Book Reviews
RIPE FIGS
BY YASMIN KHAN / BLOOMSBURY $45.00
Life in Northern Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s was, as I recall, sustained by ‘good plain cooking’, the basis of which was the famous Ulster fry and suet pudding – ‘good stuff that sticks to yer ribs’. I can’t remember too many spices or herbs in our larder apart from Saxa white pepper and the occasional bunch of parsley. As a newly arrived immigrant to Perth in 1976, I was agog at the range of aromatic plants and spices which adorned the burgeoning shelves of Coles and Charlie Carters. A cornucopia of new and exotic dishes was now available to enhance my food adventure. Since then I have been an active experimenter and sampler of diverse international culinary dishes, with the notable exception of those emanating from the Eastern Mediterranean. Yasmin Khan’s exquisite new publication is an ‘open sesame’ to cuisine from this region. The recipes feature the expected ingredients such as citrus, tahini, olive oil, yogurt, various herbs, spices and nuts, with the chapters focusing on meals such as breakfast, salads, soups, mains, deserts and
breads. Traveling through Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, Khan has assembled an array of diverse recipes from people she encountered at various locations on her journey. But this 300 page, sumptuously illustrated volume, is much more than a ‘cook-book’, as Khan, of Pakistani-Iranian heritage, also explores issues of migration, refugees and war. “It’s about the people I met, shared meals with and cooked alongside …. But most of all … it’s a book about the resilience of the human spirit”. – Reviewed by John Hagan
THE IMITATOR BY REBECCA STARFORD / ALLEN & UNWIN $29.99
It was while a pupil at boarding school that Evelyn Varley learned to fit in; to become one of ‘the girls’; not to challenge the status quo; to disappear into the background in order to survive. These were skills which would serve her well in later life when she was recruited in to espionage. While at school, Evelyn developed a close friendship with Sally Wesley, daughter of a wealthy industrialist, and her cousin Julia, an older brooding CONTINUED ON PAGE 84
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