Author: Xinxin

From Te Pātaka: Food memories of New Zealand

Xinxin

Cook up a kiwi storm with these traditional recipes, peppered with creative spices. Highlighted are a few famous people’s recipes from their family or cultural traditions, such as Simon Gault’s summer BBQ recipe, and Charles Royal’s traditional kai. There’s also tales from a famous Wanaka restaurant, local sausage recipes, camping recipes and much more. Try these recipes to switch up your dinner plans this summer.

Kiwi favourites cookbook : celebrating 75 years of Wattie’s in Kiwi kitchens
“A collection of best-loved kiwi recipes from 75 years of Wattie’s in New Zealand kitchens. The taste and smells of our favourite childhood food is called comfort food for a reason! From shepherd’s pie and corn fritters to carrot cake and pavlova. In the last 75 years New Zealand had been through enormous changes, but the tried-and-true recipes passed on from our mothers and grandmothers can still delight us!” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Summer with Simon Gault / Gault, Simon
“The Kiwi summer goes hand in hand with good times, friends and family, and the finest, most nutritious food. In Summer, beloved chef Simon Gault shares his favorite recipes, offering quick fixes for the BBQ, picnics at the beach, stints at the bach, keeping the kids happy and exploiting the best produce of the season. With a focus on healthy, tasty and stress-free eating, it’s mouth-watering food for everyday people – a book to make summer entertaining easy.” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Bangers to bacon : a New Zealand guide to making, cooking and using sausages and cured meat / Schmid, Jeremy
“Whether it’s the good old kiwi-style sausage sizzle, the gourmet venison sausages, or even the vegetarian snags, sausages are a staple in the New Zealand household. Author demonstrates step-by-step processes to make fresh sausages; hot smoked, cured, dried and vegetarian sausages; dry cured and wet brined meats, Mash and Toad in the Hole and humble Bangers.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

From kai to Kiwi kitchen : New Zealand culinary traditions and cookbooks
“In the past two decades, cuisine and culinary history have attracted increasing attention, with both popular and academic books reflecting the growth of interest. Recipes are both markers of the socioeconomic conditions of their times and written representations of a culture’s culinary repertoire yet, they have not been the primary focus of research projects. Acknowledgement of their potential contribution to our understanding of culinary history has been slow. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Cooking 4 change : 101 famous Kiwis share their favourite recipes
“Cooking 4 Change is the brainchild of celebrated New Zealand artist Dick Frizzell, his business partner Christian Kasper and TV host Erin Simpson. They asked a wide range of New Zealand celebrities to share their all-time favourite dishes in order to raise money for longstanding local charities. The recipes and stories are accompanied by sumptuous photography, mostly taken inside each celebrity’s own kitchen, and shows a remarkable when kiwis work together for the charities. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Francesca’s Italian kitchen : delicious Italian recipes made in New Zealand / Voza, Francesca
“Francesca’s Italian Kitchen is a popular South Island restaurant serving authentic Italian cuisine. This cookbook presents Francesca’s popular pasta, pizza, lamb shoulder ragu, cannellini bean salad and desserts using local NZ ingredients. Co-owner Francesca Voza has restaurants in Wanaka, Christchurch, Dunedin and Timaru. This book is peppered with photo taken from trips to the south of Italy and Wanaka. (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Blue sky kitchen : creative cookery for Kiwi campers / Saker, Nicola
“Love camping, but fed up with canned food? Read on! Nicola Saker gives campsite cuisine a fresh new flavour with these mouth-watering recipes, some of which are her own creations and others collected from close friends and family. Along with a host of delicious new recipes – many involving New Zealand’s superb seafood bounty and old favourites, such as chilli con carne to potato salad. She also offers practical advice on food hygiene and storage, campfire tips and safety, and cooking kits.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

My Indian kitchen : delicious recipes for New Zealand cooks / Ismail-Singer, Ashia
“My Indian Kitchen features recipes for well-known traditional Indian dishes alongside a range of new and exciting Indian tastes and textures, these recipes are also Ashia’s food memories which has been passed down through generations. These are easy to make with ingredients that are easy to access in New Zealand. With chutneys and bites for grazing, light lunches, mains, desserts, home baking and more.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

The rugby pantry : healthy measures & guilty pleasures / Dagg, Daisy
“Daisy is partner of All Blacks Israel Dagg and Amber is partners of Victor Vito. They shared recipes for mouthwatering meals that are also healthy enough for an athlete as well as personal anecdotes, which made them popular on Facebook. From Red Wine & Garlic Lamb Shanks with Herbed Mash & Cabbage or Sage, and Milk Poached Crispy Pork Belly, to Crispy Skin Salmon with Ginger Kumara Mash; from delicious desserts such as Tamarillo Tart or Apple & Feijoa Crumble.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Cooking with Charles Royal / Royal, Charles
“Here New Zealand’s foremost Maori chef combines traditional ingredients with tantalizing culinary flare.” (Catalogue)

Books from Te Pātaka: Conspiracies

Xinxin

The world is full of conspiracy theories. They can be interesting to learn about, but it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. The books in this blog wrestle with this topic, discussing issues such as political bias behind the Nobel Peace Prize, science and politics in the time of Churchill, aliens, and much more.

