After finishing reading The Italian Island Secret by Victoria Springfield (my review here) I then moved onto The Paris Chapter by Victoria Walters. I reviewed that book last week too which you can read here.
I am now reading Paris Bookshop for the Brokenhearted by Victoria, I mean Rebecca Raisin.
Do you see the themes here? I have already read three books this year by authors whose first name is Victoria, and the book I am reading now is my third book with the Paris in the title. I have started to do a visual count for all the books I read this year set in Paris. We will see where I end up!
Here's the current count of completed books:
I'm watching
I went and visited a friend of mine who spent a couple of years living in Japan. We started watching a Japanese show called The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House which is about a young woman who wants to become a geisha, but she doesn't make the grade and ends up becoming the cook for the geishas instead. I will finish the series in due course.
Robert and I watched the new Cunk on Life. It's very silly, but it is a lot of fun!
Here's the trailer
Life
I have so much to talk about this week! So many photos!
I mentioned above that I went and visited a friend who lives in a small town called Yarrawonga which is about 3.5 hours from Melbourne. She moved up there to retire around 3 years ago and we have been up a couple of times, but this time I went up there by myself as Robert had to work.
We spent most of the time just chilling, chatting and taking dips in the pool, particularly on the really hot day. We did go for a truly delicious lunch at a winery in a town about 45 minutes away.
I caught the train back to Melbourne but she drove me to the station and along the we stopped at a few silos and this gorgeous mural in a tiny church. Most of them were ones that I have seen previously, but there were two that were new to me, and a couple of other interesting stops as well.
On Friday night we went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition which is on at the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibition was in two parts. We weren't blown away by the first part, but the second half was fantastic! We loved the immersion rooms and the pumpkins and polka dots. I might even go and see the second half again!
And then we visited down to Geelong for the Festival of Sails. It was a lovely way to spend the day! And we got to see the Roulettes which was pretty cool too!
The current selection for Cook the Books is a book that is a bit outside my comfort zone, A Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang is a science fiction novel which was nominated for the best book in that category in the Goodreads Choice awards in 2023.
Our unnamed main character is an American chef of Asian heritage who finds herself outside of the US when all the borders close off around the world thanks to a worldwide food crisis. There is an intense, acidic fog that has spread around the globe which has the effect of destroying all the crops in the world. There is therefore no food for animals and so they have perished too, so there is no meat. All that is left to eat is a high protein mung powder - gray and tasteless. It's not a good time to be a chef. The chef has applied to return to America, but is languishing on a list where she doesn't meet the most desirable requirements, and therefore never gets any closer to the point where she will be allowed to returned.
She applies for a new role which is advertised as a private chef for an "elite research community" which is on a mountain top near the Italian and French border. The research community is privately funded and is very exclusive. You have to be prepared to invest heavily to be invited to be part of the community. On the top of that mountain, they have worked out how to bio engineer the food that no longer exists anywhere else, both in recent history, and from the distant past. In theory, they will be sharing their findings with the world. In reality, this is an enclave for only the chosen few, and the weekly feasts are ever more outlandish and extravagant.
The community is run by a reclusive man and his beautiful, very intelligent, driven daughter, Aida, who are always racing against time to try and develop the food that is lost for their use only. But there is so much more going on here as well. Whilst this is a foodie book exploring the idea of what would happen if food shortages became world wide, it is also looking at the ultimate haves vs the have nots. It is a very sensual book. Here is a passage from very early in the book where she has just arrived at the mountain top.
On my second pass, I spotted a box behind the door. Impress me, this note said. Inside were flour, vanilla, eggs.
I'd expected a test, of course: a textbook omelet, or a flawless consomme to prove the French training the job demanded. Pastry, no. Giddiness abandoned me as I unpacked baking soda, sugar, milk. Even the voluptuousness of the butter couldn't distract from thoughts of my spotty experience in patisserie, and the precarity of my visa, and what would happen were I turned away - and then I was no longer at the bottom of the box I touched something as warm as skin, as yielding as a woman's inner thigh: strawberries.
The sensuousness is not limited to the description of food. There is also an LGBQ+ element to the story when our chef and Aida begin a relationship. But it is complicated because the boss has a very specific role that he is expecting our chef to play, the stakes are high, and so is the tension.
This book was a reminder to me that it is important not to take food for granted. It doesn't take much for there to be food shortages, even here in Australia, where we recently have had egg shortages due to bird illnesses. Our farmland is also shrinking due to the ever increasing size of our cities, and many of our farms are now owned by huge multinational companies. We are lucky that we are able to just go to the supermarket but the food chain is probably more fragile than we realise. Obviously there are also lots of places around the world, where you don't necessarily know where your next meal is coming from on a daily basis.
