Cookbook Challenge #1: eating my inheritance

The Art of Persian Cooking by Forough-es-Saltaneh Hekmat: Doubleday & Co, 1961. ISBN: 0781802415

When my South African grandmother passed away, she left behind a legion of grandchildren who inherited her love of food and her closely-guarded recipe for banana chutney. How we have chosen to apply this legacy varies, from cooking for a psychic vegan and braiing fish caught off the West Coast to the brothers who compete with each other in local potjiekos competitions. 

For me, it was choosing one of her books as the first I would turn to in my challenge to cook something from every cookbook I own.

The Cookbook Challenge: My New Year's Resolution

I own just shy of 100 cookbooks. I am not sure of the exact number: there are 88 books in my small flat, one new purchase en route from Amazon and several on loan to my mum. These have been accumulated through various means: internet impulse purchases, birthday presents and precious inheritance from my grandmothers. Although this is not an altogether ridiculous library; rather unforgivably, I rarely follow the recipes they contain. This was brought to my attention just before Christmas: when passing an idle half hour with one of my books and resolving to use it soon, I happened upon the dedication at the front. It was from Mr F, wishing me a Happy Christmas for 2009. Slightly horrified, I realised I had not cooked from a book that I had owned for a year. I had read it a few times and been inspired but never followed a recipe from start to finish.

Breakfast heaven: an update

Mess Cafe, 38 Amhurst Road, E8 1JN

Breakfast for two: £12 if you eat everything

Looking back, I have spent much of the second part of this year looking for a good place to have breakfast. I already knew about the brilliance of the Regency but had struggled to find anything to match up to it in East London, despite the area's long history of caff culture. It seems fitting, therefore, to end the year with a post about what may well be the best place for breakfast in Hackney: it is certainly the best place I have found so far.

Brasserie is Best

Les Deux Salons, 40 - 42 William IV Street, WC2N 4DD

As Christmas approached, the members of the Fork household were preparing to spend Christmas apart. Heathrow weather permitting, Mr F and I had planned to spend the holiday season in separate hemispheres. Naturally, the only proper way to prepare for this prolonged and unseasonal separation was to start eating well (in a truly festive manner) before others had even thought about their first mince pie. Enter Les Deux Salons.

Swift slice

Due Sardi, 32 Kingsland Road, E2 8DA

I moved to East London partly because I wanted to drink in a bar in shoe shop. Coming from Nottingham via Battersea, this seemed like the height of cutting edge cool. So for a while, I had many happy times drinking in a shoe shop and eating burgers from the place next door. Then the place next door shut and I realised that it was never really a shoe shop, just a shoe shopfront on a fairly ordinary bar.  So I moved on. Then Due Sardi moved in and everything changed.

A postcard from the Fork family Christmas

The Hinds Head, Bray, SL6 2AB

If Hollywood ever made a film of our lives, the director would need to employ the full range of his or her talents to gloss over and romanticise the Fork idiosyncrasies. However, last weekend would require no editing. We were channelling the Christmas spirit in a picture-postcard-from-happily-married-life way. A party with old friends we haven't seen for years on Friday was followed by a family pre-Christmas meal in a pub on Saturday. This piece is, naturally, concerned with the latter; although our Friday host's home-made elderflower wine was worthy of its own review. 

A woman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a burger

Byron, 341 Upper Street, N1 0PB 

The Diner, 21 Essex Road, N1 2SA

Like many Londoners, I seem to have been overcome by the desire to find the "perfect burger". For me, this largely involves compiling a mental list of the things a good burger must include and then comparing each new burger experience against this imaginary burger-benchmark. Eating a burger has, therefore, become a slightly more analytical experience than perhaps it should be. I find myself scrutinising the bun (is it going to fall apart?), the cheese (no Monterey Jack, how could you?) and, of course, the meat (not even remotely pink, you swine!). However, if I am honest, when I go for a burger, I don't necessarily want a high-class gourmet experience. I am more likely to go somewhere local that serves decent beer than trek across town to find absolute burger perfection. So, this post is not about the best burger, it is about the two places that, between them, are making pretty good money from my desire to eat grilled meat, bread and cheese.