Here are my 10 top books. I have classified it. They are in no paticular order.

Fusion:

Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. ISBN 978-0-307-45195-8. US $40.

This is the mother of all fusion cookbooks. This is where you will get dishes with that “wow” factor – from ribeye steak to ramen. This is not for you if you only like stews or steak and chips.

Chinese:

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking – techniques and recipes. Barbara Tropp. ISBN 0-688-00566-7. US $30 in the 90s

All the “old School” recipes are here. This is easily the “best” chinese cook book that I have ever come across in 40 years of buying cook books. Brabara spent many years in Taiwan learning the techniques. She used to run a restaurant called “Chins Moon” in San Francisco. Sadly, Barbara passed away 10 years ago. Also by Barbara Tropp – China Moon Cookbook. This is semi fusion – 90% oriental 10% westere.

 

Sicillian (Italian):

Sicilain Cookery by Eufemia Azzolina Pupella. ISBN 88-8029-596-9. £12.95 (10 years ago.

This book has everything – vegetables, pasta, meat, seafood etc. There are some amazing sauces to go with your pasta. For example, there are 3 recipes on tomato sauces – il Pomodoro,il Pomodoro Pelato and il Pomodoro Crudo Piccante. I saw a copy in Waterstone’s on Piccaddilly Circus only a month ago.

Curry/ Tandoori

Tandoor by Ranjit Rai ISBN 1-58567-144-4 £28.99

Mr Rai  (1923-1993) was obsessed with the Tandoor. This is  an amazing book on the history, various marinades and cooking methods. If you want to buy a tandoor, go to the link on suppliers on this site.

International/general

Great Dishes of the World by Robert Carrier. ISBN 0-7221-2147-4.     95 pence in 1971

This was my first cook book and I still use it. Very easy. Best general cook book ever?

Designer

Working the plate – The art of food presentation by Christopher Styler ISBN

0-471-47939-x £30

I was watching master chef (the professional series) when I saw the great Michele Roux telling one of the contestants that the cooking was superb but the presentation was awful. He still went through. By the next round, his presentation has improved beyond recognition. When asked how he did it. He mentioned that he found this book. A real treasure if you want to impress.

German

A cullinary voyage through Germany – edited by Hannelore Kohl. ISBN 0-7892-0321-9.  US$29.95  eight years ago.

Ok - so it by Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s wife – she was a well known german foodie. You never realised that German cooking is this good until you try the recipes – its not all sausages and potatoes.

Meat

Steaks, Chops, roasts and ribs by the exditors of cook’s illustrated magazine. ISBN 0-936184-78-7. US $35.

Fool proof (maybe) book . Every thing is tested several times. They roasted ribs at different temperaures just to see the effect. Buy an oven thermometer before you use this book as the temperature is quite critical. This is a definite for all you big pieces of meat fans.

French

Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan. ISBN-10 0-8118-4646-6 £35

A great cook by by someone who has lived in France for decades. Here you will find all the classical recipes and more. Very refined cooking.

Ripalles by Stephane Reynaud.ISBN 978-1741962345. £25.

Unlike Anne Willan, this is the rustic version -  Terre cooking. I have All his cook books.

That was my 10 but then……

Thai

Thai Food by David Thomson. Mentioned in the Oberver article. I won’t count this one.

Do you have a favourite cook book - do tell us. Please include the ISBN so that our readers can source another copy if they want to.

Eddie

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/dec/23/best-food-books-decade

Interesting article as this includes books that have no recipes. The books are also “popular” ones in the UK and not “International” ones that are hard to get in the UK.

I am only going to comment  on the ones that I have read.

The top one is Thai Food by David Thomson. This is a cook’s cook book – no pictures. The best part is the clear description of ingredients. I have eaten at David’s restaurant on The Rock near Sydney Harbour. It was a strange place as the inside is very much Wagamama style with long tables. The menu was also very short.

I am aslo a fan of Niget Slater’s Kitchen Diary, Nose to tail Eating (St Johns was voted as  one of the top restaurant in the world) and Moro.

McGee’s is more of an academic book. Sichuan is ok but the greatest chinese cook book is by Barbara Tropp. I have over 100 Chinese cookbooks – 90% is written in Chinese.

The fat duck book is great to look at, however, you will find it difficult to reproduce most of the dishes.

I shall publish my 10 food books later this week.