It's fair to say I didn't love this book, and I was glad when it was done, but sometimes that is what being in a book club is about right? You read the selection knowing that it might not be the kind of book that you would normally read. I did appreciate the way that the author wrote about food and I marked numerous passages.
I did find it interesting to see the intersection between the last three Cook the Books selections. Two books ago we read Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, so lots of honey, and then we read Crying in H Mart which is about Korean food, and this book talked about quite a bit of Korean food.
When deciding what to make I did ponder a number of options. Would it be Souffle Cheesecake, something Korean or some woolly mammoth that I picked up from the supermarket? In the end I was inspired by the very start of the book where our unnamed cook was asked to impress their new employer, using the ingredients described in the passage above.
In the end I decided on Japanese Strawberry Shortcake because I had recently read The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai, which is the second book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series. One of the stories in that book was where the food detectives were asked to recreate a Christmas Cake, which in Japan is Strawberry Shortcake. Between the description in the book and that story, I knew that was what I would make.
I am not sure that my cake was fluffy enough, and I ended up doubling this recipe to give it enough height, but my husband and I really enjoyed it!
A couple of other comments about the recipe. We can't buy cake flour here, so I made my own by mixing plain flour with cornflour. There are instructions on the internet on how to do this. I also just whipped the cream normally in my stand mixer.
Japanese Strawberry Shortcake
Cake
2 egg whites 2 egg yolks 60 g white caster sugar ½ tsp lemon juice 60 g cake flour sifted 20 g unsalted butter melted + extra to grease the cake pan 1 tbsp milk
Syrup
20 g white caster sugar 40 ml water 1 tbsp your chosen liqueur (optional)
For assembly
300 g cold thickened cream 3 tbsp icing sugar 3 drops vanilla essence of half the amount of vanilla extract 12 medium strawberries mint leaves (optional)
Measure out the sponge ingredients, separate the eggs and leave everything out to reach room temperature for about 20-30 minutes. (Cover the eggs to stop them from drying out).
Grease the cake tin with a thin layer of butter over the base and sides and line it with parchment paper. Start preheating your oven to 180 °C (356 °F) (170 °C (338 °F) for fan assisted).
In a clean, dry glass mixing bowl, add 2 egg whites and ½ tsp lemon juice. Set your electric mixer to a medium-high setting and whisk until foamy and doubled in size.
Add the caster sugar one third at a time, making sure it's fully incorporated before adding the next third.
Continue to whisk on a medium speed until the meringue is smooth and glossy with stable, stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks one at a time, whip using the electric mixer for about 10-15 seconds for each yolk and stop as soon as they're incorporated into the meringue.
Sift cake flour twice into a separate bowl. Sift once more, this time into the egg mixture, adding it one-third at a time and folding it gently with a silicone spatula. Repeat until all of the flour is incorporated into the mixture, being careful not to over-mix.
Mix 20 g unsalted butter (melted) and 1 tbsp milk in a small bowl. Add about 2 tbsp of the sponge batter and whisk them together to temper them. Pour the tempered mixture into the cake batter and fold in gently with the spatula. Once combined, pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and smooth the top and drop the cake tin twice onto a hard surface from about 10cm (4 inches) high.
Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. (Check the cake after 20 minutes and remove once it's golden brown.)
Once the sponge is fully cooked, take it out from the oven and drop it on a hard surface from about 20cm high (8 inches). This will help prevent sinking and shrinking.
Turn upside down onto a wire rack and remove the cake tin. Leave to cool for about 1 hour.
For the syrup, in a small pan, add the caster sugar, 40 ml water and the liqueur if using. Bring to a boil over a medium heat while stirring continuously. Once it starts bubbling, stop stirring and boil for 1 minute before removing it from the heat.
Once the cake has cooled, cut off the top (as thinly as possible to not waste too much) and then cut in half horizontally.
Brush the top of each half generously with syrup and save any leftovers for later.
Prepare the strawberries by washing and then dry them thoroughly with kitchen paper and remove the stems. Save 7-9 of the most beautiful ones for decorating and slice the rest for the filling.
To make the whipping cream take a large bowl and add a few handfuls of ice, then take a smaller glass or steel bowl (preferably chilled) and place it on top of the ice. Pour in the cream and add icing sugar and vanilla essence or extract.
Use an electric whisk (or balloon whisk if you’re whisking by hand) and whip until the cream has peaks and becomes spreadable.
To assemble, place 2-3 spoonfuls of whipped cream in the centre of each half of the sponge. Spread it out to the edges until even and arrange the strawberries on one half.
