Melbourne - books

Cursed by weather and blessed by coffee, Melbourne has second hand bookshops like we have surfshops.

I'm averaging one cookbook per recipe at the moment so I was looking for something special. I was trying to find Roald Dahls' cookbook but found these three instead.

One was the 2002 Italian Wine Guide not so much for bothering the local liquor store but to try and bring my wine writing up a notch or five . Produced by the good people of the Slow Food Editore . A mere $4 and in short, go the '97 vintage. At the same store, Bookhouse on Fitzroy Street, I also found Recherché Entrées by C. Hermann Senn. It's a marvel. Written in 1913 it's full of "gills" and "egg froth" and the fine multipurpose spread of Lemco. A steal at $15.

From the above photographed Basilisk Bookshop on Brunswick street, the Good Book. The Larousse Gastronomique of 1976. A shamefully low $35. Bliss. It doesn't have an entry on mushrooms it has 7 pages on them with 30 different ways of cooking them. Why didn't I have a copy of this years ago? Why don't you have one now? Go on off you go.

The one that got away: Jamie Confidential, with the !same! !font! on the cover as the superb Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. It was like the aforementioned Simon LeBon doing Don't Believe the Hype, somebody must be having a big lend. Does "Britains' Best Loved Chef" not have a lawyers or is he a grade A tool?