No comments about Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking: More Than 120 Glorious Breads, Biscuits, Cakes and Tarts.

1 comments about The Hispanic Cookbook: Traditional & Modern Recipes in English & Spanish.

1. I purchased this book for my lovely girlfriend. I love the fact that the recipes are in spanish & english (spanglish). I highly recommend this book to the first time cook or the part time cook or the spanish cook who would like to try english recipes but cannot find a spanish cookbook!! Good recipes too---very yummy!

No comments about The Gentlewoman's Companion, 1675.

3 comments about Spotted Dick S'il Vous Plait: An English Restaurant in France.

1. I love the book. It's like you're actually there in that little restaurant, helping Mr. Higgins make some of his pies. I just thought it will be like one of those "French or Foe book" with a lot of generalizations, but this book is amazingly light, and very informative--talking about the restaurant business,describing the beautiful scenery, it even contains some of his recipes! It's like a journal, but it's not--anyone can understand what he's talking about. Great narrative and refreshing characters. Higgins has a great sense of humor.



2. I found this book an absolute bore. What could have been completely captivating and interesting actually became completely predictable turning into stale blatherings on.

   If you read this book to get a "sense" of an Englishman in French culture, you won't find it here or in Mr. Higgins' restaurant.

   As for "amazingly light"...this book is amazingly light in content and interest. One could read the first and the last chapters and feel as though one had read the entire book. That might save time and therefore, be an amazingly quick read.




3. Spotted Dick S'il Vous Plait: An English Restaurant in France
   
   Tom Higgins has done a good job in describing his adventures in setting up a British restaurant in the heart of France's sacred town of gastronomy: Lyon.
   I have a love affair with all things British and most things French, so this was a nice, uncomplicated book that fit the bill. It's good reading and there is a fair amount of humor in it as well. I recommend the book for those interested in this subject. You also get twelve typically English recipes that you can make at home.

1 comments about Trifle: The English Kitchen.

1. This book is really the history of the trifle. There are some recipies
   but they are more traditional. There were few pictures. I returned this book and got the other trifle book.

No comments about I'm Going to Read (Level 1): Who Took the Cake? (I'm Going to Read Series).

2 comments about Gary Rhodes New Classics.

1. I travel to England frequently, so have a great curiosity about the cuisine. No other British cookery writer comes close to always reliable classic British recipes. Have tried over half of the recipes in this book, and have not been disappointed by one. Really, he is a superb chef, and his recipes are simply conveyed. Unlike some well known chefs, there is nothing overly fancy about his food. There is no intimidation. Basic, good, classic.......but with just enough twist to make them special.



2. I bought this book for its unique collection of British desserts and baked goods recipes. Having now baked about 5 of the recipes (and I am an experienced home baker), I'd say 4 of them were pretty poor (Christmas fruitcake was good). Maybe the recipes don't translate well to American ovens, but buyer beware.

2 comments about Good Tempered Food.

1. Tasamin Day-Lewis does it again! I just received this book for Christmas and am planning to make the courgettes (zucchini) with pine nuts and sultanas for Christmas dinner. Can't wait to try the spicy pork meatballs as well. I haven't had time to cook much lately but this book makes me eager to get back to it! Wonderful read.



2. I can't dislike this book, despite the troubles it's given me. The photos are beautiful, and the dishes make me want to eat them.
   
   She's got some great ideas and an admirably simple and straight forward approach to food, and she often writes so vividly that you know exactly what to look for as you prepare your dish. However, her tone can also veer towards condescending and downright bossy, which could definitely put some readers off.
   
   My biggest problem with this book--and the reason I give 3 stars--is that I have a lot of trouble with the actual recipes. You need to be comfortable in the kitchen to get this book to work: her instructions can be very vague, and sometimes I think they are just bad (eg., pureeing hot potatoes and boiling stock in a food processor with no mention of the tremendous care one must take in doing so).
   
   Some of the recipes have just turned out poorly for me (some sauces), others merely underwhelming (noodle dishes, wilted endive, pork meatballs). However, many of the dishes I've made from this book have been delicious and beautiful (soups, spiced chicken livers, eggs with tapenade made with tuna), and for those very high points, I would recommend this to anyone who can bring their own background, tastes, and knowledge to Day-Lewis's recipes.

5 comments about America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking.

1. Yes, a scholarly book, with illustrations. Yawn. If you seek anything more than research and the occasional black and white illustration, look elsewhere. I'm sure the authors are being "celebrated" within their communities, but the hype is just that; hype. The cover of the book is the only colorful, exciting thing about it.
   
   Not that I was expecting a cookbook, but it does not appeal to a wide range of people, and that is a flaw. The authors therefore come across as if they must be glad to be part of such an "elite" group of people who "get it," while the rest of us are simply ignorant.
   
