Read 'Em & Eat: Every Bites Takes You Home

Any true food lover knows how much meaning certain dishes can hold for a person. A dish can be much more than its flavour: it is a symbol of a memory, a time, other people.

New cookbook Every Bite Takes You Home features stories, traditions and recipes from 16 asylum seekers who have found a home in Australia. Learn how to make Tibetan Momos, Afghani Kabuli Pulao, Persian kebabs, and Kaffir Prawn Curry from Sri Lanka, to name a few, and learn what it means to the person who shared the recipe. To quote compilers Gaye Weeden and Hayley Smorgon, the book is "the story of displacement, escape, resettlement, and resilience... The comfort of talking about food has allowed many memories to simmer to the surface, while allowing those memories that may be clouded by hardship, and in some cases terror, to be expressed with less difficulty and pain."

Available from 1 Dec through Ilura Press, with all profits made from the sale of the book going towards asylum seeker support centres and organisations.

You can order through ilurapress.com and pick up your copy at the Melbourne launch on 6 Dec and save on shipping costs — see the website for details and to register your interest.