Charmian Smith

In the past few years, we've been able to get some excellent vanilla extracts and pastes.

Some outstanding pinot noirs, both in value and quality, from Marlborough and Waipara turned up for this tasting.

Angela Redfern, owner of Ripe Delicatessen in Auckland, found her customers asking for her recipes, so she decided to publish them

The most interesting book on food so far this year is Harold McGee's Keys to Good Cooking (Hodder and Stoughton).

New Zealand sauvignon is generally reliable, but some are more harmonious which givesthem an edge over the mass of savvies out there. The same goes for those interesting ones thathave been barrel fermented with wild yeast, which, in the best ones, enhance their texture, complexity andcharm.

The limp carrots or drying mushrooms lurking at the back of the fridge, an unopened carton of yoghurt a day or so past its use-by date, a lone cooked sausage, a little of yesterday's casserole or some roasted vegetables hiding in a container - you might be tempted to throw them out, but stay your hand. There's useful life and tasty eating in these leftovers.

Overseas there has been discussion about removing best-before dates to prevent food wastage, but such dates are only a guide, according to Prof Phil Bremer, of the food sciences department at the University of Otago.

Many of us feel uncomfortable throwing out food - something we've bought too much of or not got round to using, or that has reached its best-before date.

A couple of new methode traditionelle wines from Akarua in Central Otago, a classy prestige cuvee from Deutz, and a sweet pink bubbly show the range of sparkling wines produced in New Zealand.

She worked in Blackadder and played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films; now British actor Miriam Margolyes is bringing her international show Dickens' Women to Otago next week. Charmian Smith reports.

Angel Mnyanyi, from Tanzania, demonstrates how to make chicken pilau.

Home baking is enormously popular again and there are many new cookbooks, some genuinely interesting and some, such as Granny's Kitchen Baking (Penguin), cobbled together by publishers.

Nina Sharapova came to New Zealand from Siberia a year ago to help look after her newly-born grandson. Her daughter Elena arrived eight years ago as a student and married a New Zealander.

Slow cookers have been getting faster. Where once you could put your meal on at 8.30 in the morning and come home at 5.30 to find a delicious aroma and dinner ready to serve, with a modern "speedy" slow cooker you are likely to find it overcooked and dried, according to Joan Bishop.

Michael van de Elzen of The Food Truck television series was staggered to learn New Zealanders eat 65 million pies a year and spend $1.3 billion on fast food, much of it fatty. It shows in our health and increasing obesity, so he set out to show that fast food needn't be unhealthy.

From paua and wild pork to spag bol, curry, sausages, smoked fish pie and whitebait fritters, Adam Clancey's Kiwi Food Culture (Bateman) explores some of our New Zealand favourites with stories and recipes.

Rosemary Brissenden's South East Asian Food, first published in 1970, introduced my contemporaries and me to the wonderful cuisines of this region that have become so popular in the 40 years since.

People who have coeliac disease or have a gluten-free diet for other reasons may enjoy Indulge: 100 sweet and savoury recipes (HarperCollins) by Australian baker Rowie Dillon.

Kim McCosker, one of the two women behind the "4 Ingredients" books, has branched out on her own with Baby Bowl: Australian home-cooked meals for happy, healthy babies and toddlers (Simon & Schuster).