Aliens : the world’s leading scientists on the search for extraterrestrial life
“Scientists from around the world weigh in on the latest advances in the search for intelligent life in the universe and discuss just what that might look like. Included are essays from a broad spectrum of the scientific community: cosmologists, astrophysicists, NASA planetary scientists, and geneticists, discussing the latest research and theories relating to alien life. The debate has intensified over whether life exists beyond our solar system, and whether we’ll ever make contact. ” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Secrets from the black vault : the Army’s plan for a military base on the Moon and other declassified documents that rewrote history / Greenewald, John
“What happens when the history books are wrong? Real facts emerge from declassified documents that challenge what you thought you knew. The Black Vault reveals declassified programs and formerly top-secret illustrations that detail an Air Force’s secret plan to build a Mach 4 flying saucer; the Department of Defense’s plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon; the use of psychic spies within the CIA and much more.”  (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Betraying the Nobel : the secrets and corruption behind the Nobel Peace Prize / Turrettini, Unni
“A revelatory examination of the Nobel Peace Prize—the most prestigious, admired, and controversial honor. The Nobel Prize, regardless of category, has always been surrounded by politics, intrigue, even scandal. Norwegian writer Unni Turrettini completely upends what we thought we knew about the Peace Prize. Desmond Tutu, a 1984’s winner said, “No sooner had I got the Nobel Peace Prize than I became an instant oracle.” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Churchill’s bomb : a hidden history of science, war and politics / Farmelo, Graham
“A brilliant insight into Britain’s atomic scientists during the war from the Costa Award-winning author of The Strangest Man. Churchill was the only prominent politician to foresee the nuclear age and he played a leading role in the development of the Bomb during World War II. He became the first British Prime Minister with access to these weapons, and left office following desperate attempts during the Cold War to end the arms race. (Adapted from Amazon.com)

The petroleum papers : inside the far-right conspiracy to cover up climate change / Dembicki, Geoff
“As investigative journalist reveals the decades-long conspiracy to keep the oil sands flowing into the U.S. would fail to stop the climate crisis.  Plus the high-stakes stories of people fighting back: a Seattle lawyer who brought down Big Tobacco and is now after Big Oil, a Filipina activist whose family drowned in a climate disaster, and a former engineer who asked the hard questions. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute. ” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Making sense of science : separating substance from spin / Dean, Cornelia
“Cornelia Dean draws on her 30 years as a science journalist with the New York Times to expose the flawed reasoning and knowledge gaps that handicap readers when they try to make sense of science. She calls attention to conflicts of interest in research and the price society pays when science journalism declines and funding dries up.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Books from the vault: Episode 7

Xinxin

Welcome to our latest exciting and scintillating episode of Books from the Vault, to be found on Wellington City Libraries’ very own podcast channel called Kōtare: Wellington City Libraries Presents. Books from the Vault is where three intrepid librarian explorers take an in-depth and fascinating look at some of the treasure trove of titles to be found in our stacks.

Listen now! Books from the Vault: Episode 7

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Native plants and their stories: Books from Te Pātaka

Xinxin
an image of three book covers from the list of Aotearoa flora books.

We’ve found some more hidden gems at Te Pātaka, this time about Aotearoa’s flora. Learn about vegetables that grow in our freshwater and coastal areas, waka carvers and farmers telling the story of the “mighty totara” tree, the iconic New Zealand pasture that was originally artificially created and learn about how seeds were precious during the colonial period. Read stories about how the landscape became what we see today.