Eddie

Comment:

Where is Ottolenghi The Cookbook on The Guardian list? Surely it should have made the top ten (especially as Yotam Ottolenghi has a regular column called the New Vegetarian in the Observer/Guardian). I must have bought this recipe book for half a dozen friends and each one comes back raving about the recipes they have tried and instantly loved (the apple cake made with olive oil, harissa-marinated chicken, chickpeas with honeyed sweet potato). Am suddenly getting hungry.

Lydia

thefooddiaries.com

Hi Lydia,

I like Ottolenghi. Did a write up about him early on on Bottles and Cooks. My only problem is that he uses middle east ingredients that are hard to come by. Do you know a good supplier?

Eddie

Lydia’s answer re ingredients

Good question! You’ll find my answer now posted on www.thefooddiaries.com.

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Address: High St, Wargrave, RG10 8HY

Telephone number: 0118 940 4474

Website: www.stgeorgeanddragon.co.uk

Date of visit: 27 December 2009

Approximate cost per head: less than £20

Comments on wine list/beer: Fairly extensive wine list with coverage over Europe, Americas, Australia and New Zealand. Wine by the glass is possible on certain wines. Beer is supplied by Loddon.

Summary:
This restaurant/pub is sited on the Thames just outside Wargrave – on the way to Henley. During the summer weekends, the place is packed.

The inside of the pub is a huge room with square tables for dining and round low tables for drinking and dining. When you book, be sure to ask for a square table as the round ones could be a bit low.

The food can best be described as an upmarket US diner with quality food. You can have salad, pasta, pizza, fish, steak, chicken etc….

Between us, we had the pizzetta which is a thin crispy pizza bread topped with shaven parmesan cheese and rocket. For main course, we had the salmon fish cakes, haddock & chips, burger and spit roasted chicken. The meals were served with fries (thin) – no salt (great). Vegetables were extra: from £1.95 for peas, cabbage and leeks.

On Sundays, they also offered a selection of roasts but I couldn’t sight anyone eating the roasts near us. The special of the day also offered scallops which looked very nice on the next table. The other tables were eating: pasta, pizza and & chips. The main courses were all priced at around £10 plus and the starters around £7.

This is a place where you can get a decent meal and the range of food on offer would cover most tastes. This is not haute cuisine.

The wine list had no vintages which suggest that you would probably get the most recent vintage. The price range from £15 to just under £40 with a pink Moet & Chandon, Amarone and a Chassagne Montrachet at the top end of the list. The Moet is good value for money as its only 100% mark-up whilst I would stay off young Amarones which tend to be very sweet (good as a desert wine). When they are aged (15 years) and browned out, they are great with game.

Ample parking outside the pub.

Eddie

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This is Malay breakfast food.

Coconut Rice (Nasi Lemak) for 6.

3 cups of uncooked rice

2 cups of water

1/2 tsp salt

1 pandan leaf (usually sold as frozen in Chinese supermarkets), if you can’t get this, don’t worry but it will taste different.

1 tin (approx 400g) of coconut milk (full fat version)

Wash the rice, then heat everything together (except coconut milk). Once it starts boiling, turn the heat to low until all the water is absorbed. Pour in the coconut milk and bring it to boil again, cover and turn the heat off. Leave for 15 minutes. Fluff the rice up and serve with fried crispy onions, garlic and chilies – you can buy this already cooked (in jars or packets) in a chinese supermarket. 

You can serve this as a rice dish to go with Chinese/ Malay/ Indonesian or Indian food.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/restaurants/6779749/The-restaurant-highlights-of-the-Noughties.html

Worth a read.

 

Eddie

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Hi,

I am visiting Hong Kong and Singapore in January. Do you have any recommendations for restaurants?

Ken H

Reply:

Hi,
Just checked my records. I have  2 recommendations for Singapore
 
1. Doc Cheng @ Raffles is one of the best SE Asia fusion cooking that I have ever eaten. Do not try the world famous “tiffin” – its not that good but do have a Singapore Sliing in the Bar within Raffles Hotel. There is a dress code (no shorts) in the main bar but not in the long (tiger) bar. 

http://www.raffles.com/EN_RA/Property/RHS/Restaurants_Bars/Doc_Chengs.htm
 
2. The Chinese in Goodwood Park (Hotel) is also very good.
http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/

Or try Clarke’s Quay – its the dining district.

