First published in 1996 (and selling over 50, 000 copies) but out of print for many years, now back by popular demand is Ruth Van Waerebeek`s wonderful compendium of Belgian recipes. Belgium is a country that boasts more three-star restaurants per capita than any other nation ? including France. It`s a country where home cooks ? & everyone, it seems, is a great home cook ? spend copious amounts of time thinking about, shopping for, preparing, discussing, & celebrating food. With its hearty influences from Germany & Holl&, herbs straight out of a Medieval garden, & condiments & spices from the height of Flemish culture, Belgian cuisine is elegant comfort food at its best ? slow-cooked, honest & comforting. It`s the Sunday meal & a continental dinner party, family picnics & that antidote to a winter`s day. In 250 delicious recipes, here is the best of Belgian cuisine. Veal Stew with Dumplings, Mushrooms, & Carrots, Smoked Trout Mousse with Watercress Sauce, Braised Partridge with Cabbage & Abbey Beer, Gratin of Belgian Endives, Flemish Carrot Soup, Steak-Frites, Steamed Mussels, & desserts, some using the best chocolate on earth: Belgian Chocolate Ganache Tart, Almond Cake with Fresh Fruit Topping & Little Chocolate Nut Cakes. As the Belgians say, since everybody has to eat three times a day, why not make a feast of every meal? ...

For too long Britain has failed to celebrate its culinary heritage. But from the introduction of borage to the British Isles by the Romans to the nation's love-hate relationship with Marmite, Britain has always played host to an astonishing range of gustatory traditions. This delightful compendium of Britain's traditional regional foods combines fascinating local history about the origins of some of our most distinctive & curious foodstuffs with a celebration of the ways in which the most humble cut of meat can embody culinary traditions stretching back through the ages. Far from the bland & stodgy board usually associated with British cuisine, ' The Taste of Britain' reveals a culinary portrait of remarkable wealth & character -- from Fat Rascals to Fidget Pie, Cornish pasties to Chelsea buns, & Bedfordshire Clangers to Bath Chaps. Entries have been carefully selected on the grounds that they have been produced in one place for more than three generations, & many for much longer: more than merely a history of food, this is a tribute to a Britain that predates the supermarket era & evokes traditions that date back hundreds of years. Sussex cattle, for example, are mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086, while Shakespeare described an early forerunner of the Cockney favourite, jellied eels, in ' King Lear'. In range, warmth & enthusiasm, ' The Taste of Britain' is a book for absolutely everyone from the 'foodie' connoisseur interested in the origins of the Careless Gooseberry to the culinary neophyte for whom each entry provides a delightful potted history of taste, industry & tradition. With new material, beautifully redesigned from the original 1999 edition, the cumulative effect of this enthusiastic, heartfelt & endlessly fascinating homage to regional foods is a joyful & compulsively readable celebration of the variety & curiosity of Britain's manifold culinary traditions, & the pride which they inspire. ...

” The Taste of Ireland
- Landscape, Culture & Food” will inspire the imagination & tantalize the taste buds. Learn about the fascinating
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Very unfairly, the cuisine of Portugal remains largely unknown outside Portuguese-speaking communities. Perhaps it is presumed to be too much a poor relation of Spanish food to be worth exploring. If so, it is a pity, for, as Edite Vieira demonstrates in her classic The Taste of Portugal--now reissued by Grub Street--it retains a distinctive, vibrant identity.

Among the very interesting characteristics of Portuguese food are the presence, uniquely in Europe, of fresh herb coriander as a flavoring, a most imaginative use of clams & what almost amounts to a mania for salt cod. The Taste of Portugal gives a wonderfully rounded picture of this robust & fascinating cuisine, with its bread-heavy soups, its salt cod & fish dishes, its high-flavored stews (in one well-known dish, combining pork & clams), its game & its extravagantly sweet desserts, rich with eggs.

