From the versatile potato to the more exotic avocado, from the sensuous aubergine to the humble water chestnut, vegetable of every flavour and colour have been brought together creatively in this unusual cookbook that has recipes from places as far flung as Italy, France, Egypt and Australia. The author, a widely travelled ethnologist, intersperses the recipes with piquant and often funny anecdotes that bring alive little traditions and stories about the cooking and serving of different kinds of vegetables around the world.