Rauwaru, the proverbial garden : Ngā-weri, Māori root vegetables, their history and tips on their use / Roskruge, Nick
“The third booklet in a series aligned to Maori foods. 118 pages which introduce over 30 ngaweri or Maori green vegetables sourced from, the forest or bush, as weeds in cultivations, or as crops. Each ngaweri is introduced including whakapapa references, botanical status, utility and culinary use where possible. The book also includes recipes, a glossary of Maori terms and an example of the maramataka Maori.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Tōtara : a natural and cultural history / Simpson, Philip
“The ‘mighty totara’ is one of New Zealand’s most extraordinary, biggest and oldest trees. It’s the heart of Maori carving and culture, as fence posts on settler farms, clambered up in the Pureora protests of the 1980s: the story of New Zealand can be told through totara. In words and pictures, through inside waka and leaves, farmers and carvers, the author takes us deep the trees: their botany and evolution, their role in Maori life and lore, and their environmental and cultural significance.” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

The botanical adventures of Joseph Banks / Harrison, Christina
“Sir Joseph Banks was a true botanical adventurer and pioneer. Not only did he reveal the floral wonders of the South Seas, New Zealand and Australia to European eyes, but he set Kew Gardens on its path to becoming the world’s foremost botanic garden, bringing in a wealth of rare and useful plants, which had far-reaching impact. Banks was uniquely privileged and no-one before or since has had such influence in the sphere of botany.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

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Books from Te Pātaka: Aviation stories of New Zealand

Xinxin

Read these fascinating stories of New Zealand’s legendary people in aviation. For example, a New Zealand pilot who searched the truth behind the MH370; the chief pilot of the former Air New Zealand who had a not so well-known world’s third fastest flying record; an aviation enthusiast who searched Devonport’s North Head for the world’s first two Boeing aircrafts; and the Westport’s pilot who founded the first commercial New Zealand airline. These true stories will let your imagination fly!

The truth behind the loss of Flight 370 / Wilson, Ewan
“New Zealand pilot Ewan Wilson and top journalist Geoff Taylor presents compelling evidence about MH370, some of it based on new interviews with family members of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. This book takes us to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 and brings together the lives of passengers and crew who should’ve been a routine flight to Beijing on a well-respected airline operating a state-of-the-art airliner with a near faultless record.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Sundowner of the skies : the story of Oscar Garden the forgotten aviator / Garden, Mary
“On 16 October 1930, Oscar Garden taxied his tiny Gipsy Moth across London’s Croydon aerodrome and took off. His plan was to fly to Australia, which was sheer madness as he only had a mere 39 flying hours under his belt. He landed at Wyndham 18 days later. He was the third fastest after veteran aviators Bert Hinkler and Charles Kingsford. He then became the Chief Pilot of Tasman Empire Airways, former Air New Zealand.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Tunnel vision : unearthing the secrets of North Head / Butler, Martin
“On 12 October 1918, the New Zealand Flying School took possession of the first two Boeing aircraft ever made. Almost a century later aviation enthusiast Martin Butler search of any remnants of these famous planes. His journey takes him to North Head, Devonport’s famous military landmark, which has rumours about sealed-up tunnels. After twenty years of research and investigations, Butler uncovers a trail of deception and cover-ups as he attempts to unravel the mystery of what’s beneath North Head.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

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Books from Te Pātaka: Stories of brave New Zealanders

Xinxin

Read the true stories about kiwis who courageously rescued others from dangerous situations.  There are rescuers who saved people from shark attack or from foreign political turmoil. And rescuers searched the mountain for people encountering trouble. Also, an interesting story of the adventurer who helped Ernest Shackleton. Read about their uneasy but worthwhile rescues!

Rescue pilot : the daring adventures of a New Zealand search and rescue pilot / Funnell, John
“Often referred to as a ‘search and rescue daredevil’, John Funnell is one of New Zealand’s longest serving and most respected search and rescue pilots, having clocked an incredible 19,000 hours of flying time. John is a hero transported thousands of victims to safety. He was also known for his unprecedented 1200-kilometre mission to save a MetService employee attacked by a shark on the remote subantarctic Campbell Island.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Purple hands : a Kiwi nurse-midwife’s response in times of crisis / Walker, Barbara
“What is it like for aid workers who serve refugees? Kiwi nurse-midwife, Barbara Walker shares her heart-rending, and inspiring stories and the people she helped. From the Sakeo One Refugee Camp in Thailand, where she cared for those fleeing Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia in a bamboo-framed field hospital to Mozambique placement that ended due to a death threat, Barbara’s Christian faith gave her strength.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)

Frank Worsley : Shackleton’s fearless captain / Thomson, John
“Frank Worsley, without doubt one of New Zealand’s greatest, but largely unsung adventuring heroes. He was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was trapped in pack ice on the 1914-1916 Antarctic expedition and slowly crushed. The crew of 28 spent over a year camped on the Antarctic ice before Shackleton, Worsley and four others sailed a tiny lifeboat on a 17-day journey across the wild Southern Ocean to South Georgia to summon help for the rest of the men, who were all eventually rescued. (Adapted from the catalogue)

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