Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

by Janet De Neefe

The book is written by Janet De Neefe, an Australian married to a Balinese. She is also the owner of Casa Luna (restaurant, cooking class, guest house, furniture and handicraft shop). It is part autobiography, part fact book on Balinese culture, and part cookbook. Written in an easy, informal manners, it contains funny lines occasionally. Stories weaved among her young, hippie days, her experience settling down in Bali, and food. It’s good because readers can feel and imagine life experiences through her eyes. For example, she uses a section on her father-in-law’s death to briefly discuss the Balinese cremation rituals. She helpfully, for her target audience of Australian readers I guess, provides glossary of various names, places, terminologies, places, spices, Indonesian words, etc.

HOWEVER….
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by Ruth Reichl

My encounter with Ruth Reichl started when I picked up History in A Glass: Sixty Years of WIne Writing from Gourmet which she edited. I then knew that she was the restaurant critic for The New York Times in the 90s.
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by Fondation Nestle Pro Gastronomia

A friend was given this book as a farewell gift for having stayed in Switzerland for about a year. She showed it to me and I was immediately convinced that I had to have one. Despite the steep price (CHF 68 I think), I told myself this hard cover book would make a wise ‘investment’ and indeed it is.
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by Jody Vassallo

Confronted with tall rows upon tall rows of beautiful cook books in Chapters , I panicked. After a few deep breaths, I refocused and spotted this book. This is one that I do not have: a book about breakfast and possibly brunch. I snapped it up as I do want to recreate the delicious brunch I had in Toronto.
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by Anthony Bourdain

I started reading with feeling of boredom. The bad boy is here again, rambling on about how chefs are like. Didn’t he do that already in Kitchen Confidential? However, his poking and prodding on each chosen topics are so ruthlessly albeit comically done that I had to swallow my grudge and read on.

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