Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Big Up, Dymocks, or: Veganic Literature Abounds

A small but heart-felt hands-in-the-air to Dymocks in the Australia on Collins Arcade, who are currently stocking 13 - THIRTEEN - vegan cookbooks. And that's not vegetarian, not general vegetables, bot philosophical analyses by Pollan, Schlosser et al. Vegan Cookbooks (and two and a bit shelves of vegetarian ones too). 

I bought* Vegan Yum Yum by Laren Ulm, notwithstanding PPK scragfights about it. I am a big fan of cookbooks with pictures and colour - is there anything that makes you feel less like creating food than a dull page with dull font and dull black ink and no illustrations or even a little swirly decoration? This book is full of photographs of the food on every single page - very helpful when you're trying to work out what your meal should ideally look like -  and easy to read instructions. Having had some success with Vegan Yum Yum pasta and tarts before, and having seen the many posts debvoted to her Hurry Up Alfredo, I'm looking forward to giving this one a whirl. 

*I have acquired three new cookbooks in the last week. But no** new handbags so it's ok.


**Just one very cute, very useful tote for carrying all my extras to work, at a reduced price, with Rs all over it and kanagroos.

8 comments:

steph said...

What were the PPK scragfights about?!

Miss T said...

Lauren was going to publish with Josh Hooten, but pulled out a few days before because she and her husband apaprently didn't understand that the publisher would recoup all his costs before she got paid anything, even though she cooked all the food and took all the photos herself. Could have ended there, but the PPK (Josh-lovers) got all up in arms and started calling Lauren and her husband nasty names (one filter changed her username to "I'm a poor excuse for a human being". Now, if I were the PPK and the forums were attached to a website which was one big ad for all my cookbooks and work, I wouldn't want something so unprofessional connected to me). Anyway, do a quick search (Lauren's username was Lolo ... and I wonder if she'll kfischer this?) to read all the high school drama. I thought it was way out of proportion and i still really like her blog and the PPK regardless.

Kate S said...

Wow 13 vegan titles, sadly that IS impressive for a mainstream book store . Will have to check them out when I "need" to buy a new cookbook (currently have Veganomicon sitting very unused on my shelf so can't really justify it....). I nearly fell over backwards when the A&R in Darwin had 3 proper vegan cookbook titles! They turned over pretty quickly too so I wasn't the only one who noticed.

K said...

A lot of it is here and pretty anti-lolo, they really are quite nasty towards her:

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=39682&p=12

Georgie said...

I have quite a habit of wandering city bookstores and always head straight for the cooking section. Dymocks on Collins has always delighted me in this section. However, anothther major bookstore chain which may or may not start with the letter "B" usually leaves me disappointed.

Tahn said...

I just bought this yesterday too!! And I am so not 'with it' that I also know nothing about the scrag fight (but will check it out immediately!!).

I got mine from readers feast (along with a couple of others) but had to return books to the dreaded 'B' bookstore and chose Vegan Planet cookbook for $50 there, but was only $36 at Readers Feast! How rude!

Must try Dymocks. Not usually a big fan of this chain, but I will definitely go there over the 'other' one (are we not allowed to say the name?!)

Tahn

Tahn said...

Re: your comment on my blog.

I really like the uncheeses. I don't feel like I am replacing cheese (or meats for that matter) with pretend ones to try to replicate them; rather I am fascinated by our ability to make delicious tasting food that happen to be vegan. Does that make sense? Not that you queried my use of faux foods, just my standpoint on the much debated topic :)

Which uncheese would you like to try? I'll post the recipe for you! The colby uses agar, the mozz does not. Both are really simple!

steph said...

Wow, that all seems a bit horrible. I dislike it when forums/comments get really horrible and the moderators don't step in, I think that's a bit unprofessional.

I am definitely interested in the book though, I've had some success with recipes from her site (though they often seem a bit complex?), so want to check it out!