Something to Eat and Something to Read – Details, episodes & analysis

On comfort food, the power of a wooden spoon, the only diet, rituals, crunch and the things we cook to anchor and soothe. Our book guest this week is The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson.

Show notes, links and more will be sent to our paid subscribers shortly. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. And Bee, if you’re listening/reading - thank you for this book.

Germaine and Sophie x

Thank you to our wonderful producer, Kristy Reading, for putting this and every episode together so beautifully.

We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation (Sophie) and the Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Germaine). We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

Our book this episode is Butter, by Asako Yuzuki (translated by Polly Barton). And it sparked a very ‘alive’ conversation on appetites, cake boundaries and whether a bowl of rice, butter and soy sauce can truly awaken an appetite for life.

As always, you don’t have to have read the book to follow along. Although, we both did love it and would recommend you do! It’s a very layered, clever and thought provoking read.

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis;

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

Show notes with links, recipes, and more will be sent to our subscribers separately.

Thank you. Happy listening! And please try the butter and rice dish as per Kajii’s instructions. It really is excellent!

Thank you to our wonderful producer, Kristy Reading, for putting this and every episode together so beautifully.

We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation (Sophie) and the Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Germaine). We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

This month we are discussing a book of essays that could be described as a “literary potluck”.

My First Popsicle: An Anthology of Food and Feelings was edited by actor and writer Zosia Mamet (fellow fans of the series Girls will remember her as the character Shoshanna).

We both loved this collection of short stories about food and all the feelings we attach to and around how we cook and share meals. And it sparked a conversation covering sad food vs solitary food, cooking your way back to life after grief, joy toolboxes, reclaiming custody of problematic foods and whether really good food can be enjoyed in a vortex or do you need the whole package (ie atmosphere, time and company) to enjoy a meal (we’re definitely in the latter camp).

Plus, as always, we answer a listener letter with a book and cooking ‘prescription’.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you as always to our producer Kristy Reading and to Smith and Jones for generously allowing us to include your beautiful song Small Town Woman at the beginning and end of this episode.

All the links to everything we mention, recipes, and book recommendations will be sent to our lovely subscribers later today. If you’d like to become a paid supporter of Something to Eat and Something to Read for $5/month and receive all of the above plus more, please click here. Thank you so much.

Germaine and Sophie x

We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation (Sophie) and the Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Germaine). We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

So much goes on at the breakfast table, especially in books. Don’t you think? We do. So much so that we dedicated a whole (mini) episode to our favourite breakfast scenes in some favourite books; from Helen Garner to Maggie O’Farrell, there are some great scenes in this episode.

Show notes with all the books, links and a breakfast recipe Sophie is particularly fond of will be emailed to our subscribers on Friday afternoon, May 5.

Please click below if you’d like to become a paid subscriber and receive all the snow notes and extra bits and bobs.

With thanks to the wonderful podcast Literary Friction for inspiring this ‘minisode idea’.

Thank you as always to our producer Kristy Reading and to Smith and Jones for generously allowing us to include your beautiful song Small Town Woman at the beginning and end of this episode.

Germaine and Sophie x.

Our book this episode is the book Milkfed by Melissa Broder. And it sparks a big conversation covering appetite, disordered eating, faith, sex, frozen yogurt, and a bit of mysticism for good measure. It’s a fascinating, well-written, but ultimately (for us at least), sad book that gave us A LOT to talk and think about. 

We also share some book and cocktail recommendations for puzzle nights (they’re a thing, we’re on board).

Please note - In this episode, we discuss the disordered eating habits of the book’s protagonist Rachel. If you’d prefer not to listen to that, please skip to around the 20-minute mark where we shift gears. 

Thank you as always to our producer Kristy Reading and to Smith and Jones for generously allowing us to include your beautiful song Small Town Woman at the beginning and end of this episode.

All the links to everything we mention, plus recipes and book recommendations, will be sent to our lovely subscribers later today. If you’d like to become a paid supporter of Something to Eat and Something to Read for $5/month and receive all of the above plus more, please click here. Thank you so much.

Germaine and Sophie x

We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation (Sophie) and the Gadigal of the Eora Nation (Germaine). We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow is one of our most requested books, and now we get it. In this episode, we chat about the important role that food, cooking and shared tables all play in this charming book.

