Book mini-reviews
New books offer summer reading that will whet appetites
By Joan Namkoong
Advertiser Food Editor
Culinary books of note for summer reading:
• Three recipes from "Taste and Tales of Mo'il'iili," the community cookbook from Mo'il'iili Community Center, will be featured in "America's Best Recipes — A 2001 Hometown Collection" to be published this fall by Oxmoor House Inc. Banana Pudding Cake, Indonesian Pork Roast and Korean-style Fried Rice are the recipes that have been tested and chosen for inclusion in the 375-recipe book. In the meantime, the original book is available at Island bookstores or at Mo'ili'ili Community Center for $14.95.
• Did you know that a nectarine is a type of peach? Or that ancient Egyptians used orange juice as an embalming fluid? Islander T. M. Gorman shares bits of fruit trivia and more importantly, how to select fruit in her just released book "Fruit: The Ripe Pick." Tired of bringing home mealy peaches and tasteless fruit from the supermarket, Gorman has put together a 128-page quick reference handbook detailing 50 different fruits from the ordinary orange to the more exotic cherimoya. Selection, storage and nutritional data for each fruit are included as well as bits of lore and history. The book is available at island bookstores for $9.95.
• Jennifer Brennan presents fascinating information and stories about Pacific island cookery, including that of Hawai'i, in her recently released book "Tradewinds & Coconuts: A Reminiscence & Recipes from the Pacific Islands" (Tuttle Publishing 2000, $34.95). Brennan spent a decade tasting, researching and traveling through Melanesia and Polynesia to collect the stories and recipes for this book. While her book is billed as the "definitive volume on Pacific island cooking," I found she has taken license with some of the recipes from Hawai'i: haupia sprinkled with coconut is not something I have seen except perhaps on a hotel buffet; "kamano lomi" is not a term we use for lomi salmon. The book's inconsistent use of Hawaiian diacritical markings is also disturbing. I would read Brennan's book for its episodical journey through territory that is both familiar and unfamiliar in its food ways, but the recipes range from authentic to "creative."
• "Hot Sour Salty Sweet" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, Artisan, $40, a blend of travelogue, photojournalism and cookbook. The photographs are stunning, the recipes approachable; take a vicarious trip through Southeast Asia with this award winning duo.
• "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser. After reading this book, you may never want to eat at a fast-food restaurant again. It's not just about the food but about the cultural and societal changes that have come about in America because of the fast-food industry. An interesting and informative book that takes you behind the scenes to meat packing companies, farms and the business of fast food.
• "The New Food Lover's Companion" by Sharon Tyler Herbst, Barron's, $14.95. An 800-page paperback chock full of culinary descriptions, definitions and pronunciations. It's a food dictionary and quick reference for food writers like me, who always have it on their desk.
• "Japanese Vegetable Cooking" by Asako Tohata, Kodansha America Inc., $14.95. If you want to know why you should be eating all those vegetables every day, this author can tell you specifically. Broccoli will prevent colds and anemia and regulate your intestines; if you want to relieve fatigue, eat tomatoes, garlic stalks, scallion buds, green peppers, adzuki beans, daikon, parsley, cabbage and onions, to name several vegetables and herbs. Simple recipes accompany the descriptions of more than five dozen vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, beans, nuts and sea vegetables. Tohata is a specialist in diet and nutrition in Japan.
