EDITOR WANTED?

To quote its own blurbs, “is ‘the leading Greek Cypriot newspaper published in London which serves the Greek and Greek Cypriot communities in excess of 300,000 people’. This month it ran a story about a Greek Cypriot couple who recently opened a restaurant featuring Cyprus cooking in a town called Chandler in the State of Arizona, U.S.A. I extract a couple of paragraphs, for your interest, and have marked in bold a couple of fascinating errors. Bear in mind this is published in London! It surprises me to see the fairly common error encountered on Cyprus menus – “Lamp” instead of “Lamb” – in this context.

We all know them. It’s usually a man. He proudly tells of “how much he drank last night/at the weekend/at a party, or whatever”. He does this as if it is an achievement to get legless. One in my ken is of a certain age, so he has to have a medical check-up every now and then. Firstly, for some days before his appointment with the doctor he doesn’t drink in the belief that his blood pressure will be lower at the check-up. And then when the medic asks him how much he drinks he greatly understates his intake. This man is intelligent. He knows he is probably shortening his life, but more important that he stands a good chance of scrambling his brains and becoming an old burden to family or carers. One wonders why on earth he tries to deceive; himself and others. More and more evidence is accruing that a regular

intake of alcohol does you no harm and in some cases actually does you good. Red wine has many good reports, a number concluding that it can actually reduce the risk of lung cancer. It is already known as an inhibitor of prostate cancer, heart disease and blood pressure,

And these would seem to be between 2 and 4 glasses a day, according to your body-weight. So for a couple, a pleasant bottle of wine with the evening meal is probably actually assisting your health.

If you adhere to a regular half bottle, it’s OK; what you have to avoid is not drinking for six days and then taking three and a half bottles on board. what a superstar vegetarian family prepare for themselves and their friends. Mary’s dad’s Margarita recipe makes an appearance here in the Mexican Food chapter and one can almost see Macca giving this inclusion his famous ‘thumbs up’ salute, and mine as well.

This is a good entry-level book for the new or intending vegetarian, much along the lines of Simon Rimmer’s American, Middle Eastern, Parties and Feasts get their own sections. The recipes are light, fun and uncomplicated. I have tried several, including and

Both turned out well, with ingredients that most vegetarians would have to hand. I thought the recommended seasoning was a tad heavy, but this is personal anyway, and one can adjust to one’s own taste. The chapter devoted to sandwiches is excellent and reminiscent of the wonderful

book. And when McCartney pitches to the younger market she gets it spot on, take the recipe for for example.

So, here is a nicely turned out, non-heavyweight cookbook, if you want to try some veggie recipes for yourself or friends, or to inspire you to eat less meat. It’s a suitable gift, too, for a young, aspiring vegetarian cook.

A carnivore friend of mine on leafing through this book declared they’d like in their collection. A big (Macca) ‘thumbs up’ it is then.

This Week’s Recipe… a delicious vegetarian starter

it definitely one that