SC - DUTCH COOKING

[Seton1355@aol.com]

 > Baron Fridrikr suggested that I should include  pictures of the raw
ingredients so that people can go  to the  store and identify them.

1) Do you think this is a good idea?    
 
 Yes. I looked through your "beta" version pamphlet last weekend at
AEthelmearc Academy and, although I found it fascinating and I do recognize
a number of the ingredients, the raw list of ingredients is kind of unwieldy
to plow through. Graphics, even small b&w ones, would be very useful in
helping cooks and researchers differentiate between the types of mushrooms,
for instance, or the seaweed varieties. This is a really spiffy book,
Solveig!
   
2) How extensive should this practice be?  
 
I'd suggest, if possible, graphics of each Japanese ingredient. (You don't
need to do anything that's common to American cooking, such as flour or
vinegar.) I think most people would find the graphics useful, depending upon
their familiarity with Japanese cuisine.
 
 3) Should the pictures be in the main text or in a glossary?   
 
Main Text. It's always a massive pain to flip back and forth between recipe
and glossary. Plus, it means you wouldn't have one section of artwork and
another section with a solid wall of text. (The book editor in me cries out
to "break up the page"! <smile>)
 
 4) Should whole fish be depicted or fish filets?  
 
Definitely Whole. I think most cooks know what an anonymous filet looks
like, whereas many couldn't differentiate between different kinds of fish
and that's where depictions of whole fish would be helpful.
   
5) What about processed ingredients sold in packages?  
 
 Sure. It would help to identify them in markets where people don't speak a
lot of English and the packaging isn't in English either!  
 
6) What about game animals?    
 
Are you asking whether you should depict them as whole or parts? I doubt
many of them come in standard processed packages, so I guess it would better
help to depict the live animal.
 
7) What about plants?   
 
 Yes, absolutely. I know that I find my Asian herbals that contain graphics
a WHOLE lot more useful than the ones that simply contain text. It's because
of graphics, for instance, that I quickly determined years ago that the
Asian medicinal Ma Huang is the same plant as what we call Ephedra in
America and Europe. It was because I knew the Asian name that I was able to
go into a San Francisco apothecary 10 years ago and ask for and buy the
correct plant when I couldn't speak a word of Cantonese and no one in the
shop spoke English. One pound of dried Ephedra for $5. And psuedoephedrine
costs how much? $6 for 24 tablets? Heh heh. I brewed tea for *years* from
that and my sinuses were blessedly clear...  
 
8) Should there be period illustrations of ingredients, plants, or  animals?

 
Wow. If you could get period illustrations, that would be extremely cool. I
think most period plant and animal illustrations look pretty darn accurate,
so it would be helpful AND appropriate for the audience. Sure, why not?
 
Katja