Eat Wild: A Foraging Journey Across Aotearoa by Sophie Merkens

From the coast to the mountains to the native bush, set off on a delightful wild food adventure across Aotearoa. Eat Wild is a guide to getting your wild ingredients, then cooking with them. 

Part cookbook, part travel guide, part diary, author Sophie Merkens' book showcases some of New Zealand’s most widely known yet underutilised wild foods: plants, including flowers, fungi and seaweed; kai moana, including pāua, kōura and snapper. 

Merkens began a road trip in late spring, heading south in her van called Zephyr, foraging and cooking along the way. Organised into seasons, the resulting illustrated guide helps readers source wild ingredients alongside detailed recipes showing how to cook them. She even includes some hunting tips, such as what to do with a possum. 

I have a number of foraging books on my bookshelf, and love to head out often to find a feast, yet I still found new information within the pages. Nettle pasta is on my list of recipes to try. Every recipe is very doable, although some foods are place-specific.

Merkens includes the wisdom and voices of those she meets along the way. From chefs to divers, kaitiaki to hunters, every person offers up pearls of wisdom about their own journey. I loved reading about mahinga kai and about the tītī harvest, but even more, I loved that Merkens left it to those she met to tell those stories. 

Merkens' enthusiasm, respect and gratitude for the wild, and her sense of curiosity, burst from the pages. As a forager, I found her recipes wonderful, but it was her stories that really popped. It is clear her passion is in sharing local stories, as a means to connect kai, people and place. 

Her beautiful photography adds to the story, with rich detail and insightful portraits. A glossary, references and a list of books and taonga that inspired her journey are included within the book too. The book serves many purposes - whether a cookbook, coffee table book, reference or guide, every reader will take something from it.

Bursting with knowledge, Eat Wild is a joyful trip around Aotearoa that will connect readers to nature and the nourishment it provides.

Reviewer: Rebekah Lyell

Penguin