johung

Hi all, I remember that when I was growing up as a boy in Hong Kong in the 1980s, all the cakes that people normally bought were for someone's birthday and they tended to be quite richly decorated with cream, fruit, and even fruit jelly. (I'm referring to Western styles of cake. Chinese style cakes are for weddings and some other festive occasions). For example, I still remember a type of popular cake with a thin layer of sponge cake, filled with mango mousse, topped with thin slices of fresh mango and filled with mango jelly (as in the mango gelatin jelly, not the jam), and decorated with whipped cream and halved strawberries, sold at the likes of pastries chain businesses like Maxim's. Likewise, when you went to starred hotel patisseries or coffee shops and ordered a slice of cheesecake, you would have come across heavily decorated pieces with cream, garnished with almond flakes, strawberries, and often the top consists of some berries and gelatin jelly. It seems to me whenever I try to go to cakeshops here in New Zealand these days, the cake tend to be very simply decorated. The whipped cream garnishes are often much more sparse than the past, and using berries and jelly to top the cake have become a thing of the past. Pierre Herme seems to be saying this simplification is now the fashion in the DK's Cook book. The only time I still see richly decorated cake these days is from Asian bakeries or when I fly back to HK for visits. Is it true that richly decorated cake is currently out of fashion in the Western world? Or it is just pelicular to New Zealand, or it depends on what type of establishments the cake is served or bought? Thanks.

Thanks for the help so far. The Bourdain Halles Cookbook is a big and pleasant surprise because I thought he had only written works food commentaries and treatises on kitchen office politics. Any else would recommend more works?

Hi all, I am at the moment trying to assemble a list of cookbooks related to New York (City). The only criteria is one of: 1. The author lives in New York City (or the wider Tri-state area) 2. It is by someone who cooks for/owns a very renowned or landmark restaurant within New York City; or 3. The book is about cuisines native to New York City. (Yeah, it is a hard issue because I'm not sure if you can say there is a native New York cuisine that is not "ethnic" in some sense, as you can confidently say of Neil Perry or Matt Moran being cooks specializing on "non-ethnic cuisine" in Australia) At the moment, I can think of good authors from this list and I still have to fill up my library are: 1. Alfred Portale 2. Lidia Bastianich 3. Daniel Boulud 4. Eric Ripert 5. Jean Georges Vongerichten 6. David Waltuck 7. Danny Meyer (Union Square Cafe) 8. David Burke I already have some books by Mario Batali and James Peterson. Anyone can think of anything else that looks good? Thanks, Joel PS: I have also come across really awful books of NYC-based restaurant/cook/author. Patsy's cookbook is one example. Often you start regretting it after buying it.

Hi all, This is my first post here and I'm glad to become a new member on this board and interacting with everyone here. My background is a HK Chinese immigrant to New Zealand (formerly Auckland, now rural Canterbury/Christchurch satellite town). If I understand correctly not many NZ-based members are here, so I will help around if I see something I can answer. But first, a very interesting topic of discussion for all: real difference between New Zealand and Australian food. Most outsiders normally mix NZ's cuisine with that of Australia just like everything else, but we do know differences do exist. For example, NZ has no Mediterranean countries migrant communities like Australia, and therefore there seemed to be a time lag between how popular olive oil became in Australia and across the Tasman. We are also far more gradual in moving towards Pacific Rim cooking, and I think it was not until 1995 that Auckland and Wellington got on the act. Too many Kiwis still believe these are passing fads and much of the new gourmet cooking does not represent the common people, despite evidence that sun-dried tomatoes, olives, pad thai, butter chicken etc have become as common in many home cooking/entertainment as the good old-fashioned roast. Does any Australian-based members have any thoughts about this? What do you think differentiates between the food of New Zealand and Australia? Thanks, Joel