DELICIOUS DUNEDIN: RECIPES AND STORIES FROM ŌTEPOTI

CURRYWURST MEDIA LTD, HB, $50

In this feel-good celebration of Dunedin’s food culture, more than 90 photographed recipes from dozens of the city’s most popular food providers are joined by anecdotes and portraits from Dunedin locals. Dunedin’s population may be fairly small, but it’s diverse, and this book does a great job of painting the delightful melting pot that is the city’s food offering. The spread includes lemon tart from the beloved The Friday Shop, Josh Emett’s laksa as served at Madame Woo, Plato’s famous fish pie and cockle-warming Taiwanese classic simmering beef noodle soup from Chopsticks 101.

A book about Dunedin wouldn’t be complete without a flavour of Otago students. So they created a cooking competition, “My Flat Kitchen Rules”, to assess some of Dunedin’s finest scarfie creations. The winning recipes are featured in a breakout segment in the book, forcing you to set aside all your assumptions about two-minute noodles. ANNA KING SHAHAB