Flip one half onto the other so that the strawberries are sandwiched between two layers of cream. Brush any leftover syrup on the top of the cake and place it on a easy-to-turn surface (e.g. cake board, paper plate etc.)
Add about 4-5 scoops of whipped cream to the middle and spread it out thinly over the edges. This is a crumb coat (to smooth down crumbs) so scrape off any excess into a separate bowl so that crumbs don’t mix in with the rest of the cream.
Whip up the cream a little bit more to make it a bit thicker and then add 3/4 of it to the top of the sponge and the other 1/4 to a piping bag. Place the piping bag in the refrigerator while you're icing the cake.
Spread out the cream using an icing spatula, making sure the whole cake is smoothly and evenly covered on the top and sides.
Finish the cake by piping swirls around the edge and placing the strawberries in the center. Decorate with mint leaves if using.
The next Cook the Books selection is Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten. This isn't available for me to buy at a reasonable price or in my local libraries so I will probably sit it out, but I will be back for the April/May selection. Maybe I will try one of her recipes in lieu of reading her book.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
The beginning of a new reading year means thinking about which challenges you are going to be participating in.
I am very much committed to making the challenges fit my reading as opposed to specifically reading for a challenge. Of course, the first challenge I am going to mention is one where I will go exactly opposite but never mind!
The first I am going to mention is Japanese Literature Challenge 18, hosted by Dolce Bellezza. I have several books in mind to read during January and February for this challenge! I am also intending to post a few other things during January about all things Japanese which will be for my own January in Japan, but we will see how we go!
Toe in the Door: 1-10 books read Picking and Perusing: 11-20 books read Lost in the Stacks: 21-30 books read Living in the Library: 30+ books read
And I am choosing Picking and Perusing!
The challenge is the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog, where you can add any books you read that have been released in 2025.
The levels are
1-30 books per year – New Release Newbie 31-60 books per year – New Release Pro 61-100 books per year – New Release Veteran 101-200 books per year – New Release Enthusiast 200+ books per year – New Release Obsessed
20th Century Reader - 2 books Victorian Reader - 5 books Renaissance Reader - 10 books Medieval - 15 books Ancient History - 25 books Prehistoric - 50+ books
I am aiming for Ancient History!
I reserve the right to add more challenges at any time. I am also declaring now that ,of course, I am going to be participating in Paris in July when the time comes!
Oh, and I have set my Goodreads Challenge at 104 books!
What challenges are you participating in this year?
Do you have memories of a dish that was just so delicious that it lives on in your memory, and whenever you try to recreate that same dish it just isn't quite the same? It just never quite lives up to the memory no matter how often you try? I do. One of my own examples is a garlic prawns dish that I had in the early 1990s in Perth, or more precisely Fremantle. From memory it didn't look flash but it was the perfect ratio of prawns, garlic and rice. Now, I have tried garlic prawns in restaurants many times but it has never quite reached the same level of enjoyment as that one dish. Who knows if it was really that good, but it is in my memory.
Welcome to the Kamogawa Diner. There is no sign over the door, and the only advertising is a vague one line ad in a gourmet magazine. But this is no ordinary diner. Whilst they do serve food and have some regular customers, they also have a side business as food detectives.
What you may ask is a food detective? In this case, it is a former police detective, Nagare Kamogawa, and his daughter Koishi. If their potential clients can find them, they share their story of that one dish with Koishi. Her father does whatever it takes to be able to recreate the dish when the client returns two weeks later, and hope that the dish illicits the correct memories.
This book has has a similar structure to other books like Before the Coffee Gets Cold. There are episodes where we meet each new client, learn their story and then hear the outcomes. Another comparison would be the TV show Midnight Diner, which has a similar structure with the clients coming and telling their story and going again. It seems that these styles of stories are the Japanese books that are coming across my radar because I have read a couple of others this month which have a similar structure
Because food, like music, can be such a trigger for memories, a lot of the stories in this book are about the people who we have lost.The first story is about a man called Hideji, who is a former colleague of Nagare. They had worked together as police officers. He is now trying to track down exactly what made his deceased wife's version of nabeyaki- udon so special. He has moved on and now has a new relationship but her nabeyaki-udon just isn't the same!
Other stories include woman looking to recreate a beef stew that she was eating when she received quite a shock, a man looking to recreate a mackerel sushi he ate 50 years ago, a woman looking to recreate a Napolitan Spaghetti dish she shared with her grandfather, a woman looking for a tonkatsu and a man looking for the recipe for nikujaga which his mother used to make.
