My Cookbooks Online

A good idea... this site searches the cookbooks that you already own, works out which recipes you can make and in what quantity, then gives you a personalised shopping list so you can hit the shops.

You need to sign up for it, but I think that if you are the kind of person who really can't be arsed trolling through your cookbook library for every little thing (preferring instead to search online...like I do) then this could be a godsend. Just tell it what books you have and it will make your life easier. Can't argue with that.

Top ten most influential cookbooks

Another top ten this week. This one's courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Cumquat Books

This is a tiny little bookshop on the corner of Juliette and Emperor Sts at Annerley. I popped in there today, after a couple of years of driving past and gazing at it, wondering what was inside and vowing that one day I would be in less of a hurry and I would visit. And today was that day.

I was amazed at how many books they've managed to fit into one building. It's like some sort of parallel-universe where the density capacity of the interior is greater than the dimensions on the exterior. Books from floor to ceiling; books stacked in piles, books on trolleys, books propping up doorways, books arranged on the staircase, books scattered across the floor, books on chairs and tables and bursting out of cupboards and spilling over benches and squeezed into gloomy corners and falling out of bookshelves.

New and old books (mostly old) with some amazing blasts from the past: Enid Blyton, ancient 1940s government cookbooks, rare and collector books. They have sections of books on pretty much anything you could care to read about. Up the rickety stairs is a haul of Star Wars, Star Trek, sci-fi and comic book loot to delight the most hardcore geek. I was there for 40 minutes and by then my eyes had started to fog over and blur- it was time to stop peering at the spines and return to the light. I spent $40 and got 4 big fat hardcover books, plus they have full EFTPOS. Plus, you can order and buy online. Fantastic! The only thing they need now is a coffee machine and a couple of cushiony chairs in the sunny spot outside. That would be perfect.

Ham and cornichons on San Franciscan sourdough

Mmm. Inspired by a recipe in Pork & Sons by Stephane Reynaud: he says to build it on a French baguette (of course) and to chop the cornichons and smush them into the butter, so they don't fall off when you eat it.

Mine is the deconstructed version. Good bread, good butter (unsalted), tiny gherkins, good quality ham off the bone, the end.

The San Franciscan sourdough comes from the bakery at Rock n' Roll Marketplace, Logan Road, Greenslopes. It's chewy and really SOUR, which is probably a desired quality in a sourdough.

Look how the top of the bread is dark and smooth, yet finely pocked like the cratery surface of the moon.

This is the kind of lunch I really like to eat.

Riverbend Books at Balmoral, plus German cooking

Probably, Riverbend is the best bookshop in town. Folio Books and The American Bookstore in the city are also great, but I would put Riverbend ahead of those two because of its accessibilty, its teahouse and sushi bar double life, its position at the forefront of what's hip and happening in books, and its commitment to extras like live music, readings and so on.


Especially, Riverbend has great cookbooks, and books on cooking. There is a book out called Eating For England that I really want to buy: it is filled with funny anecdotes and information about those quintessential British foods and dishes like spotted dick and Cadbury Flake bars. I want.

The other book that I bought today is called Culinaria Germany. It's one of a series that also includes Russia and Hungary. I had to get it, because it's not often you see a giant cookbook busting its seams with information about German food and cooking.

I don't really know much about German cooking. My knowledge is confined to a few thematic cooking moments at home, a visit to the Black Forest German Cafe-Restaurant at West End for Oktoberfest last year, and a fleeting 3-day visit in 2004 to see my friend and her family, who live in the shipbuilding town of Papenburg in Lower Saxony. (We also visited the Becks factory in Bremen: what an afternoon that was!)

My friend's mother made us a special meal: I don't remember much except the spatzle and the rich cakey dessert. Breakfast was a platter of cold meats, soft dark bread, smooth mild cheeses like emmenthal and gruyere, and lots of hot milky coffee.
This book is seriously huge: it will take me a week to get through it. I'm so excited, I can't wait, and I really hope I learn some interesting and exciting things that will lure me away from my constant obsession with French cooking.