   Also, this is definitely not for the foodies.



2. This is a fascinating story that uses food to debunk many of the myths about New England that we learned in school. Here you will find the real story behind the English reliance on Indian corn, the origins of chowder, and the ways dishes such as baked beans were used to promote one social group over others. This is history at its best--fun, factual, thoughtful, coherent, and readable.



3. Americans still think particular New England foods and menus, like Thanksgiving dinner, Boston Baked Beans, and boiled Maine lobster, are important parts of our American identity. This highly informative book tells us why these and other New England dishes were important to many generations of Americans, and continue to be part of our American heritage.
   
   With wit and erudition, the authors separate fact from fiction through careful analysis of some hoary traditions. Along the way, they left me chuckling over such food-lore gems as the Adams-Jefferson dispute on when to serve pudding and the controversy concerning the "authentic" way to make Rhode Island Jonny cakes, with one side declaring that the other's was "hick feed."
   
   There's something here for just about everyone interested in American history or the history of food. From a discussion of the economic motivation for setting up those quaint New England fishing villages to the environmental implications of animal husbandry (which the English colonists introduced into New England), we learn to think somewhat differently about New England's past. Along the way, we get a glimpse of American home life as it was lived, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, in New England--the houswife who worries that she's too late bottling her plums and the little boy whose mother's "fire-cake" is such a treat. This book makes you feel like you are in those kithcens. Boiling a hundred oysters to make Oyster Ketchup, helping to butcher a 280-pound hog, these New England cooks were really something!
   
   While it is a history and not a cookbook, this book gives both cooks and history buffs the solid information we need to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of New England food lore. It offers a chance to see what New Englanders ate, and why, and most tellingly, what they thought about their food.



4. Although we know that armies march on their bellies and that the search for food has played a crucial role in building societies, the writing of history has often neglected this important subject. Only recently has food history taken its place alongside more conventional approaches to history-writing. This book is a fine example of the new interest in food history.
   
   What impressed me as I read it was how little I had known before, and how much I was learning about what New Englanders ate throughout the region's history. We've all heard about Boston baked beans and Indian pudding, but I didn't know about the gingerbread that colonial militamen nibbled on muster days. Nor did I know that bear was considered even better eating than venison by the Massachusetts Bay colonists. One nineteenth-century writer asserted that cod fish was to New England what roast beef was to England. What struck me most, however, was how the authors discuss the colonial revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how that period shaped our ideas of "historic" New England. What we think of as New England's historic foods--the "first" Thanksgiving meal, those Boston baked beans--were partly based in fact but were mostly the invention of the colonial revivial.
   
   The ways that people use their traditional foods to represent their culture are described in fascinating detail in America's Founding Food. There's a wealth of detail here, but also a great story about what food meant, from the settlement of New England to the revival of the region as a destination for those interested in America's roots. This is a substantial, thoughtful book.



5. My New England bookshelf groans under the weight of historical studies focusing on the politics, theology, intellectual life, industry, and notable people of the region. These are all worthy if well-worn subjects. Then there's the New England tourism industry, selling "ye olde" Boston baked beans, clam chowder, and Indian pudding as vaunted, almost sacred, symbols of the region. Here, finally, is a book that explains the connection between the two, taking both the history and the food seriously.
   
   There are many surprises here, for instance that turkeys were often boiled and garnished with oyster sauce when served for special feasts, and that the first English to settle the region grew corn because their wheat crops mostly failed. This is a careful, food-oriented story, with lots of detail on what people ate, and how it was processed and preserved as well as cooked. It's also interesting to learn what average families wanted to eat when they were dining on their daily pottage.
   
   The authors use memoirs, letters, and novels as well as cookbooks to uncover what New Englanders thought about the foods they ate. This is a compelling account and a detailed study, with lots of good stories to leaven the Boston Brown Bread. Whether you're interested in the ways gingerbread recipes changed from the court kitchens of the Middle Ages to the farm kitchens of New England, or in the reasons why a wallflower cuisine like New England cooking became enshrined as American food, there's something here for you.

1 comments about Ted Hughes's Tales from Ovid (Faber Plays).

1. Erotic, comical, dramatic, shocking, and mystical, this is a fascinating collection of some of Ovid's greatest stories. Adapted for the stage, these ancient stories embody some of the most pressing issues in modern society, while paying homage to their deep roots in classical antiquity. A must-read for the student of classical studies and mythology, and anyone with an imagination or a yen for the fanciful. The characters of Juno, Jupiter, Bacchus and others are brought to life and highlighed with amazing color and depth. This is your chance to acquaint - or refamiliarize yourself - with the ancient world. You will not be disappointed!