This excellent book with a cornucopia of essays on comestibles and drinkables explains what Toronto used to be, and how it could and should evolve.

This, the largest city in the country, is a magnet to millions of immigrants from most countries of the world. According to officials, more than 180 languages are spoken by a variety of peoples, who also bring with them their culture.

While only 20 years ago one had difficulty finding okra, Japanese eggplants, eddoes, sweet potatoes, mangoes, papayas, rambutan, mangosteen, lemon grass, Thai basil, today practically every store offers at least some of them. You want rice, then you can choose between Basmati from India or Pakistan, converted, short grain, long grain, Texmati or any other time.

If you are interested in Toronto’s history, you will find it in this book. You want to know where and how the name Hogtown for Toronto emerged, then read page 163.

There is also an excellent article about bread quality and variety, which makes for interesting reading.

For those, who like farmer’s markets, here is a complete list of all, including comments on

their offerings.

The article on free-range eggs will make the reader understand how marketing boards gouge chicken farmers who then pass costs on to consumers. The same is true for milk.

In short, the term marketing in this country is a misnomer, and in this book you will read how the “system” works.

There are also interesting recipes that you can try.

Several talented, famous and less known writers contributed to this highly informative book from their perspective. All were carefully selected by both editors with the objective of informing the reader what food in Toronto is all about.

Restaurant reviewers and a range of past and present food establishments are mentioned for those interested, but of all, the notion of dining out experience and what Toronto diners expect from a high-end restaurants dinner is the most revealing and informative.

Highly recommended to all interested in food, food supplies and history.

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One could regard this oeuvre as a long case study that business school professors could use in their classes. Certainly, many of the chapters would lend themselves very well to lectures and comparisons.

Mr. Walton Sr. was astute entrepreneur and learned quickly how to use modern technology to expand his business empire. While doing this, also astutely decided to push the “envelope” to contain costs by bypassing importers, wholesalers and dealing directly with manufacturers in low labour Far Eastern countries.

Now Wal-mart employs close to 1000 buyers and inspectors in China, who travel to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, and Yemen to inspect contract manufacturers’ premises, in an attempt to ensure that Wal-mart quality standards are upheld and delivery times met.

The founder has also presciently devised software programmes to control inventory shrinkage, and sales to make buying decisions accordingly.

Several layers of management do not exist in Wal-mart stores. This lowers payroll and famously, fringe benefits are kept to an absolute minimum. The management in Bentonville, Arkansas, prefers to hire part time employees pay minimum wages dictated by the State in which the store is located, and promotes employees who managers think are most loyal, pliable, and potentially most valuable for Wal-mart.

The business model of Wal-mart is an amalgam of models of other similar companies in the same sector, judiciously selected and modified by planners in the head office.
Wal-mart is a very successful retailer, but in Germany and Japan its business model proved top be unsuitable and inflexible to consumers, and local business laws, which restrict business hours. Other policies proved to be unworkable as well.

The payroll at Wal-mart is kept low by doing everything possible to keep unions out of its stores, and so far at least in North America, the management has been successful.

This is an excellent book for all retailers, chain operators, business faculty, and students with an interest to become retailers or plan to make a career in them.
Highly recommended.

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Economics affect everyone, and the more you know how economics change the better financial decisions you can make.

The first 12 pages explain what economics strands for, and how economists are changing their interpretations and definitions.

It is, contrary to many beliefs, not an exact science, and open to all kinds of theories.

Some call economics “the science of choices”, others “the study of society uses its scarce resources”, and Ronald Reagan described it as “people, who see something work in practice and wonder if it would work in theory”.

You want to something about “arbitrage” (page 24); or the difference between average, median and mode (30); basis point (37); bonds (41); interest rates (173); J. M Keynes (179) or the Kondratieff Wave (181), all you have to do is read the author’s succinct explanation. Everything you might want to know about finance is explained from A to Z.

