Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

French cuisine cookbook in English for Papua-New Guinea.

Sylvain

By Sylvain
in Cookbooks & References

 Share

Recommended Posts

Sylvain

Sylvain

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hello all,

 

Last year I spent two months in Papua - New Guinea. The family where I stayed was very interested in French cooking so I would like to buy them a French Cooking cook book.

It must be:

- in common English (not too many technical terms)

- use easy to find ingredients

- use simple tools

- that we can buy on internet and send in PNG

 

But keep in mind that there, they have nearly nothing!

I know it is a great challenge.

 

Thank you for the answers.

 

Sylvain.

 

You can see the story of my travel here: http://busmuli.chez.com

It's in English and in French. At the end you see a picture of the family and of their home. It gives an idea of the conditions. :-)

Sorry, it as nothing to do with cooking...

Edited by Sylvain (log)
Sylvain

Sylvain

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Hi ELFRE,

 

I read your blog. It is exactly in the spirit of what  I'm looking for but I am looking for a gift for my friends for Christmas.

Does anyone knows a cooking book of that kind that I could offer?

 

Thank you,

Sylvain.

 
gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

Hi Sylvain, 

 

No cookook but maybe  a more convenient solution . Sent you a MP . 

 

Nice, explicit blog, Elfre. Great to learn from.

Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted

How about the one I suspect that many of us started with: Simple French Food (now in a 40th Anniversary Edition), by Richard Olney?

  • Like 1

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

SylviaLovegren

SylviaLovegren

Posted
Posted

How about the one I suspect that many of us started with: Simple French Food (now in a 40th Anniversary Edition), by Richard Olney?

 

Agree it's a great choice.  Olney was an impeccable cook with classic French techniques and sensibilities, writing in English, in a day when the kitchen was mostly manual and ingredients were local.  

Sylvain

Sylvain

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

I read few sample pages on Amazon. This book looks great for us but I'm afraid much too verbose for most people of PNG. There is a saying in PNG that says that if they are so many newspapers sold in PNG the only reason is because they roll local tobacco in its paper...

Anyway, I shall send this book but I am still searching for a much, much simpler one.

 

Thank you Alex and Sylvia.

 

Sylvain.

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted

I read few sample pages on Amazon. This book looks great for us but I'm afraid much too verbose for most people of PNG. There is a saying in PNG that says that if they are so many newspapers sold in PNG the only reason is because they roll local tobacco in its paper...

Anyway, I shall send this book but I am still searching for a much, much simpler one.

 

Thank you Alex and Sylvia.

 

Sylvain.

Precisely what I thought. He is no great writer. The preview pages on Amazon contain some tortuous sentences. Also, there are far too many spelling mistakes and other typos.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am no expert, but now that I think about it perhaps Floyd on France.

 

It isn't easy to simplify much of French cuisine, but I think Floyd is a good start.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

LindaK

LindaK

Posted
Posted

It sounds like a book that’s focused on easy recipes is more appropriate for your friends. I’m all for teaching fundamental techniques, but that isn’t where everyone wants/needs to start.

 

Of the many French cookbooks on my shelf, my personal favorite of this sort would be Patricia Wells’ Bistro Cooking. It’s a good collection of traditional French classics.  She prefaces each recipe with a short story, but your friends can ignore those if they choose and focus on the recipes, which are mostly very straightforward and clearly written. Recipes also include metric weight/volumes so they would not need to worry about converting from the US/Imperial system. No photos, if that matters, but there are helpful menu suggestions.

 

Another suggestion would be Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris. It’s a much shorter book with extremely simple recipes.  This book was a gift and I’ve never actually used it because it’s just too basic for my needs and experience.  But the recipes look reliable and couldn’t be easier. Lots of photos. All US/Imperial measures, no metrics, alas.

 

Amazon lets you preview both books. The preview of the Garten book shows more intro text than recipes.  The preview of the Wells book includes the index so you can see the range of recipes.

 


Sylvain

Sylvain

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Thank you all,

 

I bought the 4 books:

- Simple French Food

- Floyd on France

- Bistro Cooking

- Barefoot in Paris

And one more:

- Simple French cookery (Raymond Blanc)

 

I do it this way because all sellers refused to send books to PNG. I have to receive them in France and then send them In PNG. Stupid!

It will be too late for Christmas but it let me the time to read them and decide witch ones I send to PNG.

 

Thank you again,

Sylvain.

  • Like 1
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...