We meander from how a good meal can be like time travel to thoughts on mixing the perfect aperitif - “A cocktail is not meant to be a melange. It is not a potpourri or an Easter parade. At its best, a cocktail should be crisp, elegant, sincere- and limited to two ingredients” - and the sanity-saving grace of taking a moment to savour life’s little luxuries (such as a warm peach straight from the tree, a coffee and 15 minutes in the sun to read uninterrupted).

Our letter writer for this episode also poses an excellent question - when should you give up on a book or recipe that’s not sparking joy? We have thoughts. We’d love to hear yours too!

All the links, recipes, and book prescriptions will be sent out to our subscribers later today (Friday March 3). If you would like to find out more about supporting this podcast, please visit our site.

Hello, and welcome back to Something to Eat and Something to Read for another year!

We have a lot of cooking and reading-related things to talk about so we thought we’d start with an episode full to bursting with the books we have been loving this summer, plus a few recipes to help nourish and soothe as we hurtle into the new year.

We talk about the idea of guilty pleasures (boo), what actually is ‘summer reading’, what we have been reading this summer and what to cook when you need to bolster your people and self.

These podcast episodes will always be free to listen to and all recipes, links and book recommendations will be sent to our lovely paid subscribers later today (click here if you would like to support us too). Happy listening, reading and cooking,

Germaine and Sophie. x

Thank you so much to Smith and Jones for allowing us to use your beautiful song Small Town Woman in this episode. And to producer Kristy Reading for putting the ep together.

Welcome to our Christmas special!

Also special as we recorded this episode in front of our first audience at the Henley Community Garden with the Gladesville Happy Hens. We hope you enjoy listening to us talk about our book advent (list below) while also prescribing something to eat and something to read for two letter writers. The list of books discussed is below and there will be more information about this and the recipes discussed in the Shownotes.

Thank you for listening to us this last year, and we look forward to returning with a Summer special in January. Until then, happy holidays to all.

Sophie & Germaine xx

We started our episode by offering a couple of sweet treats taken from books we have both loved and talked about this year.

Sophie and Nigel Slater’s Christmas Cake

It was always going to be a Christmas cake for me. And always, my favourite recipe by Nigel Slater from the Christmas Chronicles (but also available here online).

Germaine and Ella Risbridger’s Three Ingredient Brownies

I was intrigued to try such an easy recipe after we read The Year of Miracles: Recipes about Love, Grief and Growing Things in Season 2, Episode 4 so decided to try it. It is easy. And tasty! Simply Nutella, eggs and flour. Here is a similar recipe to Ella’s if you haven’t read her book.

Book List

* Advent by Anja Dunk

* Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson

* Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson (Lucy’s Story)

* How to End a Story by Helen Garner

* Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

* The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

* The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater

* Seeing Other People by Diana Reed

* Small Things Like These, Clare Keegan

* Overheard: the art of eavesdropping by Oslo Davis

* Wombat Divine by Mem Fox

* Cooking for Claudine by John Baxter

Letter 1

Thank you for this! I am emerging from a marriage break up and I need some lightness and happiness in my life. Maybe a bit of courage too.

Germaine’s book prescription

Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty is one of my favourite books that I return to whenever I am feeling in need of a reminder that life always contains lightness alongside the need for courage. Kalman is perhaps best known for her children’s book illustrations and as a contributor to the New Yorker magazine, however this illustrated memoir is a different way of reflecting and understanding the meaning of her life. Her quirky illustrations, existential questions and melancholic observations are very powerful. I prescribe it as a completely different way of reading about life. Kalman walks the streets of New York and draws the people she sees. Her daily walks in Central Park with an old friend also impact on her sense of wellbeing. She reminisces about her childhood and the past. It’s a visual journey through her mind!

Sophie’s recipe

I think it has to be cake. Specifically, a sponge, though one with structure so it won’t deflate on you or be finicky about travelling. Something you can cut and come again and keep in the fridge. Take to work to share, take to a morning tea with your friends. You can’t not be cheered by a sponge. And you can take courage that this recipe will work! As Nigel Slater says in Christmas Chronicles, “there was something about the way my mother would put a cake on the table that made me feel all was well. Safe. Secure. Unshakeable’

Here’s my sponge cake recipe, please try it, fill it with jam, cream, curd, love, whatever you have to hand!