This is a book to read, and keep as a reference.

When people accumulate wealth, they start to realize that it must be managed for it to grow, or at least to maintain its value or purchasing power.

This book will help you do just that!

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Olen Steinhauer’s Tourist is a modern spy novel based on facts disguised as fiction. He has a very good knowledge of European cities, and the C I A.

The Tourist, a rich and intriguing spy novel, should be savoured now while events described in it are relatively recent and reflect today’s mentality.

The story told here has many facets from the origins of the main character Milo Weaver, to his wife and daughter other players are American, European, and some Oriental, mainly Chinese.

One learns a lot about how CIA`s clandestine operations work, and how European espionage and counterespionage function.

The style of writing has a good flow, and events flow from one location to another flawlessly. A first rate spy novel that would thrill every fan of such novels.

Read it to be entertained and enlightened.

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The reader feels compelled to read page after page to learn more about Little, the heroine of the novel, a 15 year old runaway, who manages to behave like an adult and like a teenager in an strange environment.

Some scene descriptions are so detailed and explanatory that the reader cannot help but feel himself transported to pictorial and vivid environments.

No doubt manta teenagers like Little exist in large North American and European cities where a number of “shady” characters are involved in lucrative human smuggling and prostitution rackets.

Highly recommended to parents with teenage offspring, teenagers already living on their own, and educators teaching teenagers.
An eye-opening novel, evolving in “neverland” and real world with allegoric characters resembling real ones.

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The author is an enthusiastic proponent of grilling and all kinds of hamburgers. His intention is on expanding the repertoire of this increasingly popular grilling item.

The author’s thorough knowledge about ground beef, most suitable cuts, grilling, grills, and the importance of fat content in the mixture come to the fore in the text, and will help the reader to produce better hamburgers. Guaranteed!

In this well laid out book, the author presents 112 hamburger recipes divided neatly into 12 sections – beef, pork, veal, lamb, game, chicken, turkey, duck, seafood, vegetable, breakfast and dessert burger. Who could have invented a hamburger for breakfast, other than an imaginative person who loves this type of food?

Such detailed and extensive classification of hamburger recipes probably does not exist in any book.

In addition to the above, the author informs the reader about modern grills, a range of fuels, grill maintenance, seasoning (including his trade-marked inventions), ways of seasoning, mixing techniques, and anything else one might think of relating to hamburgers, and cooking them.

A picture of each recipe appears on the opposite age to help readers with presentation of their hamburger.

This is certainly a book for all who like to grill and interested in new taste sensations in hamburger cooking, condiments, presentation and taste variations.

Highly recommended!

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du Rhone (France), and Piedmont (Italy), has been producing wine for a century-and-a-half.

Southern Michigan’s topography and the mitigating effect of large bodies of water on the climate makes it possible for grapes to ripen fully.

Winters, are although very cold, but not cold enough to kill vines. There is a range of soil types that make it possible to grow both hybrid

and vitis vinifera grape varieties.

Italian immigrants were the first to introduce viticulture in Michigan and made wine fort heir personal consumption, but started to

make commercial quantities when locals decided to support their efforts.

The authors lovingly and meticulously researched the history of winemaking in Michigan and that provides a glimpse of how the industry evolved and the damage of the prohibition inflicted upon fledgling wineries.

The chapter on grape varieties is revealing that it is worth reading the entire book, which includes popular grape varieties and now how sparkling wines are making an impression on wine drinkers. High acidity is an absolute requirement to produce pleasant sparkling wines and both chardonnay and pinot noir that are grown in the southern parts of the State fulfill it with the soil and prevailing climatic conditions.

Michiganders have a “sweet palate” and prefer off-dry and sweet wines to dry wines.

The section on AVA (American Viticultural Area) explains how rules evolved and how they are observed in theory and practice.

In the U S A AVA is granted by the TTB (Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) formerly Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE) and should not be confused with the European notion of appellation.

