Odds and Sods
I haven't done an old fashioned round-up in a while....
Work is hectic. I have several months of commissions to cram into the seven weeks before a month-long trip, including a proposal for a (large) new project. This means I have neglected my newsletter far more than I am comfortable with. I am so sorry. Lengthier pieces for both here (and- *gestures* - there) are underway, but until they are ready, I’m sharing with you some of the food-related odds and sods that have interested me of late.
I can’t remember who first shared this, and it has received its fair share of derision, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. It has legs.
I’ve been reading Ren Behan’s latest book and am in love. The Sweet Polish Kitchen: 80 recipes for celebratory cakes, home bakes, and nostalgic treats is magical. Back in February, I wrote about Polish Doughnut Day for the OFMs 30 Things in Food We Love Right Now, and Ren was generous enough to talk to me about pączki, which I think of as the sweet fulcrum of Fat Thursday or Tłusty Czwartek, as it is called in Poland. Ren’s site explains further.
Olga Mecking’s piece in Saveur discusses the changing face of Polish cuisine as it adapts to modern eating habits. ‘In Poland, “we have a knack for experimentation and changing up what we eat. There’s a bit of fusion in all of us,” Korkosz says. “If I’m talking to someone and they tell me they have dill pickles with hummus for breakfast every day, then this is new Polish cooking,”’ says Michał Korkosz, the author of Fresh from Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country, and Polish’d: Modern Vegetarian Cooking from Global Poland.
The online site of The Museum of King Jan 111’s Palace at Wilanów is filled with culinary riches. Read about The First Cook of the First Commonwealth by Stanisław Czerniecki, who ‘envisaged culinary art as the very essence of humanity’ and what an anonymous recipe for Śliwy sucho (dried sour plums) tells us about illusion in 17th century Poland. The museum collects and publishes many of the oldest Polish cookery books and cooks from them via a resident chef.
I wrote about a Polish soup called Zurek for Suffolk News.
Some time ago, in a town seventeen miles from me, descendants of the original Cockneys who moved from London to ‘overspill’ estates in the countryside opened a pie and mash shop. Sadly, it has since closed. Tomé Morrissy-Swan has written for The Guardian about the migration of Cockney culinary traditions (in this case, Essex). And here’s Jonathan Nunn on pie and mash’s decline in London (paywalled).
I'm reading Von Diaz’s latest cookbook, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking. I love everything about it, from the vintage-y paper slipcover to the super-saturated imagery and deeply contextualised prose. Von Diaz is such a capable, vivid storyteller and documentarian, and I’m very glad someone commissioned and published this book.
A must-watch:
Here’s Charles Bramesco on the subject of food-related movies. Read the comments for more inspiration.
I’ve been consulting with The Food Museum in Stowmarket as they plan what has turned out to be a really great programme of food-related Easter events. Learn how to make Mexican Capirotada, Ukrainian Paska, and Fatayer from the Middle East or book a space at the museum’s Easter feast. Olia Hercules and Anissa Helou also provided their expertise.
Rain Szeto’s pen-and-ink illustrations are dizzying. I have to focus on the person at the heart of each drawing, who is entirely uninterested in and unaware of me, their witness. Only then can I pan outwards to take in what first appears as chaos when, in fact, it is anything but.
Nigella reviewed Dina Macki’s Bahari here. ‘The word Bahari means ocean in Swahili and sums up the travel of migration, merchants, and maritime history that has brought a rich and layered cuisine to my heritage,’ Macki writes on her site. Arab News interviewed her back in February, too. I love this book.
More books to look out for:
Doma: Traditional Flavours and Modern Recipes From the Balkan Diaspora is Spasia Pandora Dinkovski’s first book, and it’s a cracker. It's lively, delicious, animated, and personable. Spasia is the founder of London’s massively popular Mystic Burek delivery service, events catering, and, now, store. Her Instagram account is a joy.
Ed Smith’s latest book will be the topic of conversation during my next monthly slot on Karen Cannard’s Suffolk Sound radio show. It’s nearly Easter, and a book with more than 100 recipes in which eggs are the star of the show could not be more timely. Ed’s Instagram page and newsletter are also must-follows.
has just begun writing a Substack newsletter. It is truly remarkable. She’s publishing a memoir in May called Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys, which, I think, will become the kind of food memoir you return to. She is extraordinary; there’s nobody like her.It’s lovely news that Nigel Slater will publish another book, A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy … A Memoir of Sorts, which will be out this September via Fourth Estate. Although I know he doesn’t like FUSS, I will make one anyway. Nigel has decamped from Twitter to Bluesky and is still on Insta.
Irina Georgescu will publish Danube: Recipes and Stories from Along the Banks of Eastern Lands later this year.
Sebze: Vegetarian Recipes from My Turkish Kitchen by Özlem Warren is out on April 11th. I'm looking forward to it.
I love Georgina Hayden’s cookbooks and have been lucky enough to interview her. Her latest, Greekish: Everyday Recipes With Greek Roots, comes out on 25 April. Staying with the Mediterranean theme, Wild Figs and Fennel: A Year in an Italian Kitchen by Letitia Clark comes out on the same day.
The Great Dumpling Debate: Definitions, Science, History and Local Recipes from Around the World By Ida Kubiszewski & Robert Costanza sounds intriguing. It’s out this May.
I’ve just ordered Samuel Goldsmith’s Tinned Tomatoes cookbook and Butter, a novel by Asako Yuzuki.
Karla Zazueta is about to publish a cookbook about Northern Mexican food, which I am extremely happy about. Norteña: Authentic Family Recipes from Northern Mexico will be out on April 25th. I will publish a review nearer the date.
Taschen Books are not the cheapest, but if you enjoyed Helena Attlee’s The Land Where The Lemons Grow, you will adore this luscious, lavish beauty. Here’s a taster.
Crimes against Hot Cross Buns:
All book links are affiliates linked to my Bookstore.org page. Should you buy from them, I will receive a small commission.
nice to have you back and rounding up
Brilliant brilliant book idea. Bags it.