Burnt Barley

by Peta Mathias

Winner of Best Literary Food Writing (in English) category at the World Cookbook Fair, this is a lively journey discovering Ireland's food, people and music.

If Peta hadn't known of her Irish ancestry, her love of potatoes would have betrayed it. Peta always connects with a place through its food, and in visiting the country of her forebears she set herself a difficult task. But it didn't take long for Peta to find the world-class restaurants hidden up windy cobbled streets, to savour the delights of grand country cooking, high-quality primary produce and seafood from sleepy fishing villages. She dances her way between such traditional fare as Guinness, barmbrack and black puddings and refined fusion dishes of roasted tomato and goat cheese charlotte with lentils and basil oil and cured wild salmon topped off with slugs of fine Irish whiskey.

In this wonderful account of travelling through Ireland, Peta searches for its gastronomic heartland, introduces her intriguing relatives, discovers her love of music is intricately intertwined with Irish social life and eating habits, and spins tales both traditional and true.

Paperback

Published June 1, 2000

About the author

Peta Mathias MNZM is a respected and prolific New Zealand chef, author and broadcaster, who now builds on the culinary travel experience with her gastronomic tours in the south of France, Morocco, Spain and India. Having started her culinary love in Paris with her restaurant 'Rose Blues', she returned to New Zealand to teach, cook and write. Fete Accomplie, a book about her life in Paris with recipes, was the first of many subsequent award-winning gastronomic travel books written about North Africa, France, New Zealand, Ireland and Vietnam. Her book Can We Help it if We're Fabulous was an instant bestseller and has also been published in the UK, USA, Canada and Germany. It was followed by a number of other books about women, men and transformation.

Reviews

[Rachel]

The food reviews were brilliant, and some of the cultural explanations were very insightful, but this rambling stream of consciousness style really didn't work for me.

[Linda]

Was confused if this was a cooking book, music book or travel book. Whatever it is, Peta entertains.

[Belinda]

I love Peta Mathias. She is funny, well travelled, loves food, cooks, and enjoys herself in all her books. This is no exception, but this time she manages to meet some relatives along the way.

[Margaret]

A fun book. It was interesting to envisage Peta in the places I had visited

[Glen Brook]

Really a good read. Makes you wish you were there.