Wineries try to cater to this taste orientation and have started producing ice wine, which find favourable demand both in the state and neighbouring jurisdictions.

In the last decade many wineries obtained distilling licences and now produce brandies using grapes, and other fruits, which grow abundantly in Michigan. Fruit brandies, with the exception of grape brandy, are mostly favoured by Europeans, but Americans are developing a taste fro them especially after an extended and heavy meal. They help digest the food.

This is a well-researched book explaining everything about Michigan’s vitivinicultural history and all its wineries past and present.

Highly informative and recommended for all interested in wine and its fabled history everywhere.

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It involves many meticulously researched European cities including correctly spelled street names and homes that display how apartments looked in the “old continent” under the Soviet regime. Today, all are furnished with inexpensive, widely available, IKEA furniture that must be self-assembled.

The author incorporates deftly cell phones and computers into the prose and enlightens how the profession, if one can call it that, has changed. It is up to the reader to decide for good or bad.

The plot starts in the U S A and goes overseas to Germany, Moldova, Switzerland, and ends in Italy.

For anyone who likes spy novels, it is a must read. It keeps the reader intellectually stimulated, and revealas a lot of spying and spy agency details that are normally not in the public domain.

If you want to know at least one CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) department works, then read The Nearest Exit, and for those interested to know how the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), the German equivalent of the CIA, functions, this book tells it all.

Highly recommended!

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This is a book everyone must read to understand how unscrupulous companies contribute to the senseless abuse of all resources while pretending to help the population by offering low priced merchandise; first among them Wal-Mart, world’s largest retailer.

Reading the section of how this book that tells how this company deceives consumers by displaying “loss leaders” at the entrance of each store to gain the confidence of buyers, and then overcharging for shoddy merchandise produced in countries well known for their abused of workers.

These pages alone are worth the price of the book. Everything else written and criticized is bonus.

The author does not only explain how even local governments act and react to environmental degradation, she also suggests how to stop and reverse such behaviour.

The book consists of five chapters – extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal.

Each chapter follows everything that happens from extraction materials while damaging natural settings, to production, where environmentally hazardous materials are combined, and/or assembled by workers exposed to all kinds of dangers.

The chapter on distribution explains how much energy and fuel are used to transport semi-finished goods from one place to another, and how modern distribution techniques contribute to further pollute the air.

Excessive consumption is also dealt with in sufficient detail to understand how wasteful modern and “supposedly” advanced societies function.

Disposal, the last chapter, is a revelation of how the rich help to pollute the environment of

the poor.

Overall, this book should be mandatory reading for all high-school students in North America, Western Europe and elsewhere in the world.

In developing and underdeveloped countries, it should be translated, and given to every student so that they can learn how developed and affluent countries are adversely contributing to their misery. The cost should be borne by companies largely contribution to the environmental degradation.

An excellent book, written succinctly to expose those responsible for the untenable situation we are in.

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But this is not the only subject of Barolo. The author successfully depicts life in small town Piedmont, how the town butcher and bakery employees act and react to customers, and foreigners.

He also most effectively describes Turin’s Gourmet Fair, and how the society of Slow Food was established in the small town of Bra and spread all over the world in a short 20 years.

Italians love their food. They look for taste, and reject tasteless products. Years ago, the Italian government knew how US cattle were pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics.

Since then the Italian government has prohibited the import of American beef.

The author is in love with the scenery in Barolo, he walked the narrow highways, and worked in a vineyard to pick grapes and helped the winemaker. He slept in a tent in the garden of a hotel whose kindly proprietor he met by accident.

He also loves food, and knows the difference between good and tasteless food. To find out how Piedmontese cook, he volunteered to work in a small restaurant just to find out what makes their food so tasty.

More than anything else this excellent book was written with love, and from “within” by a young author who grew up in the food industry starting from dishwashing, to become sous-chef, then sommelier, eventually a menu consultant, then owner of catering business, and now is assistant professor of writing.