Re Hong Kong, the recommendations are as follows:
 
For views:
 
Peak Tram restaurant – top of the hill, 3 restaurants, suggest that you try the European (steak) which is less noisy than the Chinese.
 http://www.thepeak.com.hk/en/home.asp
Hutong (Peking Rd) – amazing view, really good. Pricy.
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/hongkong/D55084.html
 
Its on the Kowloon side – very difficult to get in, book now!
 
For peking duck, beggars’s chicken and sweet and sour fish,try 
Spring Deer (Moody Rd). You have to book at least 2 days ahead. Huge portions.
This restaurant is on the 1st floor (2nd in HK and USA). The entrance is shared with a block of flats!  
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/hongkong/D44600.html
 
For dim sum – lunch only, try the City Hall, be sure to arrive before 12 or there is a long wait. They have over 100 varieties by trollies.
 
My favourite European Restaurant – you can still get 60s cooking here which nobody in the UK serves any more e.g. chicken kiev, steak diane…
 
Jimmy’s Kitchen (2 branches, in Kowloon as well as Central)
 http://www.frommers.com/destinations/hongkong/D44635.html
 
 
Or choose your own:
 http://www.frommers.com/destinations/hongkong/78_inddin.html
 
Last, Snow Garden : this is the place for shanghainese cooking in Causeway Bay – suggest that you take the tram and get off around SOGO the Japanese dept store.
 http://www.snow-garden.com/en/location.php
 
 
Eddie

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2009/dec/22/how-to-carve-christmas-turkey

Picture by picture on how to do it. Sharpen your knives first.

 

Eddie

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/19/marlborough-pinot-noir-wine-review

Not sure that I agree with this article. In 1995, whilst travelling on the Lions Tour to NZ, I hired a car and went wine tasting in Central Ortaga for several days. I ended up with around 20 cases of wine – shipped back to my home.

My initial conclusion is that NZ Pinot Noir is a different aninal to Burgundy and the USA. Most USA Pinot taste slightly “cooked” as its too warm. The terre and micro climate in NZ is  different to Burgundy. After the tour, I was in Queenstown and there was a shop that offered tastings of over 200 wines – they were all under nitrogen and you buy by the glass from a machine. To me NZ wine has more rasberry fruit and is also a lot sweeter than  Burgundy. The best were Gibson Valley, Arta Rangi. the nearest taste to it is a bottle of mid price Guvrey Chambertin. They do not have the range of taste from Clos Vougeot  to Richebourg. With Beaune and Nuits St George, because its such a wide catch, you need to looking at the producer.

Eddie

On the other hand, a cent bottle of

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Address: 5 Langham Place, London W1B 3DG

Telephone number: 0207 323 0505

Website: www.sofra.co.uk

Date of visit: 19 December 2009

Approximate cost per head: From £10

Comments on wine list/beer: Reasonable list at reasonable prices for central London

Summary:
We were booked in at the Palladium to see “Sister Act” and Ozer is just round the corner. You can also park in Portland Place for up to 4 hours on the meter. Sister Act was absolutely fantastic!

Ozer is the flagship restaurant of the Ozer/Sofra chain of Turkish Restaurants. The restaurant was big and fairly smart. The lights were quite dim which was all right for eating but not for reading – so Sunday lunch with the papers is going to be difficult. I struggled with the menu.

The first thing we noticed when we sat down was a sign: drinks in 2 minutes and your starters in 5 minutes.

We went for the cheapest meze at £14.95 a head - 15 dishes! Well, they were relatively small portions. There are pricier versions which gives you a better selection of grills. There is also a theatre menu at under £7 provided you ordered before 6pm. The dishes came more or less within 5 minutes. We were offered a basket of warm Turkish bread which was excellent. Cold starters included, Tabullah which has both coriander and parsley in it, an aubergine stew, hummus, peeled broad beans in yogurt and more vegetable dishes. The deep fried dishes included falafel, spinach and feta cheese bourek, and something that taste like an onion bajee. Then the kebabs arrived – chicken, lamb and minced lamb (burgers?). The kebabs were highly marinated and extremely tender.

For desert (included in the price), we had a plate with 4 different deserts on it – ice cream, some form of date, chocolate and tiramisu.

We washed the whole lot down with EFES beers (£3.75), a bottle of chianti (£25.25), bottles of water and cokes. The bill for 7 came to £170 including service.

This is definitely a great place for a pre-theatre dinner as the service is highly efficient but then only the Palladium is within 10 minutes walk.

Eddie

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/13/nigel-slater-christmas-recipes-for-six

If you have missed it, here it is as Nigel Slater is always an interesting chef to follow.

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