Letter 2

I am going ‘home’ for Christmas for a number of reasons. It may well be our last - or only-  ‘family’ holiday with all 6 of us that we will remember, as my eldest is 19 and will be moving on with his life - a fact we celebrate and mourn, and my youngest is 11, and therefore too young to remember our trips before the Covid years.  Included in the trip are 2 weeks in the UK to have our first English Christmas with my family, and our first one all together in 7 years. It is always a little bittersweet without my Dad, whose presence is long missed, but it is definitely a time for celebration.

What will make the trip a little more interesting, and is making my mother slightly apprehensive, is a history of tension between my brother and sister - I refuse to get sucked in to any drama and can smooth almost any situation - but I want her to feel excitement and eagerness about spending this time together, so do you have a suggestion for a book that celebrates the joy of family reconnection, or something that will bring light to dark winter evenings? Something fun, but real would be grand. And she is always fond of a murder.

In terms of asking for something to cook, I am being held responsible for an Australian style brunch - limited by available ingredients so sadly no mango unless I smuggle them in (which I may), and need something sweet, but light to finish the traditional croissants and smoked salmon, and that won’t compete with pavlova and Christmas pudding that will be served after late lunch. Also, my mother loathes cream and milk, unless cooked into a cheese sauce, so yoghurt is out.

Hope that’s not too prescriptive? I love listening to you both, and hearing your discussions.

Sophie’s recipe

What about a warm Christmas crumble? In a medium-sized saucepan, mix together about 2 cups frozen (or fresh berries) with about 2 cups rhubarb, apple or stonefruit (depending on season and taste. Add 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla paste and the juice of one orange or lemon and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes or until the fruit is soft. Transfer to a bowl and pop in the fridge to cool or if cooking the crumble straight away, tip into an oven-proof dish.

For the crumble topping, in a medium bowl, combine 50g unsalted butter, cold and cubed, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla paste, 1/2 cup almond meal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup shredded coconut and 200g marzipan. Work everything together with your fingers and crumble together.

Preheat oven to 180C and crumble the topping over the layer of fruit and cook for about 20-30 minutes or until the topping is golden. Serve hot with cream, yogurt or ice cream.

Germaine’s book

I rose to the challenge with this letter and managed to find a book that is about family and reconnection, with humour and depth. Also, there is a missing person! I’ll let you discover if it’s a murder or just a side mystery…

When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman is a family story about bad things happening to good people and good things happening to good people! This is the poignant tale of Ellie and her family from her childhood in the 1960s through to her adulthood in the early 2000s. There is a cast of quirky characters, all damaged and all loveable who feel very real. Winman also writes beautifully about sibling bonds, “I am here but I am not yours”. While the characters (like families) frustrate, make you laugh out loud and also cry, ultimately, they express the love and hope within us all, no matter what has happened.

Thank you

Our thanks to Emma and her volunteers from the Gladesville Happy Hens for organising our event and for being so generous with her time and energy.

As always, thanks to Kristy Reading for producing every episode of our podcast!

We acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is the traditional land of the Wiradjuri Nation and Wallumedegal people. These people are the Traditional Custodians of this land and form part of the wider Aboriginal nation known as the Eora Nation. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

This episode takes us from contemplating the ways the kitchen can be the “endeavour of serious thought”, the good meals that heal, to the bad meals that haunt us (we’ve all got them!), into an examination of the possibly problematic word lovely (a bit of a problem for Sophie), cooking to make yourself appetising to others, cooking to say what you can’t say, the sensuality of aprons, the golden beauty of baked rice pudding and A LOT more.

It’s a juicy one, full of juicy threads pulled from this episode’s book Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson.

Plus, we answer a listener letter that sings with joy and prescribe some things to read and cook that celebrate our precious friendships.

We hope you enjoy listening to this one,

Germaine and Sophie x

Ps - All the inks to everything we mention, plus all the recipes and book recommendations, will be sent to our lovely (whoops, she did it again) subscribers today. If you’d like to become a paid supporter of Something to Eat and Something to Read for $5/month and receive all of the above plus more, please click here Thank you so much.

This one is all about recipes with story arcs, the wonderful writing of Ella Risbridger (her latest book, The Year of Miracles, is our episode's book), finding comfort and consolation in poetry and recipes and reading and eating recommendations to buoy the tired and uninspired.

Recipes, links, books and more will be sent to our beloved supporters very soon. Thank you to the growing community who have already signed up to this subscription level (the cost is $5/month). Your support means we can keep recording and writing to you. We so appreciate it.

Germaine and Sophie x