness….”

Well, one doesn't always need such stimuli to write a cookbook. At least, that doesn't seem to be the case with the Indian cookbooks the monsoon season is showering us with.

Lasting success
Wisdom Tree, Roli Books, Rupa and Co. have been courting this genre for a long time. One of the publishers attributes the success of this genre to the exposure a well-heeled Indian is getting these days. Availability of varied cuisines at home and the world contributes to the cause.

Full report here Hindu

Masala moments

Jyoti Basu’s granddaughter Mallika is staying clear of the political arena, and cooking up a storm instead, says Amit Roy

Mallika Basu, the 32-year-old granddaughter of the late CPM leader Jyoti Basu, is over in India to promote her cookbook, Miss Masala: Real Indian cooking for Busy Living (HarperCollins; £14.99).

Married and settled in London, where she jokes she works as a “corporate superbitch” in public relations, Mallika is as entertaining as her book which is directed at ambitious career women keen to experiment with Indian cuisine. “Calcutta gave me three of my personality traits — an uncontrollable motormouth, an intense hatred of housework and a real love of food,” admits Mallika, who affects sharp Austin Reed suits, diamonds and Kurt Geiger high heels when she goes into client meetings.

Her mother, Dolly, has helped with recipes but it is her businessman father, Chandan, who inspired his daughter with his passion for food. He is said to be a dab hand at making biryani as well as jangli maas (“a super-spicy dish cooked slowly with equal quantities of goat meat and dry red chilli”).

Those who lament the lack of genuine Bengali food in Indian restaurants in Britain may want to try out Mallika’s recipes. For among other dishes there’s kosha mangsho, cholar dal, chingri malai curry, doi maach, maacher chop, mutton ishtew, and, in the sweets section, narkel narus, payesh and bhapa doi. “If I can do it,” she says, “any mug can.” There is an engaging honesty about her, as for example when she talks about the time when she came bottom in a beauty contest.

Full report here Telegraph

Some relish with roast lamb?

Elizabeth David chronicles Britain's fascination with pepper and pickles ...

Among the leading lights of culinary literature in the last century, few shone as brightly as Elizabeth David.With nine books under her belt and an enormous amount of journalism,she achieved a most remarkable feat: she brought into English homes,which still reeled under the burden of war-time rationing when she started appearing in print,the flavour of the "sun and sea and olive trees." Thanks to her exertions,her compatriots discovered the charms of the food of the European countries around the Mediterranean,notably France and Italy,and began to introduce in their daily cooking a host of herbs and spices.

I bought my first Elizabeth David book,Mediterranean Food,in the mid-1960 s and instantly became an addict.She was no mere compiler of recipes or just a reviewer of restaurants.She offered readers chunks of culinary history,anecdotes about obscure chefs and gourmets and vivid descriptions of open-air markets and visits to farms and vineyards in search of rare cheeses,wines and cold cuts.I devoured everything she published,but missing from my collection was Spices,Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen even though it was reprinted thrice after its publication in 1970.Now,Grub Street,a publisher of cookery books in London,has issued it in hard cover.

Full report here TOI Crest

Cooking your own goose

Though cookbooks have all the information you need, take time to pick and choose!

Last Sunday my husband volunteered to buy some fruit. I was grateful. He came back almost two hours later with a huge Midlands bag – so he's obviously gone book shopping. I ignored the bag, because I am not interested in his kind of books. After a while he came and plonked a book down beside me, with a smile that was part smug and part seeking a pat on the back. It was a cookbook, an Indian classic, first published circa 1950, with contents like “a kadahi is a shallow vessel in which to stir-fry vegetables or deep-fru pooris”, “to make chapatis knead whole wheat flour with an adequate quantity of water and press with knuckles” and “temper pulses with a spoonful of ghee and some spices”.

