Chilli Book Reviews

Basically, as my family will confirm, I read a hell of a lot of books. Noone is really sure how I squeeze so much reading time in between working, family, cooking, and running this website.

As a result I thought I may as well share my observations and opinions with you in case you are considering purchasing one of these books.

chillies-down-under.com is all about free information and I'd hate think of subscribers buying a dud book when I'd already read it.

You should note that when I rate the book I'm not influenced by great photography, and as you'll see some of the highest rated books below don't have any photos or pictures at all.

WHY? I do this because I believe they have very little to do with the overall value of the book to me (there is always the odd exception). Good writing, good information and good recipes give me value - good photos are very aesthetic but don't give me any value.

Anyway, enough philospohy, here's what I've covered so far;

Curry: A Tale Of Cooks & Conquerors, by Lizzie Collingham

Foods Of The Maya - A Taste Of The Yucatan, By Nancy & Jeffrey Gerlach

South East Asian Food, By Rosemary Brissenden

As a keen student of food history I was very eager to get into this one as soon as I had bought it.

And, I wasn't disappointed either. Lizzie has previously done writing on Indian history and therefore brings a lot of that knowledge into the book. The result is that you get to visit India's fascinating history from the context of it's food and the changes introduced by the multitude of invaders that have ruled the country.

The narrative of how Indian cooking developed over hundred of years is a fascinating insight into the complexity and tradition behind one of the world's great cuisine.

The book then goes on to document the arrival of the English and the beginning of the sad practice of lumping all Indian foods under the banner of "Curries" - a term that never even existed before.

It also dispels a number of myths surrounding Indian food e.g., curries were developed as highly spiced foods to cover the smell/taste of meat that is going off.

Chapter 3 is particularly interesting as it documents, in detail, the introduction of chillies to India by the Portuguese and the rapid manner in which they were incorporated by the Indians.

All in all this is a great read for anybody interested in food history that also has a few recipes scattered throughout.

This is an interesting book. Part cultural documentation, part travel guide, part cookbook. The Gerlachs clearly enjoy the Yucatan area of Mexico and the culture history associated with it.

One thing I particularly like is that they view, and present, the Mayan culture as a living, breathing, evolving entity rather than something that existed in the dim dark ages. And this is as it should be as the direct descendants of the Mayan Indians are today's Yucatan residents. The culture didn't die out - it simply evolved into it's current form. The recipes are very authentic but presented in conjunction with techniques that today's Mayan Indians use that weren't available during the height of the Mayan civilisation. An example would be the use of a food processor for making spice mixes and pastes rather than spending an hour grinding them in a stone molcajete (sort of like a mortar and pestle).

Some of the ingredients can be difficult to source but if you look hard enough you will find that most countries have at least one supplier of Mexican food products. For Australian readers there are some listed at the links page

South East Asian Foods.
by Rosemary Brissenden

Classification: Recipes + Food Culture
Illustrated: No
Overall Rating : 10/10

My wife handed me this as a welcome home present after my first trip to Sulawesi in Indonesia back in 1995 as I'd been raving about the food while I was there.

It has been THE book I turn to first when I want to either research something or simply looking for something new to cook for dinner.

I'd love to meet her one day as she must have spent a lot of time in the region researching for this. There is an exceptional amount of knowledge captured here.

The book is broken down into sections for each country and goes into significant depth about the culture and the food, differences, and similarities between them all. She also explores the plethora of techniques involved in creating the dishes.

In this book you will see why I attribute little value to lots of expensive, full colour photographs as this is the best book I have ever seen on the subject and it doesn't have a single illustration.

I'm not sure if it is still in print (I'll try and find out) but if you can find it, get it. Amazon don't have any new ones listed and there is only second hand one for $173. Stay tuned.