There is so much food in this book! So much! One of the enjoyable things is that often Nagare has to travel to different areas in order to learn more of each client's origins and as a result we get to see food from those various areas. But we also get glimpses of life in Kyoto which is where the diner is. We also get some insights into some food culture. For example, there is a particular character who has a very strong opinion on the use of the word dessert.
"There's also dessert - sorry, I mean the mizugashi course. So please take your time," said Koishi, shrugging her shoulders.
"That's right, Koishi. There's no such thing as "dessert" in Japanese cuisine. The fruit served at the end of the meal is called mizugashi. We're not in France, after all!" said Tae, her nostrils flaring.
"Really, Tae, you never change, do you? Always fussing over the strangest things.....I'm not sure it really matters," said Nobuku, setting down her bowl.
"No, it does matter. If you mess around with language like that, it's culture that suffers. Traditional Japanese sweet dishes are in decline precisely because people insist on calling them English words like "dessert"!"
I really enjoyed this book, and yes, the cat on the cover plays a role!
We have recently booked a trip to Japan next year, and we will be stopping by Kyoto for a day. Maybe I could stop in at the Kamogawa Diner and see if they can figure out the secret to my garlic prawn dilemna and try some mizugashi?
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Sometimes I just need a palate cleanser in my reading - something that is easy to read and just makes you feel good, and this is exactly what Sweet Bean Paste provided. Originally written in Japanese, and translated by Alison Watts, this is a book which apparently is a Book Tok favourite alongside Before the Coffee Gets Cold and the sequels which I have previously read.
Sweet Bean Paste tells the story of a man named Sentaro. He works in a dorayaki shop where he spends all day making these pancake style treats which are filled with a sweet bean paste. It's fair to say that this isn't what he thought he would be doing, but given his past he doesn't have a lot of choice. He still owes the owner of the shop money. He gets up every day, makes the batter, sells the doriyaki and then goes home and drinks too much.
Before I talk about the book I thought I would share a video to show exactly what a dorayaki is and how it would be made
One day Sentaro is at the shop when he is approached by an elderly woman to ask if she can work in the shop. The shop owner has veto over who Sentaro can hire and he knows that she would never agree to hiring the old woman, and not only because she has gnarled hands. Sentaro politely declines and offers the woman a dorayaki. She asks if he makes his own sweet bean paste, which Sentaro does not as that would be too much work.
The next day the woman, whose name is Tokue, comes back bringing with her the best tasting sweet bean paste. Sentaro agrees to let her come to the store and make the paste each morning, even though it means he has to get up earlier than normal. Soon the customers are flocking to the store each day, which pleases the owner no end. Among the regular customers is a young woman named Wakano who eventually plays an important part in the story. providing a further cross generational aspect to the story.
As Tokue works alongside Sentaro, she shares the wisdom she has learnt over the years, including the importance of taking the time to observe the natural world around him, inluding all the cherry blossom trees that line the road outside the shop. She teaches him the secrets of making the paste, of listening to it to determine when to take the next step in the process.
It isn't long though before people begin to notice Tokue's hands and suddenly the customers stop happening. It turns out that Tokue had Hansen's Disease (also known as leprosy) as a young woman and so people are afraid of her. Soon the owner notices and insists that Sentaro must send Tokue away.
There are so many reasons to love this book. The friendship between Tokue and Sentaro is beautiful. She helps Sentaro begin to deal with his past and to build an intent in him to have more belief in himself and passion for what he does! We also learn about Tokue's life. When she was diagnosed with Hansen's disease as a young woman she was institutionalised and so she has lived most of her life shut away, so for her the idea of being able to work in the little shop brings her intense joy.
This is a study of friendship, of food, of prejudice and it is a beautiful read.
This book was also made into a film back in 2015, so not long after I finished the book I watched the movie. The title of the film is An, or Sweet Bean. The movie is a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. I was surprised by the dorayaki shop and how it looked. I imagined a much darker shop, maybe similar to the cafe from Midnight Diner.
I enjoyed both reading the book and the movie and highly recommend both. I actually read and watched this movie mid last year, and wrote this post at the time, but I decided to hold onto it so I could share it for Weekend Cooking as part of the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Dolce Bellezza
Here's the trailer for the movie
I actually had an opportunity to try doriyaki when I visited the Japanese Gardens in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in November. It was delicious!!
I am sharing this review with the Japanese Literature Challenge, Translated Fiction Challenge and Foodies Read.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Takeaway
Sunday - Vietnamese Baked Chicken
Monday - Herbed steak and potatoes
Tuesday - Pressure cooker spaghetti bolognaise
Wednesday - Takeaway
Thursday - Rioja Beef Ribs
Friday - Away
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