This is an excellent book to read by anyone who is interested in food, wine and travelling.

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In addition to all the above, they provide recipes as originally created by the inventors. These recipes alone show how recipes change over time, and not always for the best.

The book is fascinating in its detail, for example, the forerunner of Coca Cola invented by the French chemist Angelo Mariani, or the life of Campari, the inventor of Campari. It is famous in Italy, France and elsewhere in Europe as an aperitif but not in the North American marketplace.

Then they write about the Prohibition and how it put Bourbon distillers into a disadvantage by changing taste preferences of American spirit consumers. You want to know how vodka became famous in the U S A, (start with page 159) and see how Vladimir Smirnoff landed in Paris, and Brown Forman promoted Smirnoff to become the best selling vodka and spirit in the U S A.

The sidebars on many pages are also very revealing. The one on page 175 informs the reader about thujone in absinthe and how the false information spread the fallacy of it, being hallucinogenic.

Then they wrote about Alfred Dreyfus and how the French government of the day prosecuted him wrongly and covered its mistake only to be exposed by Emile Zola in his famous article J’Accuse.

This is a book for all who like cocktails, and Americans love cocktails, and all serious bartenders.

Any bartender worth his/her salt should get a copy and read it carefully. The information will enable any bartender to become more conversant, entertaining, effective and professional;!

Highly recommended.

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C.R. Browning, a professor of history, was outraged by the 1972 Hamburg State Court’s acquittal of W. Becker, who has committed crimes against Jews, and decided to bring to light the injustices committed.

The book has six parts, which are sub-titled for clarity. Part I has six, II three, III four, IV eight, V five, and VI three including the conclusion of the good professor.

Illustrated with several archival pictures, the book is revealing in its detail.

Jews and Poles were living in peace and harmony for years before the German occupation in Wierbnik-Starachowice. Some Jews were financially well-off, and owned factories employing Poles. Many Jews also contributed to the community, however when the Germans occupied Wierzbnik-Starachowice, life for Jews started to become difficult, and soon turned deadly. Many families were summarily deported to the death camps of Auschwitz, less than 140 kilometres from Starachowice.

Some factory owners were forced to work in their own establishment as labourers; others lost all their fortunes, belongings and families.

While some Poles helped their former neighbours, others chose to collaborate with Germans. It is incomprehensible how Walther Becker, born in Hamburg, after committing so many crimes (all well explained and documented in this book) and testified by survivors, could eb acquitted. Here professor C.R. Browning does an excellent job laying bare what Becker did and how he enticed his deputy to execute his orders.

Some Poles were friendly and helped families to survive, but many, anonymous and faceless, became informers or predators, Wierzbnik, very close to Starachowice, had at least 5400 Jews living, and only 600 – 700 survived.

This is a book for all trying to understand how supposedly civilized people could be so cruel, and irresponsible to follow inhumane orders of their superiors, and in some cases even become even crueler than their superiors thought possible.

Highly recommended for all to prevent such atrocities from being repeated.

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This anomaly lies in the fact that resource-rich land has provided and continues to provide all kinds of protein in abundance.

Needless to say, fruits and vegetables grow in abundance and are distributed efficiently all over the continent.

Whatever cannot be grown on the continent is imported, except for very unusual foodstuffs for which there seems to be very little demand or government embargos.

Eddie Lin set out to bring to the attention of North American consumers what other nations eat – some out of necessity, others out of curiosity and out of an interest to discover new tastes and textures.

He starts with alligator cheesecake from Louisiana and continues with beef tendons from China, all the way to blood sausage from Germany and Austria, to headcheese (has nothing to do with cheese) in England, and continues with brains, steer testicles, maggot cheese, fugu, chicha, raw chicken, cockscomb, tarantula and witchetty grub.

Each food title contains a picture, followed by a description, where and how it is cooked and how it tastes.