Where's the place
I'm touched and thanked him - after all, how thoughtful and sensitive of him to buy me a cookbook. But I have many problems with this. One, he never cooks, so he doesn't know what to look for. Two, he obviously has no idea what my capabilities are, thence the definitions of kadahis and atta. Three, our bookshelves are creaking under the weight of too many books – the children have commandeered two entire cupboards, departed, and left the shelves full of Irvine Welsh and Haruki Murakami. So where's the place? There are already piles teetering ominously on every flat surface, threatening to come crashing down. Four, and this is the most important, may I have the satisfaction of browsing through I bookshop and choosing what I like? Or must I have what he thinks I should like? There's a history.

Full report here Hindu

How to eat words

Should you happen to glance at the cookbook section at any bookstore, you’ll see an impressive buffet spread: beautifully shot books, some with near-edible pictures, liberal helpings of authentic ethnological and cultural insight, and the finest writing in the genre of ‘food pornography’. The spread is delectable enough, and varied enough, to have caught the attention of the Paris-based conferrers of the Gourmand award. Last year, the Emperor’s Table by Salma Husain (Roli) won the award for best culinary history. This year, in the Best Easy Recipes category, they chose Monish Gujral’s The Motimahal Cookbook: On the Butter Chicken Trail—a bestseller internationally, what with butter chicken’s relative, Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM), being anointed Britain’s national dish by some. At the other end of the calorie-counting spectrum, Sukham Ayu, Pratibha Jain and Jigyasa Giri’s primer on healthy cooking according to Ayurvedic principles won in the Health and Nutrition category, a niche that is fast catching on.

This is just the tip of the smorgasbord. Cookbooks today bear not even a passing likeness to the shoddily produced “handouts for housewives” that once dominated the genre. Today, they have sharper focus and near-infinite variety. Some target specific social groups, such as cosmopolitan young single people who entertain occasionally (Flash in the Pan, Westland) or IT professionals (Cook IT, Roli). Others provide a sort of food ethnology guide to, say, the Syrian Christian community (The Suriani Kitchen, Westland) or the Maharashtrian kitchen (The Essential Marathi Cookbook, Penguin). Some make a foreign cuisine authentically our own, for an internationally well-travelled class, such as Italian Khana (Random House India), and still others appeal to a rarefied restaurant-frequenting, Travel and Living-watching class. For those who like an international interpretation of Indian food, there’s the forthcoming Modern Spice by cook show host Monica Bhide, or, the Michelin-starred, newly minted ‘luxe fusion’ Indian food pioneered by Vivek Singh, chef of the London-based Cinnamon Club (both RHI).

Full report here Outlook

On the curry trail

London-based Colleen Sen on her latest book and the many avatars of the ubiquitous curry

Food might seem frivolous. After all, a payasam's hardly a political statement, right? You'd be surprised. “Food tells us so much about who we are,” says Chicago-based culinary historian Colleen Sen, in a phone interview to discuss her new book Curry — A Global History. “Your history your identity, your religion — they all have a significant impact on your food.” The book, commissioned by publisher Reaktion Press in London, is a part of their new Edible Series, a set of food books each focussing on a single dish or ingredient (tea, pizza, hot dogs) in a global context.

Stating that this reflects a growing interest in the origins and history of what we eat, Colleen says food cultural history — which is what she specialises in — is getting increasingly popular as an area of research in America. “It's a professional look at food as more than just recipes.” After all, what's on your plate is a powerful expression of your past. Family cookbooks are a historical account of community, shaped by effects of history, geography and imagination. Daily food choices are influenced far more by the past than random moods and preferences. Indian food, for instance, might seem like the creation of generations of home cooks. In reality, that's just half the story.

Full report here Hindu

Regional cuisines books gain popularity in Mumbai

The genre of regional cookbooks is no longer the niche it used to be. Not only are the bookshelves long monopolised by celebrities chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor, Nita Mehta and Tarla Dalal making space for new writers, they are also witnessing faster turnover.

“Hyderabadi Cuisine by Pratibha Karan has gone into its ninth reprint; I believe parents in Hyderabad give it to girls as a part of their trousseau,” says Sheema Mookherjee, senior commissioning editor, HarperCollins India. Regional cookbooks have so far served as ideal wedding gifts or perfect send-off presents for children moving abroad. But now, young women who can’t read cookbooks written in regional languages are seeking out those penned in English.

