What is this Blog all about ?

I have been collecting cookery books for well over 30 years, the main reason is that I am a chef by trade and have been since the 1960's.
My love of food and cooking has made me become interested in all types of cuisines and all styles of coooking.Reading cookery books is to read about social history as well as the evolution of food and eating.
I love to share my knowledge and findings with others and hope that you will find these pieces of interest and may even inspire you to try some of the recipes or even search out the books that I talk about.

You Can Almost Smell Bangkok

Thai Street Food - David Thompson / Photographer - Earl carter
Published 2009 - ISBN 978 1 84091 5587

This tome weighing in at a couple of kilos is no cookery book for working from in the kitchen unless you have a spare lectern knocking about.

Fantastic photography, which gives a feeling of being in Thailand, the colours and scenes are mesmerising, pity the recipes don't live up to the photographs.
You wonder whether DT was given a set of photographs and told to write some recipes around them !

The book is divided into Morning, Noon and Night and the dishes reflect the times of the day they are served.

Thai cooking should be simple, flavoursome and fun to cook but this book makes the reader think, " my life isn't long enough to make these dishes"
A good example is Crispy Prawn and Turmeric Wafers ( page 54) with a prawn and coconut filling, there are 32( yes thirty two) ingredients listed, save it,  I ain't prepping this for my supper tonight.

Having said that David Thompson is very knowledgeable and gives a good insight into Thai street food, I just wish it was actually as good as he waxes lyrically about it.

I found the best section was on Noodles and Noodle soup, but without doubt it is the photography that impresses.

Just as Useful Today

How to Bottle Fruit,Vegetables,Chicken, Game, Tomatoes etc
How to Make Jams and Jellies, Fruit Wines, Pickles etc.
by Geo, Fowler F.R.H.S.
Orginally Published in 1899 - this edition 1948

This little book is full of useful instructions on bottling all sorts of produce, I found it on ebay and I am amazed at its current usefulness, especially with the popularity of growing your own fruit and vegetables and preserving them for use out of season.

The social history side of reading food books like this is fascinating and gives a real insight of the times.
This edition was published after the 2nd World War and there were still restrictions in place.
it states on the inside cover " owing to shortage of supplies we are reluctantly compelled to curtail the size of the book ' How to Bottle' omitting non-essential items such as recipes for marmalade, icing etc"

I presume they mean that there are lots of other recipes for marmalade so we are not going to bother you with another.
The book is written by a manufacturer of bottles and of the patented sterilisation process so it has an emphasis on using their equipment but I am sure resourceful folk in the 1940s will have adapted the information for themselves.

It is a great little book and full of useful information should I have a glut of fruit and veg this year.

What an Offal Good Recipe Book

The Fifth quarter by Anissa Helou
Publisher: Absolute - 2004
ISBN 1 904573 21 5
Content: Information and recipes about Offal

This cook book on offal has a great North African and Arabic influence, possibly due to the background of the author.
If you like offal or even if you have never tried offal, this book has some great recipes for all types and varieties of "innards".

The forward to the book is by Hugh Fearnley hyphon, backslash let's all live in the country and eat in a barn with a bunch of hangers on Whittingstall.Anyway he waxes on about most people not liking offal and he can't understand why - Listen Hughy it's because they come from the inside of an animal and a lot of people can't get their taste buds around this !!!
There are no pictures only a few arty drawings of hooves and stuff so you will not be put off by pictures of shiny, bloody, veiny things hanging on hooks.
There is a short interesting piece before each recipe which makes it quite a good read, although there is a lot of cheffy name dropping.
The recipes are divided into Soups,Salads and Starter - Main Dishes & feats - Barbecues and sauces & Dips
There are some excellent recipes for British Offal dishes and and I particularly like the recipe for ' Crappit head' which is a Scottish dish that uses fish heads - yes I know the head isn't from the inside of an animal but heads, feet and tails are all classed as offal.Another good recipe is for Black Pudding which uses the head meat added to the blood and fat before being cooked, a bit yummy if you ask me.
There is a lovely Lebanese recipe for 'Sauteed Spleen' which wouldn't get most taste buds running but still a great recipe.
In fact this a great book in any collection and only surpassed by 'Nose to Tail Eating'  by Fergus Henderson but more of that at a later date, I don't want to turn you off recipes straight away.