He obviously has an eclectic taste, and was curious enough to travel far and wide to try all the “delicacies” he describes. His interest in the unusual stems, according to him, because his mother fed him pig brains when his friends were enjoying macaroni and cheese.

People like familiar food, and even grown ups, even if interested in unusual dishes, always return to their childhood favourites.

This is a book for all interested in culinary delights, people who like to entertain friends with their experiences, stories, and chefs to find out what other nations like to eat

It is an easy to read, interesting book and will pay rich dividends when meeting friends for dinner parties or receptions or picnics or BBQs.

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MATARROMERA, GREAT WINES FROM THE DUERO, SPAIN
Group Matarromera
Valbuena de Duero
English/Spanish
190 pages

Several writers wrote this book published by the Matarromera Group of wineries owned and operated by Carlos Moro. The writers are from a number of countries – the photographs were provided by Luis Mara de Pazos Salmeron from Madrid.

Carlos Moro, the driving force behind the group, has a vision for all the wineries he creates. He insists on the highest quality possible, produces olive oil, and distils orujo (grappa, marc, trester). He has now embarked on another project to create beauty creams using by-products of wine making following the example of a Bordeaux winery.

Each article describes a winery, how it was created and its evolution, including all the wines. Matarromera is the winery of the principal establishment in the Ribera del Duero region, now famous for its red wines mostly made using tempranillo, and often also with a little cabernet sauvignon. Emin also in the same region specializes in modern-style red wines exuding lots of fruit with soft texture.

Bodega Valdelosfrails in the Cigales region specializes in red and rose wines. Here the author explains in detail the character of the region and its wines.

Bodega Renacimiento (Renaissance, rebirth) is an old castle that has been converted, and produces one spectacular red wine.

The Cyan is the winery of the group in Toro, a region you will likely hear and read a lot about in the future.

Bodega Emina in Rueda specializes in white and sparkling wines including some imported varieties i.e sauvignon blanc, gewürztraminer, and chardonnay.

The photography represents more art than straight pictures. The pictures are well worth the price of the book, but more importantly, try the wines being described.

For more information contact Remi Sanz at comunicacion@emina.es

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She goes into great detail to outline what we can do to minimize the harm we inflict on the environment by the type of food we consume and how we dress.

This extremely well researched book shows what we can do and must d to protect the future of humanity. She is not expounding on climate change, although it is important, but concentrating on what modern unbalanced and exploitative food production inflicts upon nature.

She has carefully researched what multinational American food production conglomerates do to maximize profits and how their unconscionable behaviour harms to the planet. It has been documented, for a long time now, how these companies hire illegal uninsured immigrants and pay minimum wage (occasionally even less) to maximize their profitability and pollute indiscriminately. They even buy up competitors and farms in developing countries imposing their “efficient” production techniques.

It is an absolute shame on humanity how some American food “manufacturers” (producers) rare chickens, pigs, and cattle.

The author has travelled far and wide to listen to erudite researchers and concludes that unhealthy food production contributes to a large extent to global climate change, and suggests, unlike other book, how each individual can help mitigate it.

In the end, to a large extent, what we produce and consumed represents more than 50 per cent of value created. If all farmers in the world were to adhere to natural principles of balanced agriculture, by only adapting to modern technology, then environment pollution would be minimized.

This is a groundbreaking book and highly recommended to all who are concerned about negative environmental changes that can be fully avoided by changing our eating habits. Vegetarians (for balancing their diets) and all who eat excessive amounts of meat should reads this valuable book, keep it on their bookshelves and study in detail form time to time.

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MONGOLIA – LAND OF DEER STONE
Elaine Ling
Lodima Press, Pennsylvania
Only 1000 copies printed, plus 100 signed numbered Collector’s Limited Edition copies
151 pages
US $ 98.00

Hong Kong born Elaine Ling is an adventurer, traveller, and photographer who is most at home backpacking her view camera across the great deserts of the world and sleeping under the stars.

