The contribution of magazines to South Africa’s food culture

Magazines contribute immensely to the development of a nation's distinctive cuisine.

Read about the South African magazines and food editors that helped to create and pin down our cuisine.

Songs of Sapa

Luke Nguyen

While armchair and couch travelers get to read books or see documentaries about wonderful faraway places, we food-levers can do one better: we get to taste the dishes from those faraway places. Providing we have cookbooks written by people that are deeply passionate and understand the cuisine they write about. The Songs of Sapa: Stories and Recipes from Vietnam, by Luke Nguyen, is such a book.

Luke, a Vietnamese Australian chef and owner of the Red Lantern Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney, writes: "For Vietnamese people, food is our life; we are forever eating, cooking and talking about food. Food is communication -- food is culture." We share Luke's sentiment: it is through food that we express our own culture.

In The Songs of Sapa, Luke tells the story of his journey to Vietnam, where he visited family and friends and learned more about Vietnamese cooking from local families and experts alike. This of course means that the recipes in the book are as authentic as you can get.

The beautiful photos bring the country, it's people and food to life in a vibrant and colourful way: it makes you want to buy this beautiful book and start cooking right away!

Buy online from Fishpond.co.nz
Buy online from Kalahari.net