My Favourite Ingredients - Skye Gyngell

This is a collection of recipes and information based on the authors favourite foods. Skye Gyngell is a chef at Petersham Nurseries restaurant, and she's very passionate about good seasonal food.

I found the recipes looked and sounded wonderful, I even fell asleep dreaming of the food. The only issue I have is that some of the ingredients are a little obscure, suggesting an alternative to them would have been useful.

The information she included on the foods she choice, from general information to their season and knowing when they're ready to eat, was very informative. For example.

Young asparagus spears are the tender shoots of a much larger plant, which if left alone will grow over a metre tall, with fern like fronds and brilliant vermilion-coloured berries.

Also grown from seed it takes 4-5 years to harvest. I didn't know that, though I've only ever brought it in bunches from the super market and you do tend to except what you see.

I've not cooked any of her recipes yet but I've got my eye on several, particularly the baked apples; Cox's apples stuffed with currents, sultanas, raisins, a little lemon zest and covered with brandy. How good does that sound?

The Gum Thief – Douglas Coupland

The story is written as an exchange of letters and diary entries. Which stem from Bethany discovering Roger’s notebook in the staff room at Staples. Shocked to discover Roger's writing diary entries pretending to be her, she writes back to him. This develops into an unlikely friendship as they start to share their thoughts and feeling on the world. A couple of thoughts I particularly liked were:

“I think if human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just Halloween. Wouldn't life be more interesting that way?”

“Have you ever stayed in a hostel? It's like a crack den without the crack.”

Roger is writing a novel within the book called Glove Pond, it's obliviously a story about his life and Bethany responses to it by writing short stories about buttering toast, from the toast perspective, I found this to be a stroke of genius:

“I can't see the knife coming my way! If you wanted to scare me it worked, and . . . oh jeez . . . it's not even butter, it's margarine. Oh dear God, it's not even margarine – it's spread - house-brand spread...”

Coupland continues themes that are familiar within his work, that of loneness, memories and life. He always seems to find another stance on them though, which keeps the subject fresh.

Overall a book fans of Coupland won't be disappointed with, and for those new to his work, not a bad introduction. I would be inclined to suggest Hey Nostradamus! or for a more geeky alternative Microserfs over this though.

8/10