Cookbooks vs restaurants

[Stravaig]

Given that I'm often not in the UK and thus unable to try a restaurant or chain, I often buy their books and try the restaurant later. With mixed results!

I have several Wagamama books (dunno how many till I finish unpacking, probably four) and Wagamama lived up to expectations. Very good!

Yo! Sushi - OK book and most restaurants are good, some very good, but the one at Croydon is bowf.

Wahaca - nice book but the food at the restaurant we tried was not nice.

Have you had any similar experiences? What restaurant chains do you like?

[Primrose]

Not exactly the same experience but my husband, a keen cooki, has been known to buy a cookery book he,s been browsing in a bookshop for a single recipe in it which took his fancy.

Result: we now have a massive bookcase full of cookery books which i desperately want to declutter. If this seems a heartless move, he has now moved into the digital age and stored all his favourite recipes on his iPad which is more easy transported into the kitchen and can be wiped free of any grease marks.

But do you think he can be persuaded to get rid of a single cookery book?

[Stravaig]

I read eBooks all the time but don't like cookbooks in that format.I understand your husband's reluctance to give up any of his books but I'm now in the habit of trying to give several away (usually to a charity shop) every month, otherwise we'd need a large warehouse for all my books. And, to be honest, some of them are a bit old fashioned or I don't use them anyway now. Let someone else have the benefit if they want them.

[Stravaig]

For one recipe, I'd search online - usually find it - print it out, put it in a plastic thingy and then into a folder. No need to buy the whole book.

In ye olden days, I'd make my own version and post it on my food blog. Really can't be bothered doing that these days. It seems like everyone is on soc med all the time now and not bothered about websites, blogs, forums, whatever.

I kinda lost heart.

[Breq]

Ha, asking to give up cook books is like asking to give up plants! I have three bookshelves full.

But I do go through every few years and find some that I have not used and bring them to the charity shop to hopefully make someone else happy and make the charity a few coins.

I just have to make sure I don't buy them back again (I almost did a couple of times!)

[Stravaig]

Breq, three bookshelves wouldn't scratch the surface of my collection. I had four bookcases of cookbooks in my home office. Plus we had five bookcases of various other books fiction and non fiction in the hallway. And my husband had two bookcases full of books in his home office.

We've already bought six bookcases for this rented flat to make a start on sorting them all out. They're filling up rapidly.

I know what you mean about buying back. I've done similar on a couple of occasions - bought something and taken it home only to find I'd already got it.

Plant-wise I've only got four shelves so far - of steel shelving units, not bookcases.

[Breq]

I humbly bow to your cookbook hoarde

[Primrose]

I laughed about buying your cook books back from charity shops.
Years ago Mr Primrose had a shirt I particularly hated but which he rather liked. One day I sneakily gifted it to our local charity shop. I was totally mortified that some time later he spotted the shirt in there and bought it, saying he was delighted to have spotted it as it would replace his other identical one when it wore out !!

I never sussed whether my sneaky disposal had actually been discovered!

[Stravaig]

Breq, I humbly bow to your knowledge of plants and your collection. I'm much more kitchen than garden.

Primrose, I like the shirt story. That is unlikely to happen to me as Mr Stravaig generally isn't allowed to choose his own clothes. I would sooner trust an armadillo to buy for him.

On the subject of clothes, inflatable trousers seem to be the in-thing these days. If you want a laugh go to Google and search for inflatable trousers then see the images below. Mr S won't be getting any of them any time soon.

[Primrose]

Only have one cookery book I,d really fight to keep. - my late mum,s one which she acquired on getting married in 1937. It,s pretty battered now and has lot of little greasy handwritten notes slipped between the pages of wartime recipes she accumulated.
Really it,s a sort of historical record of the deprivations of that age. One of her favourite productions, whenever rationing allowed, was a batch of Melting Moments which were a kind of flour, margarine and oat mixture which had a glacé cherry on top whenever rationing allowed.

But I think we,ll draw a line over wartime substitute cake icing, which seemed to consist of mashed up Haricot beans and sugar with a little almond essence added, if you could find any. Apparently it set as hard as concrete very quickly and you were liable to break your teeth trying to eat it !

I guess in these cost inflationary times some of those austerity recipes may be making a comeback in a different guise in new cookbooks.

[Stravaig]

NEW! Good point, Primrose. Yeah, I like to try new things but for me Nigel Slater just goes OTT about "new" and comes up with the weirdest and most unappealing new things. Just because it's new. Put him out to grass and give us a different cook or food writer who doesn't do toilet paper with bird feathers on a bed of dead roses. Give us a break.

I do have two or three Nigel Slater cookbooks but they date from more than 20 years ago. Why does he get trundled out week after week with some awful new idea?

Just at random I'm going to look for his latest reccipes for an example.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/f ... hurt-salad
Who the heck is going to make that?

They should hire me instead and I'd write recipes of things people would want to eat, ingredients you can buy in your local supermarket and cook the thing quickly without a load of equipment.

[Westi]

I blame the publishers & the TV shows who just don't bother to look for new talent but keep rolling out the old. Well you do see the odd one pop up but more in daytime TV guise. I suppose all they would do is import from the states & having watched a few of their cooking programs it is more about their lifestyle than their abilities. I watched one that mentioned she was on the ranch & stuff going on at the ranch then cooking. What she actually made was simple cookies & salads.

[Breq]

I really don't watch TV or Tik Tok, instagram, etc. for recipes and ideas. I have found some food writers that "sync" with what I like, so I usually will take a look at their recommendatons and they sometimes pan out. Even American ones! But no "lifestyle" promoters, ha-ha.

My current like is Diana Henry...

[Stravaig]

For some strange reason I don't have any Diana Henry books although I'm well aware of who she is.

Can't say I'm keen on American cookbooks with their cups, ounces, etc. This is daft because I never measure anything anyway. Just look at the picture, glance at the list of ingredients, and then make something that looks like it.

In ye olden days, it was expensive to publish photos in a book so a lot of books didn't have enough pictures. I think I'll weed my books and get rid of the ones with no or few photos. I'll never make anything out of them now and the charity shop might get some benefit.

[Breq]

Ah, REAL cooks in the US use weights. My background is in science, so scales are easy. I took a baking course a few months ago with my OH and I was shocked some many "foodie" Brits do not know how to use a scale properly.

I do like to peruse the charity shops and market stalls- lots of great finds cheap!

RE Ms Henry: read an interview with her and liked her checked her out and we "clicked"