The first recipe is for what has become virtually a national dish: Caldo Verde, a simple but delicious potato soup enlivened with finely sliced greens. It was this soup which apparently prompted a British journalist to remark on the poverty of the Portuguese that forced them to make soup from grass.

Edite Vieira provides a lively commentary that puts the food into its cultural & historical context--a number of the dishes are of great antiquity--and is an absolute delight to read. --Robin Davidson

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In this revised & updated edition of her authoritative & fascinating book Edite Vieira traces the rich legacy of her country`s culinary excellence from medieval through to modern times lacing it with history & anecdote & a collection of authentically delicious recipes. From simple & wholesome peasant fare to elaborate celebratory meals, ingredients include salt cod (bacalhau) in all its myriad variations, cumin & oranges are both remnants of the voyaging past, green coriander is the main flavouring herb; essentially the food is the food of a country which grows grapes, peppers, melons, quinces & apples, & few other countries have such a repertoire of pork dishes. Fresh pork is much in evidence as well as ham (presunto), pork & red pepper sausages (chouricos) & black pudding (morcela), all foods very much in present vogue. ...

For readers of Schindler`s List, The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz & The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas comes a heart-breaking story of the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances.I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart. In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival
- scratching numbers into his fellow victims` arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified & shaking, was a young girl. For Lale
- a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer
- it was love at first sight. & he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too. So begins one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable & human stories of the Holocaust: the love story of the tattooist of Auschwitz.-----` Extraordinary
- moving, confronting & uplifting... I recommend it unreservedly` Greame Simsion`A moving & ultimately uplifting story of love, loyalties & friendship amidst the horrors of war... It`s a triumph.` Jill Mansell



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The enthralling new Sunday Times bestselling gothic novel from the author of THE WINTER GHOSTS, CITADEL & LABYRINTH. The clock strikes twelve. Beneath the wind & the remorseless tolling of the bell, no one can hear the scream.. .1912. A Sussex churchyard. Villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will not survive the coming year are thought to walk. & in the shadows, a woman lies dead. As the flood waters rise, Connie Gifford is marooned in a decaying house with her increasingly tormented father. He drinks to escape the past, but an accident has robbed her of her most significant childhood memories. Until the disturbance at the church awakens fragments of those vanished years.. . ...

As well as being Scotland`s longest river, the Tay also carries the largest volume of water of any river in the UK more than the Thames & Severn combined when it reaches the Firth of Tay. From its source high up the slopes of Ben Lui near Tyndrum, the Tay makes its way through Stirlingshire & Perthshire to meet the North Sea near Dundee. As one of the best salmon rivers in Europe, every year it lures anglers from around the world & countless more come to explore the glorious hills & glens it passes. There is no better way to discover the wildlife, architecture & history of this area of Scotland than to walk. Whatever your ability walking at high or low level, following tough terrain or level paths the 25 routes in this guide offer something for everyone. ...

This book helps to experience the world`s finest tea. The Tea Book guides you through the best ways to choose, prepare & taste the many different varieties of tea available around the world, with everything you need to know to bring the fragrance & allure of the tea shop into your home. The essential companion for all tea aficionados, this detailed tea book features over one hundred international tea recipes, including chai tea, matcha, the increasingly popular bubble tea, & herbal tisanes such as Yerba Mate. Tasting notes help you to identify key characteristics, so that you can tell your green tea from your pu`er. With information on growing & harvest seasons, & maps of the most important tea-producing regions. This practical, fully illustrated guide is perfect for tea lovers. ...

In the seventh century, during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Tibetans began drinking fermented black tea, a valuable addition to their restricted diet of meat & milk. Beginning as an aristocratic delicacy, it quickly became a staple, but it had to be imported, first from southern Yunnan, with a secondary route from Ya'an in Sichuan. The Chinese on the other h&, had a need for war horses & the sturdy Tibetan horses were ideal. As a result a two-way trade route arose during the Song Dynasty & became known as the Cha Ma Dao, the Tea-Horse Road, a 2, 300 kilometre journey from southern Yunnan to Lhasa at its core. ...