Away and Back – The Train Home by Dan-ah Kim

Every so often I come across a picture book that's intended for children but touches me as an adult, and this is one of those stories. Set in Brooklyn, NY, along the route of the F train (not disclosed in the text, but I easily recognized it), it's the tender and poignant tale of Nari, a young girl in an immigrant family, who's feeling a bit frustrated by her crowded apartment home, and the city environment with all of its noise and tensions.

Her "escape" is on the elevated train that passes by her window. She imagines a ride to multiple destinations – flower gardens, woods, museums, under the ocean and up to the stars. Eventually, just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she realizes that there's "no place like home" and that her happy place is there with her family.

The illustrations are charming, and the text is just enough of a story to delight both young children, their parents, and grandparents.  

Delicious! SaltFatAcidHeat by Samin Nosrat

Absolutely delightful reading, and a joy to look at too. Whether you are already a reasonably good cook, or a beginner, this book will give you, pardon the expression, a lot to chew on.

Samin Nosrat is a veteran chef who first learned to cook at home with her Persian mother, and then went on to master professional techniques and food knowledge under the tutelage of Alice Waters at the famous Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

She divides the cooking process into a discussion of four key elements, as indicated by the book's title: salt, fat, acid and heat. When the first three are administered appropriately, and then the right kind and amount of heat is applied, good food results.

Nosrat makes cooking a kind of joyous expedition, from selecting the right raw foods, learning how to combine and season them, and then how to prepare them. This is not a conventional compilation of recipes, though there are many included along with down-to-earth and often amusing instructions for acquiring and mastering cooking techniques.

The other wonderful thing about Nosrat's book is the wealth of colorful illustrations and charts by Wendy MacNaughton. There are a number of fold out charts: for example The World of Flavor simply and clearly shows the continents, the countries, and the seasoning combinations which Nosrat has explained are representative of their cuisines. Looking at Uruguay and Argentina, the seasonings listed are parsley, oregano, chilies and paprika. Sure enough, just the other day I made a batch of Argentinean chicken empañadas using a Bon Appétit recipe which called for parsley, a generous quantity of oregano and a copious amount of paprika (along with lots of multi-colored peppers and onions).

Nosrat and McNaughton, working together, have produced a non-intimidating, totally unstuffy approach to cooking – and eating – well. Just about anyone who can read can learn to cook from this book, and enjoy it!

Just a quick mention: Netflix has produced a four-part series on Nosrat's book that takes her to Italy, Japan, Mexico and California on culinary adventures. It is high on my list of things to watch. Meanwhile, the UK's Guardian newspaper has a great interview with her: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019... .

x