English Cooking

(One Prejudice Put to Rest)

An English cookbook - horrors! , Patricia Clough starts this little volume, would that not be a candidate for the shortest book in the world - along with, perhaps, a guide to Dutch mountains or a history of Swiss sea-piracy? … Is English food not simply a joke? Do modern clichés not rate it, along with German policemen and Italian bureaucacy, as one of the components of a European hell?

In fact English cooking, she assures readers, like German policemen, is much better than its reputation, and she goes on to present a mouthwatering string of examples to prove her point, from "bubble and squeak" to roast beef and poached salmon, from syllabubs to apple crumble and Christmas pudding. How to prevent a hunger strike (tip from an English "bobby"), the Queen's own afternoon tea, breakfast, lunch, teatime at the Ritz, dinner, the culinary legacy of the Raj, picnics and Christmas fare are all laid out temptingly, liberally spiced with wit and irony, a smattering of history and large helpings of anecdotes.

DTV, Munich, 2001. Price €9. ISBN 3423362189