Her photographs are widely exhibited and published in permanent collections of numerous and private collections of art lovers.

This large format book, printed in Belgium on heavy cover stock in 600 line screen quadtone with exceptional fidelity to the original prints looks and feels luxurious.

E. Ling fell in love with Mongolia during her first trip in 2002 and decided to photograph its deserts, Deer Stones, and people inhabiting this vast and beautiful country.

Genghis Khan founded Mongolia, a sparsely populated country in central Asia, in 1206. Under the successors of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire stretched from what is today Poland to Korea, from Siberia to the Gulf of Oman and Vietnam covering some 33 million square kilometres.

Mongol warriors used to ride their horses for days at a time, eating nothing but dried meat, and are still formidable horse riders. Children ride on horseback before they walk.

Besides riding horses on the vast flatlands, Mongols are much preoccupied with archery and wrestling.

This high-quality book depicts the landscape, its people, traditions and Deer Stones in superb art photography along with an introduction by Alison Devine Nordstrom PhD, two articles by William Fitzhugh PhD one ancient stone men of Mongolia and one by Thubeten Kunchog Norbu a prominent Mongol official.

The author’s outstanding photographs are presented in sections titled – The Land; Shamanistic Markings; Deer Stones; The Nomads; Buddhism, and Turkic Stones along with explanations at the beginning of each. The book is a testament to the author’s love and respect of the culture, and her artistic mastery of photography. Mongols of whom 50 per cent follow Tibetan Buddhism, 6 Shamanism, Bahai and Christianity, 4 Islam, and 40 atheism, live in a huge, but harsh country, with cold winters and scorching summers.

Mongols adapt to their environment readily, but are not averse to the use of modern technology to better their lives. They use cellular phones, solar panels, radio, TV and Russian motorcycles with sidecars to conduct their nomadic life in their traditional, highly modular yurts(dwellings).

Erudite scholars, the photography of E.Ling and her explanations have depicted this fascinating country and its people ably and with great finesse.

Mongolia – Land of the Deer Stone is a book for all interested in other cultures, photographic arts, and photographers.

Highly recommended!

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In short, scantiest prefer to work in their laboratories, think a lot, and maybe write a paper in an attempt to get published in a reputable scientific magazine.

The author who has a Ph.d in marine biology (I know this well since he mentions this several times, to ensure the reader never forgets it) was a tenured professor and quit to become a movie producer. He took courses in Hollywood to understand how the most important movie production centre in the world functions and conducts business.

R. Olson proposes in this flawlessly flowing prose how scientists can enliven their talks to enlighten the audience.

He has a lot of examples of how poorly some respected member of the scientific community deliver poorly conceived and planned dull speeches.

In one case, a popular speaker did dwell on an arcane slide for more than 10 minutes never stating what he would be talking about, nor did he outline how he wanted to approach the subject, and never bothered to summarize his presentation.

Instead, after his disorganized presentation, he mentioned that if people in the audience were interested, they could read his speech on his website.

He then shut his laptop and exited the stage to fly yet to another city.

This type of presentation occurs frequently. The speaker, often hyped up before the presentation, get ups, talks a little about his/her credentials and delivers a jargon-studded, mostly poorly organized speech and leaves.

The author proposes several ways to remedy such lamentable situations that cost a lot of effort, time, and funds to organize, how to enliven dull subject matters, and to select what would be memorable for the audience.

He knows what he is writing about. He was a tenured professor, and taught for several years.

He also admits how he assumed what his students might like, and discovered that they did not like his presentation.

It is a shame, the author says, that highly intelligent researchers work on a subject tirelessly present their work so thoughtlessly.

This is a book every professor anywhere should read and think about it, and discuss with his/her fellow professors to determine how to change their teaching methods and/or presentations to the public at large and in the classroom.

Highly recommended!

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