REVIEWS

REGULA YSEWIJN, MURDOCH BOOKS, H/B, $55

What we’re reading, watching and cooking from

Regula Ysewijn is a Belgian Anglophile, though one can’t help thinking that the Britain she loves is that of the past, the quaint villages and bucolic countryside where everyone stops at 3.30pm for afternoon tea. I hate to break it to her that the pie of choice today is more likely to be filled with chicken tikka than steak and ale and an M&S prawn sandwich is probably more popular for lunch than the pie and mash with jellied eels on the side that she is so keen on. Still she has done a comprehensive job of celebrating the sheer variety of regional British baking, finding recipes for cakes, biscuits, buns, griddle cakes, bread and pies that in some cases are particular to a single town or village, such as Goosnargh cakes or Eccles cakes. As well as the recipes are detailed histories of their origins and variations, so next time you’re dipping your bikkie in your tea you can reflect that the caraway seeds in digestives were to ease flatulence. Up until now I’d never imagined that digestive biscuits could come from anywhere but the Mcvitie’s packet, but at least now if I take the notion to bake my own I know where the recipe is. TRACY WHITMEY