Sunil Poolani, executive director and publisher, Leadstart Publishing, says, “There has been an increase in demand for regional cookbooks in India; and many have been translated from regional languages to English. Out of every ten book proposalswe receive, two to three are for regional cookbooks.”

Full report here DNA

Southern comfort

Lathika George’s book The Suriani Kitchen demystifies Syrian Christian cuisine for the uninitiated

“Most of the new generation Syrian Christians live out of Kerala, and they take with them the food. It is only natural that the further you go, the more you yearn for the familiar taste of home,” said Lathika George, author of the book The Suriani Kitchen (Westland, Rs 450), which was launched at Delhi’s The Park hotel on Thursday.

Pachakari Ishtew (vegetable stew), Pacha Paparaka Thoran (raw papaya with curry leaves, mustard and grated coconut), Meen Pappas (fish curry with cocum, coriander and coconut milk), Chemmeen Pulao (Prawn pulao), Tharavu Roast (traditional duck roast) — even the best of food connoisseurs outside Kerala are often not familiar with the treasures that Syrian Christian cuisine or Suriani cuisine has to offer.

Full report here Indian Express

Sophie's choice

Sophie Girot was so fascinated with traditional Tamil cuisine that she and award-winning author Viji Varadarajan have put together a cook book in French

Heat oil. Pop mustard. Squint into kadai and yawn. After all, it's hardly the Mona Lisa.

Try telling Sophie Girot that. Her eyes are closed, as she delightedly takes deep breaths of the mustard busily popping in her saucepan. “Listen,” she says, hushing the crowd, “And breathe. That smell. It's so good.” Everyone sniffs experimentally. It suddenly dawns on us. Mustard really does have an alluring fragrance.

We're at a cooking demonstration at Alliance Française to mark the launch of ‘Saveurs et Traditions du Sud de l'Inde,' a French cook book on traditional Tamil cuisine by Viji Varadarajan and Sophie Girot.

Full report here Hindu

Hooked on cookbooks?

We may never use them. But, why can't we ever stop obsessively hoarding recipes and recipe books?

Ok, not all of us call the chef and kiss him on both the cheeks in appreciation of his chow mien, but we certainly do the next best thing — wide-eyed, we ask: how did you make it? It's irresistible, this urge to know how the dish — any dish — is made. We listen to recipes, read them, watch the dish made. We puff up when others coax us into sharing secrets behind the mawa gujia and the mint pakoda. We start a cookery blog, and look up for more.

And, copy-paste one more recipe when we have a hundred untried ones; hoard cookbooks even if we only cook from memory. Let's face it — collecting recipes is our culinary obsession.

Spectacular pictures
Says Madhavi C., HR executive with an MNC: “I buy cookbooks in the hope of becoming a good cook some day. I flip through the pages, but don't have the discipline to translate it into cooking. I try one item, and it bombs — that puts me off, and I don't try anything for a long time. She finds the dishes spectacular in the pictures, and feels there's comfort in stuffing a drawer with them. “Folks such as me, who don't get out of the comfort zone and don't have a large repertoire, surround themselves with books.”

Full report here Hindu

Everything you want to know about biryani

Regular readers of this column (Vir Sanghvi's Rude Food) will be familiar with two regulars of Rude Food. The first is the great biryani hunt, which is now into its second year with disastrous consequences for my shape. And the second is my admiration for Pratibha Karan, the retired IAS officer, who I regard as one of India’s finest home cooks. Imagine my delight, therefore, when both these phenomena came together.

I was pleased to receive, through the post, a copy of Pratibha’s new cookbook dedicated to biryani. Even though the book is published by Random House, well known publishers of diet books and recipe books, it seems not to have received the over-hyped treatment that is Random House’s specialty. I hope this article will set the balance right because Pratibha’s is really an extraordinary book, one that will become a classic of Indian food writing.

Full article here Hindustan Times