A Review of Savour The Pacific: A Discovery of Taste by Annabel Langbein Savour The Pacific by Annabel Langbein
October 2001, ARP: $29.95
ISBN 0732270871, 159pp
HarperCollins Publishers

The ultimate diet is one involving fresh foods. There is nothing more enticing to the palate than fish caught that afternoon; fresh tropical fruits picked right from the tree; gleaming, multicoloured grilled vegetables; all presented in a beautiful, flower filled setting. Who could fail to feel energised and nourished waking to a plate of fresh coconut and banana flapjacks with melon, papaya, pineapple and lime juice, or a winter lunch of lime and coriander flash-roasted fish with lemongrass and chilli risotto. Annabel Langbein knows gorgeous food, and as a one time food editor for New Zealand Women's magazine Grace, feature writer for Cuisine Magazine for over a decade, television food presenter for NZ Today and presenter of a weekly cooking segment on the 'Good Morning' program on TV1, Langbein has had plenty of experience conveying good food and recipes to others. She has also written 6 food books including With Fork and Spoon, and More Taste Than Time. Savour The Pacific is beautiful enough to sit on your coffee table. The recipes are generally healthy, and easy to make, focusing always on ingredients that are fresh, generally available, and inspired by a food oriented trip through the Pacific Rim, visiting the many islands from Polynesia through Micronesia, and Melanesia. Photographer Keiran Scott accompanies the recipes with close-ups of both primary ingredients, and completed recipes, along with photos taken throughout the Pacific, of people and their everyday lives, sitting around a campfire, fishing, playing music, preparing foods, sunsets, and so on.

The book is divided into sections based around a day, starting with breakfasts, mid-morning refreshments, lunch, a section on seafood, dinner, dusk/desserts, and a section on side dishes/condiments and sauces. Between the recipes are sidebars with information on ingredients like mangos, tamarillos, bananas, and limes, along with observations on island life: "Sam, one of the fishermen, waves a broad black hand over the vast wilderness of ocean that stretches out in front of us. 'This is our supermarket," he laughs. 'It's the biggest supermarket in the whole world'", bits of historical information, and food/cultural lore, such as cannibalism, the pacific penchance for eating rotten food, or hunting for and eating sea slugs: "at first bite, it seems crisply appealing, but within seconds it disintegrates into a disgusting jelly slime." Fortunately, although the lore is very interesting, there are no recipes for rotten food or sea slugs. The dishes are all fully edible, and easy to prepare, as would be expected from a food writer who specialises in creating recipes for those with busy lives, and More Taste Than Time.

Although a significant amount of the book is devoted to fresh seafood, including shellfish, a number of fishcake and fritter recipes, and lightly cooked delicacies like tuna and salmon, there are also lots of vegetarian dishes such as spicy dhal and roti, vegetable samosas, sesame grilled vegetables, soba-noodle salad, fried plantain, cashews and coconut, or spicy pumpkin soup. The meat dishes are tempting too, including surprisingly easy to prepare Pacific Pot Stickers (pork or chicken dumplings), an exquisite ginger sake roast beef, or simple satay pork skewers. Although there are a few decadent cheesecakes and rich coconut pavlovas, most of the desserts are light, focusing on fruit, such as the tangelo and lemongrass jellies, or grilled pineapple with run and star anise. The Pacific flavours section contains some very useful cupboard staples to make such as chilli coriander pesto, lime mayonnnaise, lime curd, chilli sauce, and eggplant kusandi (a kind of chutney).

Savour The Pacific is a well written, visually appealing book which will provide the reader with his or her own cook's tour of the Pacific, along with a range of repeatable, versatile, and simple recipes which are healthy, attractive to look at, and enjoyable to eat.

For more information on Savour The Pacific, Langbein's other books, and sample recipes, visit: http://www.annabel-langbein.com/home.htm

About the reviewer: Maggie Ball is content manager for PreschoolEntertainment, The Compulsive Reader, and Australian Literature Reviews. Her book The Art of Assessment is available at: www.compulsivereader.com/report1001.html

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